All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the word, the master of the next day, the Merciful and the Beneficent, who gives health to the researcher to complete this thesis in the Bachelor's Degree in the Department of English Language Teaching, Arraniry Islamic State University. In addition, her gratitude is also conscious to all teachers and staff at the Department of English Pedagogy. Thanks to all research participants who have helped me complete this thesis.
The development of technology is one of the factors that supports students in the educational process. Mobile applications are considered as one of the solutions and tools to help students in the technological age. The population of this study was the students of the Department of English Language Education at Ar-Raniry Islamic University, which were about 132 in total from the batch of 2019.
Mobile apps are one of the learning alternatives for students because they can be accessed anywhere and for free.
- Background of Study
- Research Question
- The Aim of Study
- Significant of Study
- Research Terminology
Currently, mobile technology and mobile applications (apps) are an integral part of learning, including foreign language learning. Several researchers have previously conducted specific research on several mobile apps that are considered effective in helping students improve their key skills in learning English. It is indicated that the use of ELSA Speak mobile apps is effective in improving pronunciation skills. 2021) in his research aims to find out whether the effect of using English language learning by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) can improve students' speaking skills in learning English.
This shows that the use of the Hello English Mobile applications has an influence on increasing students' competence in learning English. Therefore, the researcher was interested in conducting research on students in English in the Department of English Language Education at the Islamic University of Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh to know about the students' awareness of English online learning mobile applications that they commonly used to helping them in learning English language. This study provides the information about the students' awareness about mobile applications currently used to help them learn English language.
This research activity is a valuable experience for researchers who want to investigate the types of mobile apps commonly used by students to help them learn the English language.
- Students’ Awareness
- Mobile Apps
- Types of Mobile Apps
- The Advantages of Mobile Apps
- English Language Learning Skill
This mobile app is an evolution of mobile app design that was not very refined before. A fully assembled mobile application would normally be uploaded to a dedicated website that contains a collection of mobile applications. Some examples of mobile apps that students generally use frequently are as follows;.
Through the excellent programs in the mobile apps and learning materials supported by interesting videos, the BBC teaches English. Mobile apps are becoming increasingly important and can be used for various purposes. It can be concluded that mobile apps must have multiple functionalities to be used as teaching and learning materials.
The use of mobile apps also plays an important role in the development of knowledge.
- Research Design
- Research Participant
- Data Collection
- Data Analysis
And according to the above definition, the population of the study consists of students of the Department of English Language Education Ar-Raniry Islamic University, which had a total of about 132 students in batch 2019. The researcher then makes an interpretation of the outcome data that Creswell (2014) collected. ). The researcher selected students from the Department of English Language Education Ar-Raniry Islamic University for the sample.
The researcher selected 6 students from the Department of English Language Education Ar-Raniry Islamic University as participants in a semi-structured interview with 8 questions to get the information. Sampling according to Sugiyono (2017) is part of the population that is the source of data in a study. The criteria set in this study is first, they must be students of the English Language Education Department of UIN Ar-Raniry class of 2019.
According to Arikunt (2000), a data collection instrument is a tool used by researchers in a study to collect data so that the activity becomes systematic and is compensated by the existence of the research instrument. In this study, the researcher used semi-structured interviews to ask several questions related to the research needs, which the participants would then answer in detail, which would then be used to obtain the required information. If the interviewee's answer seems unsatisfactory after analysis, the researcher continues to ask the question again until at a certain stage he obtains data that is considered credible.
After all the data has been collected by the author, the next step is to analyze the data from participants. In qualitative research, data is collected through observation, in-depth interviews and documentation or a combination of the three (triangulation). Data collection is carried out for days, maybe months, so the data obtained will be a lot.
In the beginning, researchers conducted a general exploration of the social situation/object being studied, everything that was seen and heard was recorded. As mentioned, the longer the researcher is in the field, the more numerous, complex and complicated the amount of data will be. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the data immediately.
Finding
According to the participants, the use of mobile applications in the English language is also very important because in addition to being a necessity especially in the digital age, the use of mobile applications can also be one of the alternatives for students to avoid boredom when learning English. It also shows that the use of mobile applications is very important to support students' interest in learning English because it is very effective. Based on the results of the interviews, the frequency of students using these mobile applications is calculated very often, since they complete for free.
Based on some of the above explanations regarding the use of mobile applications, it can be concluded that the use of mobile applications in English is essential because, apart from being a necessity, especially in the digital age, the use of mobile applications also one of the alternatives for students. The frequency of students using these mobile apps is counted very often as they fill their free time browsing mobile apps. In addition, the use of mobile applications can be one of the alternative courses for students because mobile applications are accessible without the need of a tutor, so students can learn English practically anywhere.
Along with the many advantages of using mobile apps, there are some disadvantages that cannot be denied which have become one of the disadvantages of mobile apps. As the RA participant said, the downside of using mobile apps is that mobile apps use the internet. According to some of the answers obtained from the results of the interviews with the participants, the use of mobile applications also has several disadvantages.
One of the objectives of using mobile applications is to improve the four primary skills that students must master in English Language Learning, namely reading, writing, listening and speaking. Based on interviews with several participants, most said that using mobile apps really helped them practice and improve their English skills. Another skill greatly aided by the existence of these mobile applications is speaking because students can input how to pronounce vocabulary.
This is related to the AF participant who said that using mobile apps significantly helps with speaking skills as we can learn English pronunciation. These mobile apps also help listening skills a lot because of the video and audio features that help students practice listening skills.
Discussion
This shows that the use of English mobile applications affects the increase of students' competence in learning English. Klimova (2018) also states that the current trend of using mobile applications in language learning is mainly used as a language acquisition service. Based on the above statement, it can be seen that the use of mobile applications is currently a trend that is very helpful for students in learning English.
Conclusions
Recommendations
What are your thoughts on using mobile apps as one of the alternative courses to learn English? What do you think is the advantage of using mobile apps in learning the English language? Besides the many advantages of using mobile apps, what are the disadvantages of mobile apps when learning the English language?
What do you think about using mobile apps to improve students' English language learning skills? Interviewer: What do you think about the use of mobile applications in English language learning? Interviewer: What do you think about using mobile apps as one of the alternative courses to learn English.
Interviewer: What do you think is the advantage of using mobile apps for English language learning. Interviewer: Besides the many advantages of using mobile apps, what are the disadvantages of mobile apps in English language learning. Interviewer: What do you think about using mobile apps to improve students' English learning skills.
Interviewer: What do you think about whether the use of mobile applications is effective for improving students' English language learning. Interviewer: What do you think about the effective use of mobile applications to improve students' English language learning. Interviewer: What do you think about the use of mobile applications in learning English.
Interviewer: What do you think about using mobile apps as an alternative to learning English. Interviewer: What do you think are the benefits of using mobile apps for teaching English. Interviewer: Besides the many advantages of using mobile apps, what are the disadvantages of mobile apps for learning English.
Interviewer: What do you think about using mobile applications to improve students' English learning skills.
