Abstract:

Society informatization and changes in national self-consciousness in the country led to the growth of academic and research interest to the use of social networks as a means of motivation enhancement in modern educational establishments. However the topic of social networks as a means of motivation enhancement in learning foreign languages has not been studied thoroughly yet and it is next to impossible to define the names of the scientist profoundly dealing with this question in their scientific works, nevertheless the amount of researches in this sphere today has considerably grown.

The article is devoted to the study of enhancement of motivation in learning English in high school students on the example of the social network Instagram. The relevance of this research is justified by theoretically and practically proved importance of the use of social networks, Instagram in particular, as a means of formation and enhancement of motivation during the process of English language learning together with making up different exercises, which might be used at the lessons by means of Instagram.

The aim of this article is the analysis of various possibilities of the enhancement and formation of motivation by means of the use of social networks. To attain the set goal the following research methods were used: theoretical study and synthesis of scientific and methodological literature as well as Internet resources related to the research topic; general scientific methods – analysis and synthesis; a set of tests in order to define the students’ level of knowledge; pedagogical survey and quantitative methods.

The research demonstrates the results of the pedagogical survey held among high school students. The students were glad about the fact that by means of such a network as Instagram it was possible to get educational benefit and to be taught even without leaving their houses (which can be very helpful during distance learning). The fact that Instagram would not be used at the lessons on regular basis was mentioned among the disadvantages of this network. It is also necessary to note that the students who were not interested in Instagram at all gave the answer that their interest to English lesson had grown and they were eager to go on learning the language with the help of this social network. We managed to prove the importance of the use of social networks for motivation enhancement at the lessons of English. All the participants appreciated the use of Instagram at the lessons and during out of class activities and they spoke about the necessity of using the social networks during the lessons on regular basis.

The practical significance of the study is that the results of the survey materials and a set of interactive tasks can be used at the English lessons in high school.

Analyzing all the above mentioned we can state that creation and use of new interactive methods and social networks such as Instagram can help us solve one of the most important aims – rising the quality of education under the conditions of developing information-oriented society in terms of the use of modern information technologies.

In this study, the attention was focused on high school, but further research would provide opportunities for analyzing the use of social networks in motivation enhancement at the secondary stage of education as well.

Keywords:

High school students, motivation enhancement, social network Instagram, information technologies, pedagogical survey.