Investigating The Effectiveness of Using WhatsApp Messenger in Vocabulary Learning Among the Indonesian Learners

Abstract

The utilization of mobile technology has given birth to a new form of learning called mobile learning, which can facilitate students in learning the English vocabulary words. Vocabulary learning through mobile phone allows learners to have spaced repetition on vocabulary items. Whereas the penetration of WhatsApp Application in Indonesia keeps climbing, little research has explored the application of WhatsApp in vocabulary learning. The purposes of the study were (a) to examine whether WhatsApp collaborative vocabulary learning is more effective than the non-collaborative one (b) to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of vocabulary learning via WhatsApp based on the collaborative and non-collaborative learning methods and to examine which one is more effective. There were 50 students from two classes of English from Universitas Krisnadwipayana in Indonesia that were assigned to two groups: The collaborative learning group (the experimental group) and the non-collaborative learning group (the control group). They had to learn 75 words during 25 days of treatment. After the treatment, both group had to take a post-test. As a final step, both groups had to write a written reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of learning vocabulary through the WhatsApp based on the learning method that they used. As a result, from two-tailed independent samples T test, it was found that the experimental group outperformed the control group. Then, from the written reflection, it was indicated that the experimental group showed more positive attitudes toward the collaborative vocabulary learning via WhatsApp Messenger while those in the control group showed more neutral attitudes toward the non-collaborative learning. Based on those facts, it could be concluded that the collaborative vocabulary learning via WhatsApp Messenger was more effective than the non-collaborative one.