Students’ perception of WhatsApp as an effective medium for enhancing listening skill in foreign language learning

• Published in: Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
• Main Author: Ghee T.T.; Terng H.F.; Chui H.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Putra Malaysia 2019
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85069175519&partnerID=40&md5=e95646c92a5909c15f914af40dcdd320

WhatsApp is a popular social network application which is used for social communication and as a learning platform. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether university students learning Mandarin as a foreign language consider WhatsApp as a useful medium that enhances and/or improves their listening skill. This is a pilot study which was carried out at the Kedah branch of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia during the September 2017-January 2018 semester. Convenience sample was used for this study. There were only 38 undergraduate students who were learning Introductory Mandarin II during that semester. As such, all the students were invited to participate in the study. The students downloaded a series of Mandarin learning podcasts through WhatsApp throughout the study semester. At the end of the semester, a survey was administered to the students. The result shows that the students believed WhatsApp can be utilized as a useful medium for developing listening proficiency in Mandarin. The result implicates © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press