Browsing by Author "Abdyrakhimova S."

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    English Language Learning via Social Media: Writing Skills Development
    (SDU University, 2025) Abdyrakhimova S.
    The explosive growth in social media has transformed the way learners engage with language outside school, but there is little empirical data showing its effect on writing accuracy. The thesis research question is whether the accuracy of writing of Kazakhstani students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) can be improved through the incorporation of Instagram-based freewriting activities. A quasi-experiment lasting 2 months was conducted with 34 A2-level students studying the level of B1 (Experimental = 17; Control = 17), using convenience sampling. Both groups wrote a timed, paper-based essay as a pre-test and another one as a post-test in 8 weeks. The Experimental group shared two posts of 50-100 words per week on personal Instagram accounts and engaged with comments during the intervention, whereas the Control group completed the regular syllabus without any extra writing. Grammar, spelling and preposition mistakes were identified in all essays; the total number of errors was the primary outcome measure. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare improvement scores (pre-test minus post-test errors) between groups. Descriptively, the Experimental group had higher mean decreases in total mistakes compared to the Control group, and the highest improvements were found in the spelling accuracy. However, Mann-Whitney findings showed no statistically significant differences in total improvement, post-test performance, or any single error category. Although the results did not yield statistically significant results that Instagram writing is more effective than traditional approaches in enhancing short-term accuracy, the fact that the mean gains were always higher in the Experimental group indicates some practical advantages that should be pursued in future research. The paper points to the necessity of longer treatments, bigger samples, and mixed-methods designs to be able to grasp motivational and qualitative aspects of social-media-mediated language learning.