89 | Educazione, Vol. 4 No. 2, Nopember 2016
WHATSAPP AND ITS USE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ PRONUNCIATION ABILITY
Ana Ahsana El-Sulukiyyah1
E-mail : aahsana3@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Studying Pronunciation was boring with similar ways given to students.
Whatsapp as a kind of technology well-known by students are believed to gain
the creative and interesting learning process in pronunciation class. This research
method is a CAR, conducted in two cycles. Cycle one was fail because of the large
group design was not effective to gain students’ enthusiasm and improve their
ability. Cycle two was successful because the students could reach the criteria of
success, and gained the students’ enthusiasm. In short, Whatsapp features can
improve students’ ability in pronunciation class and gain their enthusiasm in
studying pronunciation.
Keywords : Whatsapp, Improve, Pronunciation
ABSTRAK
Belajar Pronunciation memang membosankan jika diberikan dengan cara
yang sama. Whatsapp sebagai salah satu macam tekhnologi yang banyak
diketahui oleh siswa dipercaya dapat meningkatkan proses belajar yang kreatif
dan menarik. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian bentuk Penelitian Tindakan Kelas
yang dilaksanakan pada 2 siklus. Siklus pertama gagal karena grup yang didesain
terlalu besar dan tidak efektif untuk meningkatkan antusiasme siswa dan
kemampuan mereka. Siklus 2 berhasil karena siswa dapat mencapai kriteria
sukse dan meningkatkan antusiasme siswa. Singkatnya, fitur dalam aplikasi
Whatsapp dapat meningkatkan kemampuan pronunciation siswa dan antusiasme
mereka dalam blajar di kelas pronunciation.
Kata Kunci : Whatsapp, meningkatkan, Pronunciation
INTRODUCTION
Technology gives its big role in learning and studying process nowadays.
Teachers and students are able to gain their knowledge by using kinds of
technology. One of the most used technology is a cellphone which is developed
into a smartphone. Smartphones can download useful applications and use it
easily. Some application provides facilities and advantages theirselves. We have
known game applications, education applications and social media applications.
One of the popular social media application is Whatsapp.
Whatsapp has spread over like flowers in the spring. All people know and
use Whatsapp. We can use it to send text messages, record and send voice
notes, attach pictures and videos and share emoticons (Hamidin, 2016). Mistar &
1 Dosen Prodi Pend. Bhs Inggris STKIP PGRI Pasuruan
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Embi (2016) stated that it is an easy and fast text messaging application. It has
been used by one billion people around the world as presented by Whatsapp
Statistics Usage in 2016. Because of its famous, it is sure that our students also
use Whatsapp as their tool of chatting.
Our students are “Z” generation who were born in 2000s and know
technology well. We often find them busy with their smartphones rather than
doing their class assignments. They are downloading and uploading videos,
pictures or songs while the teachers explaining th lessons. They are chatting and
sending every moment they have while teachers give the tasks. We cannot forbid
them to save their smartphone or turn it off, because they will feel forced and
unhappy to study, but we cannot let them to do some other things while the
class is running.
As teachers, we have to think about their needs and our goals of learning
process. Students are often interested with the usage of a media or learning
tools. They have fun and become enthusiastic in doing the learning process. They
like to work in relax and fun atmosphere without being forced to stay away from
their smartphones. That is why, Whatsapp can be one of the solution used to
have a creative learning tool in language learning especially in English classes.
Pronunciation is one of the English components which is important to be
mastered. In STKIP PGRI Pasuruan, pronunciation is integrated in one lecture
named Intensive Course lecture. Here, students are able to study the
pronunciation in 3 sks per week. The teacher uses video and other sound players
to teach pronunciation. Sometimes, students are get bored with the video and
the way teacher teach. The teacher needs to have a creative learning tool.
Whatsapp and its functions are believed to give an interesting and creative
learning tool in this era.
Whatsapp and its Usage
Whatsapp has been popular among the users, but do we know what
Whatsapp is and how it works?. Whatsapp has been introduced to the customers
since 2010, and still has renewal version every year. This application is used to
send text messages, voice notes, attach documents, photos, and videos (Eric,
2012). Yuvaraj (2014) presented that, computer and laptop can also use
Whatsapp, by having a special program and connecting to internet access. An
article entitled “Indian Youth Prefers Whatsapp, Facebook over SMS” which is
published on June 2013 showed that more that 70% young generation use social
media as their virtual communication.
Students are interested in Whatsapp too. The facility of direct-saved
contacts provides by Whatsapp ease the usage of this application. This ease
make communication run well. Students can have direct communication,
students to teachers, teachers to students, students to students and teachers to
teachers. We can provides not only better communication to students by using
91 | Educazione, Vol. 4 No. 2, Nopember 2016
Whatsapp but also give them some information they need from us as their
teacher.
Why Use Whatsapp in Our English Classes
As stated before, Whatsapp is a famous application, and it is used by a
billion people around the world, including our students. Teachers have to be
creative in giving the materials to gain students’ interest. Beside that, I am sure
that this application has installed already in their smartphones. It is easy to
manage them before starting the class using this application. Other study stated
that using Whatsapp in English classes give good impacts for students. Whatsapp
can make students easier to share some documents they need.
This easy application is chosen because its suitable features, like :
a. The application allows users to create group chats
b. The application allows users to record voice messages
c. The application allows users to send/receive photos, videos, audiofiles among
other things
d. While the application requires the use of the Internet, nothing is posted
online thus all messages remain private, visible only to the members of the
group (which will include only the students from a class). (Kulkuska-Hulme,
Norris, Donohue, 2015)
Our students are EFL (English Foreign Learners), they have to learn four
English skills and some other English components. We also have heterogenous
students, some of them like speaking very much, but some other like writing.
Some of our students like to analyze grammatical order in sentences, but some
other students like to practice their pronunciation. We can facilitate this
phenomenon by using Whatsapp. The four English skills and English components
can be taught by using Whatsapp.
Some Ways to Use Whatsapp in English Classes
Globally, Whatsapp can send text messages, emoticons/emoji, pistures,
voice notes and attach documents and videos. We can make it special in our
English classes. Here are some ways to use Whatsapp in our English classes :
1. Text by Text Way
In this way, students can learn about reading and writing even grammar or
vocabulary automatically, without feeling boring and stuck. Students can type
a sentence from reading text in their book, leave oneword and give
underscore (_), then send it to their friend, that student has to answer it and
send it back. The other idea to use this way is students look through their
book and find a sentence, they have to choose the sentence and type it, but
make a mistake from spelling, grammatical order or vocabulary, after that
they can send it to their friend, the receiver must answer and send it back.
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2. Voice to Text Way
It is used to gain students to practice their pronunciation. First, they can send
their voice by dictating some words to their friends. The other students who
receive the voice notes have to answer by typing the words their friends have
dictated.
The second way, Students can send some words by text messaging and ask
their friends “how do you pronounce ....”, the friends have to answer it by
sending their voice notes, it must be interested to practice the pronunciatoon
by Whatsapp.
3. Video Way
Students can record their presentation of a chosen topic, and send the videos
to their friends. After that, they can discuss it in the real class. It reduce
students’ shyness in presenting and having class discussion. Because every
students have already downloaded their friends presentation and knowing
each other weakness. Beside that it can minimize the presentation duration,
and can directly have effective class discussion.
4. Text to Picture to Video Way
Students can type a feeling (example : angry, sad, happy) to their friend, then
must be answered by photos where the firiend comprehend the feeling
illustration, after that ask “How is your feeling?”, the friend must answer it by
recording a video and tell about the feeling they feel. It is fun to share our
feeling by using pictures and videos. Teachers can get involved in this learning
way. Students will be more confident to speak and enrich their vocabulary of
some adjectives related to feelings.
5. Text to Emoji Way
We can have games from this way. We can have Emoji Race, where students
work in pairs, one student send the emoji name and another student send the
emoji picture, it has done as race. It can be added by having Emoji Stories
where students can type and send their stories using emoji. So, beside their
type the whole story using text, thay can attach and add emoji in the story.
Based on those five ways, we can know how effective the learning proces
will be. This is due to students are active and happy to do all assignments given
by the teachers. The teachers role here is to control and evaluate what students
have done with their nice tasks. Teachers can also get involve in the activity to
gain students enthusiasm and build a direct communcation with them.
How to Manage English Class with Whatsapp
Before we start to use Whatsapp, we have to have a good class
management to make our class efficient and effective. Here are some suggestion
to manage the class while using Whatsapp in English classes :
Step 1. Create a WhatsApp group
This step requires phone numbers of the participants. All class member has
to submit their phone number to the teacher.
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Step 2. Set the rules
Rules are important to make the use of Whatsapp efficient. Usually, there
are two main rules in English classes, Use English Only and No Bad Words. But we
can add some other rules in it before we start using Whatsapp in our English
class. For example, we make this group to learn and study English, so Use Formal
English or we use this group to share knowledge and information so, we can add
Knowledge and Info Only, so when students want to share some other things
they can make their own friendship group than to use this class group.
Step 3. Set up for class use
If you are using WhatsApp for listening in class, the studentss will need
earphones or headphones. Most students must have earphones and remind
them to bring the earphones to class the day before class. if you using Whatsapp
for writing descriptive class, you can attach the pictures that must be described
by students a minute before they write their description.
Step 4. Assign the tasks
An important stipulation is that WhatsApp is not a teaching tool as such – it
is a means of providing input to students and a way for them to share their
output. Both can be done in class to alleviate classroom management issues (e.g.
large classrooms where students don’t get enough speaking time) and to help
learners improve their speaking performance and outside of the class, to
provide an additional opportunity for listening and speaking or to assign and
collect homework.
By having those four steps of class managemnet, Whatsapp can be a goo
learning tools for our students. It believes to develop students enthusiam and
interest in language learning especially English classes.
Factors Affects Pronunciation Learning
Since our students are EFL (English Foreign Learners) there some factors
affect their pronunciation learning, they are as follows :
1. Native language, means, pronunciation abilityis affected by their native
language. The way, the sounds their produce may be vary but, their native
language cannot cover it. It will be affected much for the pronunciation
ability.
2. Age factors, Sometimes we assume when people pronounce the words like a
native, they probably started from their early childhood. But other studies
have different results. it shows that the oldest group of learners (17-25 years
old) gives highest score in studying pronunciation.
3. Amount of Exposure, another factor is, when people are surrounding by the
English speakers, it may affect their pronunciation ability.
(Kenworthy : 1988)
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METHOD
This research is a Classroom Action Research which as stated in Latief
(2011) Classroom Action Research is an effective media in improving the quality
of English teachers’ performance in instruction as well as students’
achievement.. Here is the steps of doing Classroom Action Research :
This study was conducted in the Intensive Course class which was studying
about pronunciation in the first semester. There are 26 students in this class. The
researcher used Whatsapp to improve their pronunciation by using Whatsapp.
To identify the classroom problems, the writer held the preliminary study.
By having close interview to the teacher, the writer formulate the data to know
what makes students feel boring in the pronunciation class. The teacher and the
writer decided to use Whatsapp as a well known application and use the
functions of Whatsapp to improve students’ pronunciation ability. In this study,
students studied how to pronounce voiced consonant sounds.
After forming the media for the class, the writer and the teacher decided
the criteria of success. This reasearch was successful if 100% students can
pronounce the voiced consonant sounds correctly or reach 80 for the score. in
addition, it was successful when the students felt interesting and enthusiastics in
joining the pronunciation class.
To gain the data, this research used some instruments. First, It is
observation to have fieldnotes of the process of learning. Second, it is interview,
to know the classroom problems. The teacher and the students were
interviewed to get good data.
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Finding
This research was conducted in two cycles. It was because cycle one
couldnot reach the criteria of success. The failure of cycle one is because some
students couldnot reach 80, although the class has been enthusiastics and
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students were interested to study using Whatsapp. But, some students still got
confused and havenot ready to implement this new thing.
In cycle one, the writer made a Whatsapp group consisted of 26 students.
Students were ready with their smartphones, headset and have been connected
in Whatsapp group. The writer gave them an audio message about the example
how to pronounce the voiced consonant sounds. Then, they studied it in 10
minutes, practiced it with their deskmates. After that, students were given a
voice notes by the writer about some sentences with the cvoiced consonant
sounds. Students were answering the voice notes by typing the sentences and
sent it to the Whatsapp group. The writer gave 5 voice notes and students were
competing to answer it. The correct answer got stars from the writer.
The next learning program is, the writer sent 5 sentences in the Whatsapp
group and asked students to answer it by sounding it and sent it in group. So, in
short, the audio and voice notes were used in this process. The failure of this
cycle is because of the large Whatsapp group which was consisted of 27
members. When the writer sent the sounds, some students did not answer it
because other students have answered it correctly. So the others who were still
typing or still thinking for the answers felt they were late to answer or to send
the answer.
Cycle two was conducted with some revision. The writer revised the
Whatsapp group got by students. In cycle two, students were divided into 5 small
groups, and made their own Whatsapp group. Students were connected with
each members of the group in one Whatsapp group, so it means, there were 5
Whatsapp groups. The writer was connected to the groups by making a
Whatsapp group consisting of six persons who were the captains of the groups
and the writer itself.
Then the process run similar with the cycle one, but now the writer sent
the sounds to the captains, and the captains share it to their groups. They
worked in small groups. They worked together to answer the quiz of sounds. The
writer now divided the questions into individual practice and group practice.
When the writer sent the individual practice, it means that students have to
answer it individually. But, when the writer sent the group practice, so the
students have to work in group.
This process gained successful result. It was because, students were
enthusiastic and well prepared to implement the new learning tool. Students
also eased by the use of small groups, which was more effective than wide group
implemented in cycle one. The students ability of pronouncing voiced consonant
sounds was also improved because of the use of individual practice and group
practice.
Discussion
This research was successful in the cycle two implementation. Some
reasons and analysis come for this result. First, as we know Whatsapp has some
96 | Educazione, Vol. 4 No. 2, Nopember 2016
functions or features which were sending texts, voice notes, audios, videosor
event documents. By using one of the features here, the writer tried to make
students become more enthusiastics. The writer used audio/voice note to text. It
means that the writer and the students sent or resents voice note and answered
it by text or do it oppositely.
According to Kulkuska-Hulme, Norris, Donohue (2015), Whatsapp has
interesting features, it can improve students enthusiasm as new learning tool,
like the application allows users to create group chats, the application allows
users to record voice messages, the application allows users to send/receive
photos, videos, audiofiles among other things. While the application requires the
use of the Internet, nothing is posted online thus all messages remain private,
visible only to the members of the group (which will include only the students
from a class). .
The use of small groups is also help the successfulness. It is because,
students become more ready and well prepared with their group of Whatsapp
and ready to answer it both individually or group. Moreover according to
Kenworthy (1988) the highest level of learning pronunciation and ablity
improving is in the age of 17-25 years old. The students of Intensive course in
pronunciation is in that level. They are around 18-20 years old and in the first
semester. So, age factor also give good rule in learning pronunciation.
Conclusion
Whatsapp has spread to be an easy platform of communication. It is used
by one billion people in the world. It cannot be denied that our students must
have Whatsapp in their smartpone. Whatsapp can be used in language learning,
especially in our English classes. Some way to use Whatsapp in class are to
explore the function of Whatsapp itself. Like sending and typing messages,
recording and sending voice notes and videos. Teachers can get involve in some
activities set to students, and gain good communication and rules to make the
class effective in using Whatsapp as a creative learning tool.
This research conducted in two cycles, because cycle one didnot reach the
criteria of succes. Cycle two was successful because studying pronunciation
especially studying pronouncing voiced consonant sounds was interesting by
using the features of Whatsapp and having small groups work. The features of
Whatsapp can improve students’ ability in pronunciation.
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