STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF CAKE APPLICATION TO

IMPROVE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH

Dea Sindy 1808103107

Fatimatuzzahro 1808103033
Nurul Chafidzoh 1808103009
Umi Khaerunnisa 1808103174

English Language Teaching Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training,

The State of Islamic Institute Syekh Nurjati Cirebon

Abstract

The objective of the research aimed to capture students’ perspectives on the use
of cake application to improve students’ motivation in learning English. The researcher
uses a qualitative research method with a phenomenology research design in which the
participants were 10th-grade students at SMAN 1 Cirebon. In findings and discussions,
the researcher presents several items of the conclusion as follows: Based on the
interviews, this study discovered that most X grade students at SMAN 1 Cirebon
enjoyed to use the Cake Application, and the researcher discovered that utilizing the
Cake Application can assist students enhance their motivation in studying English.
Cake application can increase student interest in the process of improving their
motivation in learning English. The Cake application is an alternative application that is
very effective for students to learn, especially in learning English. Data from interview
showed various positive students’ responses toward motivation to improve learning
English with cake application.

Keywords: Students’ Perspective, Learning English, Motivation, Cake

Application.

1. INTRODUCTION
 Wauters, Desmet, and Van den Noortgate (2010) describe traditional learning as a
"static" environment in which each student is given "the same knowledge in the same
structure via the same interface" (p. 549). Traditional, inefficient learning does not
increase student learning in independent learning or confidence in learning, among
other things. Meanwhile, E-learning allows pupils to learn independently and gain
confidence in their ability to learn. Education has long been concentrated on attending
lessons every day, and individuals have discovered that school buildings can have an
impact on learning. In a traditional classroom, education is mostly dependent on the
teaching system, which frequently emphasizes the topic rather than the learners'
abilities and learning skills (Li, 2014). The traditional classroom does not stimulate the
senses or the mind, but rather encourages rote learning. 
According to the theory of aspect in language learning, some researchers found
that there are several aspects in learning English, which are linguistic (vocabulary,
grammar, reading, listening, speaking, and writing), cultural aspects, interest,
enjoyment, persistence, motivation, etc. One of the aspects that have not been covered
in traditional learning is motivation. Saragih and Utami (2020) said that motivation
aims to increase someone's desire, increase their willingness to put forth a strong effort
toward achieving a goal (p. 21). It also plays an important role in academic fields such
as classroom learning activities where students will succeed in learning if they have the
will to learn. Motivation 'kicks off' the process, ‘lubricates’ the gears and ‘fuels’ the
engine to keep it running (Saragih & Utami, 2020, p.21). The point of the sentence is
that without motivation, learners may not initiate the act of learning at all, and those
who have already started learning, they may not be able to sustain their learning after
experiencing difficulties in the process.
We often found that many students feel less motivated in learning English
because of monotonous classroom activities and the absence of media in the teaching
and learning process. During the teaching and learning process, the English teacher
only uses student worksheets in delivering the material. Students' motivation and
attitude in learning a foreign language will be better if there is an interesting media that
can attract their attention and motivation to learn. Traditional teaching methods make
students lose interest in class, become discouraged, bored, stop trying to complete
assignments, and do poorly on exams (Mokhtar, 2018). So, interesting and innovative
media is a very crucial thing to think about.
 In the current era of 4.0, almost all of the activities we do are related to
technology. One of the technologies that help our daily lives is Artificial Intelligence
(AI). AI includes several applications that can generally be used to perform educational
tasks such as representing and storing knowledge, introducing various models for
student-student and student-machine interactions (Mukhallafi, 2020). There are many
language learning applications available nowadays for students and teachers. The use of
applications in the teaching-learning process can help teachers to explore more and get
new techniques (Fitria, Dwimaulidyanti, & Sapitri, 2021, p. 118). One of the
applications that we can use in learning English is the cake application. According to
Hapipah, Munawwaroh, and Dewi (2021), they said that using the cake application will
make users feel very interested in the features to provide free and complete (p.40). So,
the researcher the cake application is the interesting thing that we should analyze.
Based on numerous studies, first, HE Xiaoyu (2018) examined "A Study of Cake
English App - One of the Children's Picture Books Reading Apps in Improving Primary
School Students' English Speaking" in Nan Chong, China. This paper examines five
benefits of the cake English app, a children's picture book reading app, in improving
students' oral English competence. It applies vocabulary studying, vocabulary-pictures
matching games, picture story reading, and blank filling tests in the cake English app to
the pre-speaking, while-speaking, and post-speaking stages of primary English class,
and suggests ways to implement cake English app in class.
Second, Yanthi (2020) investigated that The Use of Cake applications in
Teaching Speaking to Senior High School Students. The purpose of this study is to find
out how the Cake app is used to teach high school pupils speaking skills and what they
think about it. As data-gathering instruments, observations, questionnaires, and
interviews were employed. Students in class X IPA I SMA PGRI 3 BOGOR are the
subjects of this study. The findings revealed that using the Cake application to develop
speaking abilities can make learning more enjoyable, boost students' speaking skills,
and have an impact on their self-confidence. 
Third, Rahmayanti et al. (2021) investigated The Uses of Some Applications in
Teaching English. Some applications, including Cake, Orai, and Memrise, will be given
to the compilers in this article. Although there are numerous advantages to adopting
particular applications in learning, there are also drawbacks. As a result, the teacher's
position as a companion to students' learning should take precedence to ensure that the
teaching and learning process is in good working order.
 The following are the differences between this research and previous research
based on previous studies: first, this research focuses on aspects that cannot be
accomplished by traditional language, whereas most previous research only focuses on
students' speaking ability. Second, this study employs a qualitative descriptive approach
to explain how the cake application was implemented. The research aimed to capture
students’ perspectives on the use of cake application to improve students’ motivation in
learning English. The research question are formulated as: (1) How can cake
application improve students’ motivation in learning English and (2) How can cake
application become supported medium for learning English.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The goal of the teaching learning process will be realized if the students are
interested, motivated, and active in a learning activity. Therefore the motivation and
interest of students in learning is an important part to achieve learning success. In
attracting interest and increasing students' motivation in learning, especially learning
English. It can be through in the application of Artificial Intelligence in education, such
as using applications or technology in their learning, because using technology or
applications in learning can attract students to study in this 21st era, because currently
in 21st era, the use of traditional teaching methods is an old methods and boring method
for students in this era, and this method make students lose interest in class, become
discouraged, bored, stop trying to complete tasks, and do poorly on tests. Therefore, in
this paper the writer will discuss Improving Students' Motivation in Learning English
by Using Cake Application.

2.1 Traditional Classroom/Learning

The term "traditional classroom" refers to a space with clean pastel-colored

walls and rows of desks and chairs facing a lectern that has been put under a
microscope (Li, et, all. 2014, p. 48). Education has long been concentrated on
attending lessons every day, and individuals have discovered that school
buildings can have an impact on learning. In a traditional classroom, education is
mostly dependent on the teaching system, which frequently emphasizes the topic
rather than the learners' abilities and learning skills. Simultaneously, learners are
obligated to synchronize their own strategies and learning abilities. The
traditional classroom, on the other hand, does not stimulate the senses or the
mind, but rather encourages rote learning. The teacher-centered and learner-
centered classrooms are the two types of traditional classrooms. Students
generally focus on something the instructor is saying, jot down information they
are getting, and think something independently about what they are listening to in
a teacher-centered traditional university classroom. As a result, much of their
learning is passive. Traditional instructions are shifting from a teacher-centered to
a learner-centered classroom as teaching ideas evolve.

2.1.1 Aspect in Learning English

Aspect in the English language has been characterized using several

categories and terminology, which may lead to some misconceptions
among instructors and students. The broad concept of aspects might be
stated as "various ways of seeing the internal temporal constituent of a
situation”. The broad concept of aspects might be stated as "various ways of
seeing the internal temporal constituent of a situation.”(Comrie as cited in
Adriana & Maria, 2019, p. 9). According to several researchers, they found
that there are several aspects of learning English, namely linguistic aspects
(vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening, speaking, and writing), cultural
aspects, interests, enjoyment, persistence, and motivation. One of the
aspects that has a significant impact on the learning of English is
enjoyment. When someone enjoys their time during learning English, it will
be easier and faster to learn English (Felicia Angeline, 2020). When
someone studies English, they must be persistent and have a strong desire to
learn, putting big effort to learn English and never giving up. Thus, they
become more aware of the importance of English in their lives. It also
develops self-efficacy, which means that someone who learns English
becomes more confident. And other aspects that has a significant impact on
the learning of English is motivation and interest, students that are
motivated will put up greater effort in their learning activities and students
that are interested in something will pay more attention to it and like doing
it.

2.1.1.1 Motivation
 In a learning activity, motivation plays an important role in
directing students' behavior. It will alter the way they learn in the
classroom. Motivation to learn emerges when a learner engages
actively in an activity by embracing its objective and attempting to
understand the concepts or master the skills it develops (Brophy as
cited in Hanafi, et al, 2018, p.55). Understanding the purpose and
concept of the learning activity might help students become more
motivated. Students' achievement in a learning process is also
influenced by motivation. Therefore, motivation is one of the
important aspects in learning, especially learning English.

2.2 Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is demonstrated by robots, while natural

intelligence (NI) is demonstrated by humans and other animals. According to Al-
Shawabkah (2017, p. 23) AI is defined as the abilities communicated to
computers that allow numerous performance systems to be clever and behave like
people. It is also defined as a branch of computer and information technology that
researches, designs, and develops computer systems that mimic human intellect.
AI covers a variety of applications that can be used to execute educational
activities such as representing and preserving information, as well as offering
different models for student-student and student-machine interactions. With
algorithms that use modern dictionaries to deliver accurate definitions of
vocabulary items based on context, AI can improve the learning process. AI is
very helpful in learning in this 21st era, such as the existence of applications for
learning English such as the Elsa speak application, Dualinggo, Cake application
that is included in artificial intelligence.

2.2.1 Cake Application

The cake is the most popular attraction Android mobile application

made by South Korea. It is an app designed to help people become better
public speakers. It enables people the confidence and abilities to talk
eloquently on stage, in front of an audience, or in everyday situations. Cake
application serves people who are listening to their recording; it may be a
 lot of fun. It is the best application for learning to speak English since it
utilizes video to show us an example of a term that will be extremely useful
in everyday conversation (Sinha as cited in Winda, 2020, p. 167).
According to Ade Putra, 2020, said that “Cake App provides speaking skills
that replicate conversations with native speakers, and students may verify
their pronunciation using the Cake App's speech recognition” (p. 5). With
cake application students may record their voices and receive quick
feedback. Students will soon be able to sound like native speakers. Teachers
also can utilize the Cake App in a variety of strategies or activities to
achieve the purpose of speaking class.

3. METHODS
The researcher uses a qualitative research method with a phenomenology research
design. In emphasis on its experience and interpretation, qualitative research draws
from the philosophy of phenomenology. According to Patton (as cited in Hapipah,
2021), in the conduct of a phenomenological study, the focus of this research would be
on the essence or structure of an experience (phenomenon). The subjects of this study
were 10th-grade students at SMAN 1 Cirebon. Mack et al. (as cited in Hapipah, 2021)
states that purposive sampling is a type of sampling technique that groups participants
according to pre-selected criteria that are relevant to certain research questions.
Researcher decide what should be known and look for people who can and are willing
to provide information based on knowledge or experience.
In collecting data, this study used interviews. Data collection techniques are very
important in research because the main purpose of research is to collect data. Semi-
structured interview is an unstructured interviews conducted during research and data
collection. Semi-structured interviews are often used as a data source for qualitative
research and usually before conducting interviews scheduled in advance for the time
and location. The instruments researcher used were interview sheet and list of
questions.
In data analysis, this research has several steps, as follows: (1) Organizing and
preparing the data needed for analysis, (2) Reading all data and getting a general
understanding, (3) Performing analysis and classifying data, (4) Identify and discuss
data in a research report, (5) Process data to evaluate students' perceptions of the use of
the Cake Application, (6) Drew the conclusion for the result of this research.
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4. 1 Cake application improve students’ motivation in learning English

Based on the results of the interview, the researcher found the students perspective
of using cake application to improving students motivation in learning english, the cake
application has many benefits and positive effects for the process of students in learning
English. Students who are low interest/motivation in leaning english become more
interested in learning because of the availability of interesting learning features in the
cake application. then Most students that felt learning english is difficult when using
cake application they felt that learning english is not difficult, because many students
prefer to learn through video or sound rather than reading books, therefore the cake
application can attract students' interest to increase students' motivation in learning
English. but there some of students that have some problems of using cake application
they are drains a lot of internet data, requires sufficient signal, requires gadget memory
space to install it, but this problem is not too disturbing to increase students' motivation
in learning English. The findings of the interview revealed that the majority of students
had a positive impression of the cake application. To summarize, learning with the cake
application is a great way to increase students motivation to learn English.

Cake is the best application for assisting students in achieving their learning
objectives. The internet, podcasts, videoconferencing, movies, and speech recognition
were all mentioned by Bahadorfar and Omidvar (2014) as general technology for
teaching English. In this scenario, the researcher employs an application that combines
several of the aforementioned general technologies into a single application. When
pupils use this application, they have excellent perception. They mentioned that this
application helped them improve their speaking skills because it has various intriguing
features and that we can customize the settings to suit our needs. We can begin
completing missions at the first level and progress as the number of tasks completed
and the number of stars collected increases. Because it does not induce boredom while
studying, an engaging feature can also improve pupils' enthusiasm for learning. Every
day, they explained, new videos with short and entertaining English discussions would
be added. Learn English quickly and for free. Watch YouTube videos with Indonesian
subtitles to learn English. We can also see related language and themes, which helps
students study more efficiently. Cake is the most appropriate application for pupils who
 wish to practice speaking English. Cake delivers native speaker speaking practice. AI
Speech Recognition can be used to check student pronunciation of the cake application.
Get instant feedback by recording your voice. It won't be long before they can
communicate as if they were a native speaker. Students may learn for free without
having to deal with irritating commercials. Despite the fact that there are other
applications that can assist them in improving their speaking skills, they prefer learning
to use the Cake English application since they can see the outcomes of their learning
immediately, as opposed to other applications. If they simply use YouTube to enhance
their speaking skills, for example, chances are they are only watching videos on
YouTube without attempting to follow the actual speaker's words, and if they do, they
will not be aware of the outcomes of their learning. The notion is that cake assists
students in enhancing their communication skills. They enjoy using the Cake English
App to learn English.

4.2 Cake application as a medium for Learning English

Here brief Interview with students of X grade at SMAN 1 Cirebon

Resource : Student 1

The researcher : Do you like learning English language? Why?

The student : Yes, because with mastery English language I can traveling abroad
easier

The researcher : Is learning motivation important for learning to take place?

The student : of course that’s important

The researcher : What things increase your learning motivation, especially in learning
English?

The student : learning media, or interesting learning methods

The researcher : Does the learning system at your school implement a blended
learning system during a pandemic like now? especially in English
lessons?

The students : Yes, at school we use a blended learning system during the pandemic
The researcher : In the blended learning system, of course, using today's technology,
then what applications do schools use to learn? Especially in English subjects?

The student : Yes, of course, at school we usually use Zoom, Gmeet, Google
Classroom, etc., to study during this pandemic and blended learning, and in English
lessons we use Google Translate, U dictionary, etc. applications.

The researcher : Have you ever heard of cake application?

The student : yes

The researcher : Do you use Cake application to learn English?

The student : yes, because we also use cake application to learn English in our
school

The researcher : Do you like cake application? Why?

The student : yes, because this application is very helpful for learning English,
there are many features that can help learn English

The researcher : Have you found the problem when you used cake application?

The student : yes, it might be a problem in unlocking the paid features, and it
requires strong internet data

The researcher : Is the cake application can attract your motivation to learning
English?

The student : yes, this application is quite helpful in motivating me to learn English
because this application is very interesting and, makes it easier to learn
English so that I am more motivated to learn English

The researcher : Are the features in the cake application easy to use?

The student : quite easy as long as the internet data signal is strong

The researcher : Do you think the cake application can support learning English
during this pandemic? Why?

The student : of course, as I said earlier, this application is very helpful for learning
English independently, without any classroom learning, and the
content is very interesting and makes it easy to learn English and can
increase my motivation to learning English during the pandemic.
Resource : Student 2

The researcher : Do you like learning English language? Why?

The student : Yes, because learning English taught me the importance of

communication, and English is an international language that is very
important to learn in this era

The researcher : Is learning motivation important for learning to take place?

The student : yes of course

The researcher : What things increase your learning motivation, especially in learning
English?

The student : maybe the way of learning, or the learning media.

The researcher : Does the learning system at your school implement a blended
learning system during a pandemic like now? especially in English
lessons?

The students : yes of course

The researcher : In the blended learning system, of course, using today's technology,
then what applications do schools use to learn? Especially in English subjects?

The student : Yes, that's right, at school we use the Google Classroom application,
Edmodo to collect assignments, and Google Translate to learn English and other
dictionary applications.

The researcher : Have you ever heard of cake application?

The student : yes

The researcher : Do you use Cake application to learn English?

The student : yes, we use cake application to learn English

The researcher : Do you like cake application? Why?

The student : yes, because this application is very easy to use, and provides
interesting features.

The researcher : Have you found the problem when you used cake application?

The student : yes I found problems such as limited features

 The researcher : Is the cake application can attract your motivation to learning
English?

The student : yes, that's enough, because this application is quite helpful in
motivating me to learn English because using this application makes
me more interested in learning English, and considers learning English
easy and not difficult.

The researcher : Are the features in the cake application easy to use?

The student : quite easy

The researcher : Do you think the cake application can support learning English
during this pandemic? Why?

The student : yes, because this application is very easy to use

Based on the interviews, this study discovered that most X grade students at SMAN 1
Cirebon enjoyed to use the Cake Application, and the researcher discovered that utilizing
the Cake Application can assist students enhance their motivation in studying English.
cake application can increase students interest in the process of improving their
motivation in learning english. The Cake application is an alternative application that is
very effective for students to learn, especially in learning english. it is because cake
application provides some features that can help improve student in learning english for
instance can help student pronunciation, student grammar, student vocabulary and
students fluency in speaking English, especially during the pandemic situation students
only study at home, then this situation make some students of SMAN 1 Cirebon felt low
interest and motivation in learning english, therefore with this situation, this application
can atract students to more excited in learning english or to improve their motivation to
learning English. Teachers should be aware of the importance of motivation in language
acquisition, and they should be able to assist students in increasing their motivation by
making some changes (Alizadeh as cited in Neng Aprilia Purmama, Neng Sri Rahayu,
Rasi Yugafiati, 2019, p.540). The cake application's success in increasing students'
motivation to learn English is due to the fact that it provides engaging and non-boring
features for students, making learning English feel easier and more enjoyable, such as the
 English video feature, which can entice students to learn English through the spectacle.
Other features are complete and give all of the components in speaking, so students only
need to launch the app to learn.

Cake is a current technology that merges the internet, videos, and speech
recognition into one application. The Cake application has a large number of YouTube
videos that have been curated. Students discovered a variety of films in the Cake
application, and what makes them unique is that each video on the Cake application has
been made to be as simple as possible for students to understand. Repetition of the
learnt language, emphasis, clear transcription, and excellent audio are just a few
examples. This feature was beneficial to the kids. Speech recognition is also included in
the Cake application. This allows pupils to practice speaking more easily. The students
received the outcome to assess using speech recognition in the feature'speak.'

To sum up, the students’ responses to the motivation learning through cake
application were positive, none of the negative students’ responses in learning through
cake application. Most of students seemed very enthusiastic from advantages and
features from Cake Application. Cake application makes students interested in learning
speaking because cake application is a great instructional media for teacher and
students. Data from interview showed various positive students’ responses toward
motivation to improve learning English with cake application.

5. CONCLUSION

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