Judul Skripsi : Student Perceptions on the Use of Hot Potatoes in English Subject by 6th Semester Students of Makassar Muhammadiyah University (Desciptive Research). The purpose of this research was to reveal the perception of the students about the use of hot potato in the English subject of the 6th semester students of the English Education Department of Muhammadiyah University of Makassar.
Background
According to Erben, hot potato is software that allows you to quickly and easily create interactive web-based quizzes. Based on observations made by the researcher, the use of hot potatoes in creating interactive exercises is treated as a common problem.
Problem Statement
Objective of the Research
The Significances of the Research
Different perceptions of students may reflect the use of hot potatoes during the learning process. This research can be a reference for the next researcher in terms of using hot potato and in conducting further related research.
Scope of the Research
This research is expected to provide information that will provide students' perceptions of the use of hot potato as a strategy in the learning and teaching process of Structure. Different student responses can be useful to improve lessons and classroom activities.
Previous Related Research Findings
Furthermore, Juan (2014) stated that the use of Hot Potatoes opens new doors for teachers as they empower themselves to create and design materials appropriate to the needs of their students, thus promoting student and teacher autonomy. Furthermore, using Hot Potatoes in language courses increases student motivation because it can stimulate different learning styles. The five quiz types available in Hot Potatoes are JCloze, JCross, JMatch, JMix, and JQuiz.
The "Hot Potatoes" program, produced by Half-Baked Software, Inc., was designed to allow instructors to deliver interactive online exercises that can be easily accessed by students anywhere with an Internet connection using any standard web browser. Instead, tutors use Hot Potatoes exercise templates to create exercises on web pages that can be uploaded to a server where students can access them. Furthermore, thanks to the capabilities of the program (i.e., Hot Potatoes), students can correct and/or edit their own assignment based on hints and feedback that are pre-set by the tutor.
Using the Hot Potatoes software, teachers also have the option of specifying an email address to which scores should be sent. Hot Potatoes is actually a software package consisting of six different programs, called modules in this study (Sadeghi, 2015). Using hot potatoes in the structure subject by creating exercises for the students gives them space to repeatedly practice the target language.
Conceptual Framework
Research Method
Variable
Participants
Research Instrument 1. Questionnaire
The interview was a further tool to collect the data in this research; the interview adopted semi-structured interview technique which used the question guideline but allowed the interviewer to give explanation and elaboration based on the question given. This type of interview was also known as in-depth interview, where it was technically more flexible than the structured interview.
Data Collection Technique
Data Analysis Technique
Based on the students' scores in the questionnaire, scores (on average) higher than 3.7 were categorized as positive perception, between 2.1-2.7 were categorized as neutral perception, and lower than 2 were categorized as negative perception. One way to proceed with the analysis is to follow three iterative or repetitive steps: reading/memorizing, describing what is going on in the environment, and classifying research data. As the first analytical step, all the observations, transcripts and comments of observers, either from interview or field notes, will be read.
The next step, description, involved developing rich descriptions of the participants, the setting, and the phenomenon studied to convey the rich complexity of the study. Data analysis was essentially a process of breaking down data into smaller units, determining their meaning, and combining the relevant units into a more general, analytical form. The usual way the data is broken down is through the coding process.
Interpret the result of both field notes data from observation and interview data to be presented in the report. The first section presents the data description, followed by findings on each statement aspects to answer research questions about students' perceptions towards the implementation of hot fries, focusing on students as users, the strategies used by the lecturers, and finally the discussion about findings from the questionnaire.
Data Description
Finding on Research Questions
Students’ Perceptions as the user of Hot Potatoes in English subject
-Hui Wang: 2012) Regarding learner perceptions of the interactive web-based exercises, Table 3 summarizes the results of the questionnaire survey. Regarding the exercise design, question 1 required participants to rate the degree of their interest in using the interactive web-based exercises on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 defined as the highest degree of interest. Moreover, the average result of 3.6 on the challenge level of the web exercises indicated that learners generally experienced the exercises as quite challenging.
In terms of participants' perceived benefits of web-based interactive exercises, the results revealed that the exercise features of easy access, interactive feedback, multiple attempts, and no time limit for exercise competition had a mean of 3.6, respectively. When asked what they thought were the limitations of interactive web-based exercises, the lack of different exercise formats (mean = 3.4) and insufficient visual aids (mean = 3) were reported by participants. Such results may also account in part for the finding that participants found the interactive web-based exercises to be moderately interesting.
In response to questions about the effectiveness of interactive online exercises, participants were asked to rate the usefulness of the exercises to improve text comprehension. In addition, students' positive reactions to the sixth question indicated the perceived value of interactive online exercises in promoting vocabulary learning (mean = 4.1). The results of the analysis of the survey data on the learning effectiveness of the created exercises confirmed the findings derived from the quantitative measurements of the two language assessments: the interactive online exercises contributed to the improvement of the English reading comprehension and knowledge of the vocabulary of the participants.
Students’ perceptions on teachers’ strategy in using Hot Potatoes in English subject?
I was so excited when the lecturer taught me how to make quizzes with hot potatoes”. Based on the responses, all participants had a positive opinion that hot potatoes were an appropriate strategy to provide them with English evaluation. Moreover, hot potatoes could increase interaction and motivation among students, especially in foreign language learning.
They also added, hot potatoes were also easy to operate through which some of the students could create exercises themselves. b. I think the content in hot potatoes represents the variety of exercise types, such as multiple choice, jumbled sentence and many more”. S8: "Hot potatoes' content is easy to operate so that it can help the teacher when they want to make task for student".
The students explained that Hot Potato was appropriate because it was designed to allow instructors to provide interactive and creative exercises that students could easily access. Based on the responses, the students argued that Hot Potato has a variety of benefits, with six different programs that allow them to create the type of workout they want or need. A lecturer can place the lesson in a computer lab when he wants to demonstrate a hot potato to the students.
Discussions
This means that with the progress of this era, the teacher must be smart and creative to adapt this era, because along with the progress of this era, there are many latest technologies. It also requires that the teacher or test taker not be blind to the advancement of technology. Moreover, the previous researchers found that hot potatoes are useful and it opens new doors for teachers as they empower themselves to create and design materials that are suitable for their students' needs.
In this study, the researcher revealed the students' perception where the students positively expressed that hot potatoes can be an appropriate strategy that the lecturers have implemented to improve the students' understanding of English. Students tried to reflect on their work by seeing the feedback they received using hot potatoes. This chapter consists of two sections, the first part deals with the conclusion of the research findings and the other with the suggestions.
Conclusion
Suggestion
Considering the use of hot potatoes in reading comprehension, autonomy in TEFL and learning styles. The effectiveness of using hot potatoes to teach students simple present tense at SMPN 1 Ngunut Tlungagung. Development of hot potato-based material for English teaching and learning at SMK Tanjungpura University of Pontianak.
Dear Respondent, This questionnaire is being administered to you in connection with a research being conducted to find out students' perception of using Hot Potatoes as interactive web-based exercises. How do you feel about the benefits of hot potatoes as interactive web-based exercises. Hot Potatoes allows me to create interactive exercises and it could be very useful for me if I become a teacher one day.
Okay, so I can complete the task anytime, anywhere, as long as I have a laptop and internet. 2 What is your opinion about the content? Yes, my friend and I are learning how to use hot potatoes in the computer lab, yes, so we need computer to use it. The content of Hot Potatoes is easy to operate, so it can help the teacher create tasks for the student.
2 What is your opinion about the content in Interesting, so that it can be a suitable medium. Access to the necessary computer and can become a problem for teachers and students. 5 What the teacher must do to maximize.
