Implementation of YouTube in Teaching Writing: Perception of Malaysian Primary School English Teachers
Lim Shin Yee1*, Tan Kim Hu1
1 Faculty of Education, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 February 2022 | Published: 1 March 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijares.2022.4.1.4
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Abstract: Technology plays an essential part in people's daily lives and may be efficiently employed in education for a variety of purposes. YouTube is one internet resource that may be used in traditional English classes. It's also regarded as a valuable source of internet content for teaching and learning. This study examines how Malaysian primary school teachers feel about using YouTube videos to teach writing. English writing abilities are among the most important skills that students at all levels must develop. However, it was discovered that just a few researches have looked at the perceptions of primary school teachers, which is critical because teachers work with early experience learners. As a result, the purpose of this study is to find out how the primary school teachers perceive YouTube videos as a tool for teaching writing as well as the challenges they faced while utilizing it. As to garner the data, 32 Malaysian primary school teachers from National Schools (Sekolah Kebangsaan, SK) and National-Type Schools (Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan, SJK) were given survey questionnaires that included a 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions The acquired data is interpreted using a quantitative and qualitative research technique. To display the data acquired from the findings, descriptive statistics are employed. The outcomes of this study showed that teachers have favourable views of teaching writing via YouTube. The major issues were a bad Internet connection and unsuitable video material.
Keywords: Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Perception, Writing Skills, YouTube
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1. Introduction
Today's pupils are raised in a multimedia culture and are technologically upgraded, resulting in a digital generation. Instructors, particularly language teachers, have been urged to employ Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), such as web 2.0 tools to facilitate better learning among the 'Net Generation' students, since they are now digital natives (Prensky, 2001) who have grown up with digital technology. Using a variety of online applications to drive students to study is one of the language learning tools or as a technique for teachers to improve their present teaching methods. Today's modern technologies, such as the Internet and YouTube videos, provide several chances to increase the quality of education and learning.
These technologies are used by many Malaysian college students to help them with their homework and other language learning tasks. This technology also assisted students in learning and improving their English skills. Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are the four major skills needed for second language learning.
According to Harmer (2004), writing is a unique ability that allows pupils to transform an idea or thought into a meaningful word or to communicate a message to readers. Among four major skills, writing ability is considered as the most complicated skills. As a result, one must be extremely attentive with every word and phrase, in order to express information in a logical manner. Writing abilities must be taught in primary schools since it is a crucial skill in communicating in today's globalized society (Hyland, 2015). This can be seen as several nations, including Malaysia, have mandated that English be taught as a second language in schools. Students in Malaysia learn English at all levels of education, from preschool to university. Second language learners, often known as ESL learners, are those who are studying a second language. To help ESL students master writing abilities, a variety of approaches and tactics are employed. Integrating social media into teaching method has been the main medium used in and out of classroom since the inception of “Malaysian Education system targeted on 21st century learning”.
One of the most widely-used media is none other than YouTube. It is a prominent online video sharing web site for both academic and non-scholarly communication, according to Burke (2009). This implies that YouTube videos can be used as a teaching material. A teacher must use instructional methods and media that enable pupils to comprehend the learning objectives and concepts. Students are required to have some comprehension of the learning ideas to be taught and the learning objectives can be met successfully by employing the proper media.
Many studies have been conducted on the use of YouTube and its influence on student performance. However, little has been done to investigate the views of instructors regarding the usage of YouTube, particularly in the primary school setting in Malaysian context. Primary English teachers' opinions are critical, since they have a significant impact on their work and students' early learning experiences. Hence, to fill in the gap, this study looked into the perceptions of Malaysian primary school teachers about the usage of YouTube in English classes. The outcomes of this investigation are expected to aid in enhancing the use of YouTube videos in English instruction in ESL (English as a second language) classrooms. This study sought to answer the following questions:
a) What is the perception of the primary school teachers towards the usefulness of YouTube for teaching-writing activities in an ESL classroom?
b) What are the disadvantages of YouTube as an educational material?
2. Literature Review
Writing Skills, YouTube and Teachers
According to Brown (2004), writing is divided into two types. First, there is Personal Writing, which is generally informal and less organized. For example, notes, diaries, letters, and more.
Second, transactional writing refers to well-organized material that is primarily intended for communication. In most cases, the writer is concerned with the language. Nor (2018) concluded that writing is the process of simultaneously using variables with written content, form, sentence pattern, vocabulary, punctuation, spelling, letters, etc. to show knowledge and incorporate ideas, feelings, and thoughts into writing and the users will understand the message being conveyed. Granville (2001) revealed that each writer has different purposes in writing namely writing to entertain, writing to inform, and writing to persuade.
According to Safitri (2020), YouTube was the most popular social media platform for students to enhance their English abilities, comprised of 83 percent of the total. This is owing to YouTube's plethora of English-language learning videos. It shows that video clips are favored
for learning in studies. Learning activities including multimedia features, such as videos, have been found to be successful (Zahn et al., 2010) and helpful in terms of increasing knowledge (Ismail et al., 2000).
YouTube in Language Learning and Teaching
Youtube-based learning plays a leading role in helping learners from primary to tertiary level to understand their English lesson. Sánchez (2011) stated that students nowadays can be classified as ‘natives of digital area’. YouTube videos may help students learn by enhancing knowledge, sparking ideas, and inspiring them (Berk, 2009). Abundance of researchers has proved the effectiveness of Youtube in teaching and learning process. Alkathiri (2019) and Meinawati et al. (2020) shows that watching Youtube in class does help to increase the students’ speaking skills as the students focus on the pronunciation of the authentic material. It lowers their anxiety level due to the learning environment and leads to increase their motivation to speak. Another research by Sulaiman et al. (2017) opined that the use of video also proves to help in the students’ listening skills compared to usage of “Audio only” method due to the use of meaningful and real-life situation context and language. Alobaid (2020) whose findings establishes that YouTube is favoured over other learning sources, it can be more successful and is thus strongly recommended for language learners and teachers who want to improve their writing fluency. Noortyani (2020) researched the perception of the students in regards of the usage in YouTube to learn news writing, the study revealed that the platform benefited the pupils. Improved learning, grasp of news concepts, improved information, practise of learning autonomy, and aid in building listening and writing skills are among the stated advantages.
According to a survey done by Kabooha and Elya (2018) which is to obtain insights from students and instructors on the usage of YouTube for learning vocabulary, 71% of students said YouTube was a useful multimedia education tool in learning. Similarly, the teachers believed that pupils' capability to grasp the target language were improved by using YouTube. The vocabulary development was achieved by using the visuals that are accessible, as well as viewing video clips and reading texts. It is proven to help pupils improve their reading and writing abilities.
3. Methodology
A descriptive survey strategy was used in this study. A survey allows a researcher to characterise a sample's views, beliefs, habits, and attributes in comparison to a larger population (Cresswell, 2012; Fraenkel et al., 2012). Due to the pandemic restriction, the questionnaire was administered through online using Google form. Questionnaires with open- ended responses were employed as an approach. The questionnaire consists of two parts in which the first part comprised of ten questions adopted from Albahlal (2019) and Yuen (2015) with a 5-point Likert scale meant to learn about the English teachers' perceptions of utilising YouTube for teaching writing. The 5-point Likert scale went from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Prior to the distribution, a pilot study was carried out to verify its reliability.
The value of the Cronbach Alpha is greater than 0.7 which is good for the study. For the second part which is the open-ended question, the aim is to get varied perspectives from instructors on the drawbacks of utilising YouTube. By using purposive sampling, the target population for this study are English teachers who teach in Primary National Schools (Sekolah Kebangsaan, SK) and National-Type Schools (Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan, SJK), with more than 10 years of teaching experience. A total of 32 participants consisted of 27 females and 5 males. The quantitative and qualitative collected data were further subjected to data analysis by using the statistical method of percentage.
4. Findings and Discussion
The results of the questionnaire presented in the first section, which summarises the findings of the questionnaire on teachers' perceptions of the utility of YouTube in teaching writing. The second section contains the results of the open-ended question about the challenges of YouTube as a teaching tool.
Research Question 1: What is the perception of the primary school teachers towards the usefulness of YouTube for teaching writing in an ESL classroom?
Table 1: Perception of the teachers towards the usefulness of YouTube for teaching writing
No. Item SD D NS A SA Total
1 Watching YouTube videos help students improve their writing skills
0 0 2 23 7 32
0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 71.87% 21.88% 100.00%
2 YouTube videos help students comprehend the material they listen to
0 0 2 22 8 32
0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 68.75% 25.00% 100%
3 Students can better follow the direction of talk when they listen to YouTube videos.
0 0 0 21 11 32
0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 65.63% 34.37% 100.00%
4 YouTube videos prevent students from going astray while writing.
0 0 4 20 8 32
0.00% 0.00% 12.50% 62.50% 25.00% 100.00%
5 I think YouTube videos helped my students learn English/understand the lesson better
0 0 4 21 7 32
0.00% 0.00% 12.50% 65.63% 21.87% 100.00%
6 I think my students enjoy watching YouTube videos in English classes
0 0 2 17 13 32
0.00% 0.00% 6.25% 53.12% 40.63% 100%
7 I have assigned YouTube-related classwork/homework
0 0 13 16 3 32
0.00% 0.00% 40.63% 50.00% 9.37% 100%
8 I think students enjoy doing YouTube-related
classwork/homework
0 0 10 16 6 32
0.00% 0.00% 31.25% 50.00% 18.75% 100%
9 I think YouTube-related classwork/
homework can help my students improve their English Writing skills
0 0 7 21 4 32
0.00% 0.00% 21.87% 65.63% 12.50% 100%
10 I will use more YouTube videos in English classes
0 0 4 23 5 32
0.00% 0.00% 12.50% 71.87% 15.63% 100%
Based on the questionnaire, teachers perceive that YouTube technology is indeed a useful tool for helping students grasp and comprehend the English language in a writing context. The value of social media in education is clear and unavoidable, particularly the widespread usage of YouTube as a video-sharing platform in the 21st-century teaching-learning process. Teachers' perceptions of YouTube's usefulness for teaching writing were found to be rather positive, according to the study. As a result, it's reasonable to assume that instructors will find it useful and beneficial. The current findings are in line with the previous research by Ogirima et al.
(2021) who established that the future teachers had a high level of perception towards the use of YouTube in teaching-learning activities in Nigerian Basic Schools. Also, the findings agreed with Kabooha and Elyas (2018) whose study revealed that both teachers and students perceived YouTube positively especially in improving students’ ability to retain and comprehend the target vocabulary. This finding also corroborates with the work done by Albaddi (2013) who observed that the participants, a total of 124 teachers in Libya, had positive attitudes to and willingness to use YouTube applications as a beneficial tool for teaching the English language
despite lack of the knowledge in Information and communications technology (ICT) tools. A similar conclusion was reached by Albahlal (2017) who succumbed that YouTube videos reduce students' anxiety, help them learn quicker, and keep their focus throughout the learning process. The favourable feedback from teachers regardless of the skills, focusing on suggestion to use authentic material, especially audio-visual aid such as the YouTube video, proven to be an effective way to engage students in learning tasks while also serving as a motivating tool (Kelsen, 2009; Nacak et al., 2020; Tang & Intai, 2017).
Research Question 2: What are the challenges of YouTube as an educational material?
Figure 1: The Challenges of Using YouTube as an Educational Material
The question is an open-ended item which aimed at identifying the obstacles among teachers in using YouTube as a teaching tool. From the teacher’s responses, near 50% of mentioned that major disadvantages are the poor internet connection. It reflected that the teachers are mainly bound by the limitation of infrastructure when utilising YouTube. A similar result was obtained in the previous research (Wawuda, 2019; Yuen, 2016). A number of other studies and reports have offered similar results from the perspectives of the students (Gracella & Nur, 2020). Next, the inappropriate content in the videos have been identified as a barrier for teachers as well as a potential distraction for pupils throughout the learning process. This result agreed with a study by (Latifah, n.d; Skjæveland, 2016; Wawuda, 2019; Yuen, 2016) mentioned that the obstacles were the occasionally improper language and content in the Youtube videos.
Teachers have also remarked that pop-up advertisements are not suitable for children.
Furthermore, a similar number of teachers reported that there was a limited number of relevant resources available, causing teachers to spend too much time searching the platform for appropriate teaching materials. This notion is also in tandem with Yuen (2021) who observed that identifying appropriate learning materials that are related to the syllabus topic is difficult.
To ensure the quality of learning among students, Careful selection of resources is critical in the teaching and learning process (Zabidin et al., 2020). Apart from that, the length of the video was highlighted as one of the problems that may lead to the pupils being demotivated. This result confirmed the theory by Anggrarini and Faturokhman (2021), who stated that student felt uneasy when the length of the YouTue videos they watched was too lengthy, causing them to lose attention.
5. Conclusion
According to the findings of the study, Malaysian primary school teachers have a favourable attitude toward the use of YouTube in the teaching of writing. As a result, YouTube's perceived usefulness for teaching-learning activities was also high despite of a few challenges noted by the teachers namely poor Internet connection, inappropriate content of the Youtube video, limited resources as well as the Youtube video which is too lengthy
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