This study details the impact of incorporating social semiotic theory and smartphone photography into English as a second language (L2) instruction on oral proficiency over a six-month experimental project. During the project, participants were guided to deconstruct photographs into visual elements based on the theory’s three metafunctions. Smartphone photography served as the medium that linked the social context, its visual resources, and classroom instruction. The study aimed to evaluate the enhancement in oral proficiency of 54 upper-intermediate Iranian English Language Learners (ELLs) in dimensions including complexity, accuracy, and fluency. The oral performances on smartphone photo description tasks were rated using a standardized scoring system based on dimensions of oral proficiency. A Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) revealed that the participants in the experimental group were able to produce utterances that were more grammatically accurate, contained more subordinates, utilized a greater variety of words (both in terms of types and tokens), and were longer in length. Additionally, the speech rate of the participants also increased. Despite the promising findings of the study, its limitations, such as the specific group of learners and the limited period of study, may affect the generalizability of the results. This study demonstrates the potential of integrating technology and social semiotics in L2 education. The observed improvements in learners’ oral proficiency suggest that the integration could enhance language learning and teaching practices.
