EFL STUDENTS' PERCEPTION TOWARD WHATSAPP APPLICATION AT

SEVENTH GRADE OF SMPN 1 WUNDULAKO

A PROPOSAL PAPER

LELI ENDISTIRA

21713106

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUANGE TEACHING

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF KENDARI

2020
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This study is intended to investigate the English as Foreign Languange (EFL) students'
perception toward the use of WhatsApp Application in the English classroom by students' of
SMPN 1 Wundulako. This chapter depicts the background of the study, the scope of the study,
the research questions, and the purpose of the study. Moreover, it includes the significance of the
study and the definition of the key terms used in this study.

1.1 Background of the Study

Nowadays, Technology has invaded all aspects of life and education system is also developing
rapidly. The existence of technology endorses the teaching and learning process in the digital era as it
helps the students to be self-determined learners. They can learn everything and everywhere by
clicking many features or using platforms on the internet that relates to their study.Technology can
assist college students’ to work rapidly and easily. Mobile phone technology is the most prospective
tool to be utilised in teaching English language. Second language teachers can apply message
applications through mobile phones and smart phones. The most famous messenger application is
WhatsApp. Bensalem (2018) claimed that many foreign language teachers have been interested in
using WhatsApp to teach certain aspects of foreign language learning. Hamad (2017) states that “using
WhatsApp to facilitate and create an avenue for learning and communication as well, as it is the most
common App to the students, and they always have their mobile phones and smart phones in their hands,
beside it is cheap to activate the App” (p. 74-75). Meanwhile, Susanti and Tarmuji (2016) say that,
WhatsApp has flexibility and useful features to text, to call, and to send video, audio, links, location,
document, pictures. It means that WhatsApp is the most potential technology to support teaching and
learning of English language today that can be acessed by mobile phone.

In global era, the researches used WhatsApp for teaching English language skills and
language component. These researches have proved that WhatsApp is one of the best ICT tools
for teaching English language in global education. The previous research researcher was done by
Ramakrisnan (2017) in his research “The use of WhatsApp for English language proficiency
among B.Ed Traines”. He found that there was a development of English language proficiency
for B.Ed students as expected by the researcher (p. 1-6). Previous studies also examined by
Justina (2016). She used WhatsApp to enhance reading and writing skills at undergraduate
college level in Osmania University India. The result of her research shows that the use of
WhatsApp is highly essential for language teachers to identify what their learners enjoy doing
and utilize it to engage them in language development, especially reading and writing which
slow learners find difficult when done in the conventional way (p. 47-60). The last research was
done by Kheryadi (2017). He conducted his research implementing of WhatsApp as a media of English
language teaching by distributing some question to subject of his research. The result revealed that the
students felt confident, independence, another enthusiasm, and had a positive attitude to learn English
using application (p. 1-14).

In indonesia, teaching and learning English language by using WhatsApp is regarded as the
newest innovation of English language teaching strategy. Teachers and students can interact online with
others through the features of WhatsApp. WhatsApp can present multimodal media through its features
for learning English language. According to Gunawan. B. Y & Wijayanti. A (2018) WhatsApp is a good
medium for leraning. The implementation of “WhatsApp” in teaching learning activities received
appreciation from the participants. The use of WhatsApp can helping them understand academic
vocabularies and they obtained a significant increase in their scores (p. 88-89). Previous studies also
examined by Susanti and Tarmuji (2016) stated that, WhatsApp has flexibility and useful features to
text, to call, and to send video, audio, links, location, document, pictures. It means that WhatsApp is the
most potential technology to support teaching and learning of English language today that can be
accessed by mobile phone (p. 26-31).

The present research followed precedents from recent studies about WhatsApp and its
advantages based on the researches have been done by some English teachers in several countries in the
world, WhatsApp is a media platform that can make student’s enthusiastic in learning , can learn many
vocabulary and they can understand the lesson. So that WhatsApp is very effective tools for teaching
English language. This application is interesting because it has several features that can allow the users to
send, chat, speak, write, and share many things in chat room easily. Then, WhatsApp has interesting
emoticons to represent the users feeling in chatting. The last is WhatsApp is easy to be accessed by the
students anytime and anywhere.

Meanwhile, in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, many human lives are affected from
various aspects, especially in education aspects. Rajab (2020) as the director of Ma’had and
Islamic Studies Tazkia International Islamic Boarding School, Malang, quoted from detik News, that
the effects of the Corona Virus is now also perceived by the education world. The closure of schools
and educational facilities is the choice of many countries, both at the primary and university level
throughout Indonesia. All levels of educational institutions in Indonesia, especially in SMPN 1
WUNDULAKO located in Southeast Sulawesi (Kendari) precisely in Kolaka district, is the one of
the institutions affected by the spread of covid-19 adverse effects caused by students are required to
learn online from home, because of the cessation of direct learning face to face in class to break the
chain and exposure to the corona virus. Therefore, the researcher is interested in conducting research
on how EFL students' perception toward WhatsApp Application at seventh grade of SMPN 1
WUNDULAKO.

1.2 Research Question

What is the EFL students’ perceptions toward WhatsApp Aplication at seventh grade of
SMPN 1 WUNDULAKO ?

1.3 Aims of the Study

The aims of this study is to investigate how EFL students’ perceptions toward WhatsApp
Aplication at seventh grade of SMPN 1 WUNDULAKO.

1.3 Scope of the Research

This study is undertaken to investigate EFL Students’ perceptions of using WhatsApp

Application in English language classroom. This Application is applied to optimise the online
learning process that occur in the second language classroom setting during COVID-19
pandemic. In this research, the researcher take some student’s in SMPN 1 WUNDULAKO. This
qualitative research is to investigate what are student’s perception toward WhatsApp
Application.
1.5 Significance of the study

1. For the students’

- This research is very useful for students’ later, with this research can make students’
understand the new way in process of learning by using technology, not only using
paper but with technology student also can be motivated and enthusiastic in
learning.With the use of WhatsApp Application as an online media classes can make
students’ know the way for learning especially learn English.
2. For the teachers and lecturers
- This research is very useful for teachers’ to maximize their teaching techniques when
they are not face to face in the classroom. Teachers can also know the perceptions
and student challenges in doing the task via WhatsApp Application.
3. For the researcher
- In this case, the researcher can deeply understand the concept of a theory used in this study.

1.6 Definition of Terms

There are several terms that are used in this research. In order to avoid misunderstanding,
the researcher provides explanations about the terms that are used in this research.

EFL Students’,

Perception means the association, identification, and the explanation of a sensasion in

order to figure a psychological illustration (L. Schacter, Daniel- Daniel T. Gilbert – Daniel M.
Wegner, 2009). In this study, the researcher wants to know the EFL students’ perception of the
use of WhatsApp Application in learning English during Covid-19 pandemic.

WhatsApp Application is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which uses the internet to
send messages. It will help users easier to communicate with other by saving other users number phone
that has verified as their WhatsApp account in their internal telephone memory (Speroff, 2016). In
Education world, this application provides users with useful features that can support teaching and
learning English language. WhatsApp is one of the resourceful teaching methods which fascinates
students’ attention, responsiveness and provides fun-based learning. It allows the students to
express their thoughts and ideas via various features of the WhatsApp application platform such
as attaching pictures, sharing videos, sharing web-links, recording videos and many more.
 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses about literature review. This chapter describes about the theory
and definitions that is relevant to the research concept. The researcher would explain about
previously study, theoritical frame work, EFL Students’, Perception and WhatsApp Application.

A. Review of previous studies