The use of Hellotalk Applications to improve studentsAo writing skills in descriptive text at the first grade of SMA MaAoarif NU 5 Purbolinggo Sabilla Devita Safitri1.
Ari Nurweni2.
Dian Shafwati3 FKIP Universitas Lampung.
Jl.
Prof.
Dr.
Soemantri Bojonegoro No.
Rajabasa.
Bandar Lampung123 Corespondence: sabilladevitass12@gmail.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to determine whether students' writing skills in descriptive text improved by using Hellotalk Application and to determine which aspect that improve the most.
The population of this research was the first grade students of SMA Ma'arif NU 5 Purbolinggo.
The sample of this research was class x ipa 2 which consisted of 25 students.
This research was quantitative study by using pre-experimental design one group pre-test and pot-test.
The writing test was used as the instrument for pre-test and post-test.
The data were taken from the test and they were analyzed by using Paired Sample T-Test.
The result of this research showed there is a significant improvement of studentsAo writing skills of descriptive text after the implementation of hellotalk application since the value of significant level was 0.
00 that lower than 0.
In other words, all aspect of writing improved regarding the result, but grammar was improved the most.
The gain score for this aspect was 0.
44, and the mean increased 12 .
Briefly, it could be concluded that Hellotalk Application enabled to improve the studentsAo writing achievment.
Keywords: Hellotalk Application.
Writing skill.
Descriptive Text.
Mobile Learning INTRODUCTION English is rarely used as a medium of learning in Indonesia because it is regarded as a foreign language (EFL).
Because English became a subject among other subjects at school, it is only used in that activity and other particular lessons.
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are the four skills that students must be proficient in to be considered proficient in English.
According to Silvia .
, the aspects of writing that many EFL students find challenging include written text features and composting processes .
lanning and revisin.
to written text features .
luency, accuracy, and structure According to Urquhart and Melver .
, writing helps students express their knowledge as thoughtfully and clearly as they can.
However, writing is one of the most difficult skills that cannot be understood by students.
Since writing in English requires carefulness in the proper use of grammar, writing and grammar are highly grammar helps readers understand.
Most students get bored when learning English conventionally and seriously in the class since they study to use a book, pen, whiteboard, and board marker.
These problems are mostly caused on by five reasons: .
the teacher does not use engaging materials, teaching strategies, or media.
the students dislike English because they believe it to be a challenging subject.
the topic is not interesting to the students.
the students dislike writing.
the teacher speaks in Indonesian during the lesson, which prevents the students from understanding the vocabulary.
According to Ariyanti .
, the phenomenon is brought on by a number of pertinent issues, including Indonesians' general reading-writing culture and student learning habits related to the seriousness of academic writing classes.
Studies have also shown that traditional teaching methods are reason for students' low-quality essay writing abilities.
According to Reid .
said in his study that many teachers lacked an thorough knowledge of learning styles and strategies.
Without taking seriously the needs of the students, the teachers' decision regarding materials and methods primarily depends on their own preferred learning styles.
Because strategies for collaboration are necessary to maximize students' writing performance, conventional teaching methods are unsuccessful for helping students master writing skills.
In the educational aspect, we know that education around the world is moving toward using technology.
Learners love everything related to technology and the internet, so new technology is a great motivator that we can take advantage of.
Everyone uses technology in their daily lives, such as a computer, a smartphone, and the internet.
Nunan .
has specified four main roles that technology can play in the language classroom: a career of content, an instructional practice tool, a learning management tool, and a communication tool.
In modern times, a smartphone or mobile phone can be used to access a variety of applications that make learning languages In order to send messages, record voice notes, receive calls, make video calls, and update your status, use the HelloTalk application.
The students can get it from the App Store on iOS and the Google Play Store for smartphones.
Additionally, students can find new friends abroad.
Mobile Learning According to Stockwell .
, teaching languages, particularly foreign languages, using computers, or CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learnin.
, and mobile devices, or MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language eLearnin.
, is an example of how new communication technologies can be used to serve learning objectives.
Within this approach, mobile learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge through mobile devices.
This means that learning takes place anywhere and anytime.
Its implementation apparently serves not as a new way to learn languages but rather as a complement to specific learning activities in the educational context (Venkatesh.
Nargundkar.
Sayed, and Shahaida, 2006.
Martin and Ertzberger, 2.
Mobile learning allows students to use their smartphones to improve their writing skills more effectively (Yusuf and Hamidun, 2.
Since mobile phones are considered suitable for education (Valketal, 2.
, it would make sense for teachers to turn to mobile learning and use it as an alternative to teach writing.
This is supported by Norazahetal .
, who said that the change can not be avoided as mobile technologies have their own advantages.
Hellotalk According to Rivera .
HelloTalk is a conversation-based mobile assisted language application that claims to make cultural immersion , language learning, and practice easy, engaging, and intuitive as it allows users to synchronously connect and chat with native speakers from all around the world.
Its main purpose is to connect language learners directly to native speakers and the target culture in order to facilitate language learning.
HelloTalk has several ways to help users learn a language by chatting, such as.
HelloTalk: connects you with someone who speaks the language you are studying.
Moments: when users post photos, chat, and can correct mistakes made by others.
Learn: includes HelloTalk content partners' vocabulary and listening lessons.
Lately.
HelloTalk has created more standalone applications, including.
Al Grammar Checker, which rivals Grammarly for efficiency.
Hello Words, which focuses on vocabulary, and English Times, which has many articles to help improve reading skills for those learning English.
The primary difficulty with this app, which demands immediate attention, is the lack of a system to motivate users to keep using it U-JET.
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HelloTalk is not entirely cost-free, like many other excellent mobile language learning programs.
As shown in this image, the cost of VIP membership .
, the paid versio.
is somewhat costly.
In addition, it might be thought to be extremely unfair to charge for practicing any additional language pairs beyond the first one.
All those features serve as language learning tools and suitable options for users to build rapport with other members of the language community.
Some of the features are really attractive.
Writing According to a previous study by Lutfi .
Writing means the activity of creating pieces of written work, a communicative act, a way of sharing observations, information, thoughts, or ideas with ourselves and others in a language that is linked together in certain ways and forms a coherent .
rammar, vocabulary, handwriting, spelling, layout, and punctuatio.
whole in its purposeful selection and organization of experience, as well as the production of sentences as instances of usage.
According to Harmer .
, there are four steps in the writing process, they are as follows:
Planning.
When planning, students need to take into three main problems.
To begin, they must consider the purpose of the writing, as this will influence not only the type of text they wish to produce, but also the language they use and the information they include.
Drafting.
Drafting is a piece of writing.
It is frequently assumed that it will be changed It is produced on the way to the final.
Editing .
eflecting and revisin.
Other readers who comment and make suggestions often help with reflection and revision.
The reaction of another reader to a piece of writing will assist the learner in making revisions that are required.
Final version.
After editing their draft and making the changes they think necessary, students create their final version.
Because things have changed over the editing process, this may look significantly different from both the original plan and the first draft.
However, the students are now ready to deliver the written text to its intended audience.
Husin and Nurbayani .
state that writing is one of the English skills that need to be mastered by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in order to have a capability of communicating in written forms with various specific objectives.
Based on the explanation above, researchers conclude that writing is an activity in which thoughts and feelings are announced or expressed in the form of writing that is expected to be read by the reader and functions as a direct communication tool aimed at expressing and impressing from the products of thinking, drafting, and revising.
Descriptive text Based on Wahidi .
in Irianti .
, description is used in all forms of writing to create a vivid impression of a person, place, object, or event e.
to describe a special place and explain why it is special, to describe the most important person in your life, or to describe the animalAos habitat in your report.
In other words, description text is used to describe a particular person, place, or thing.
The purpose of descriptive text is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing in enough details or specifics to allow the reader to visualize the It can be concluded that descriptive text is used to describe anything that is seen by the writer in detail.
Furthermore.
McKay says in Markhamah .
that when we want to describe something, we must be able to make the reader understand what we mean.
McKay also discusses the most common types of descriptive writing: describing a process, describing U-JET.
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In this research, the researcher used a local attraction and historical place descriptive text types to conducted this research that suitable with syllabus for first grade senior high school.
Sumarsih and Sanjaya .
divide the part of a descriptive paragraph into three parts:
Social Function.
The social function of a descriptive paragraph is to describe the characteristics and conditions of the object, either a person, thing, place, or animal, by using an adjective and an attribute The Generic Structure of Descriptive Text the generic structure of descriptive text is divided into two parts: a.
Identification is an Introduction to the objects or things described and includes who, what, when, and where, b.
description is a detailed description of an object's qualities, characteristics, condition, and parts.
Grammatical Feature According to Fauziati .
, the language features of descriptive text include the following indicators: Certain nouns.
Simple present tense, detailed noun phrases, various adjectives, relating verbs to give information about a subject, thinking verbs and feeling verbs to reveal the writerAos view, action verbs, adverbs and figurative language.
Writing aspect according Jacob et al .
and Hosseinpour .
define that there are five components of writing should be considered by students in writing:
Content.
The term content refers to the actual writing its elf, or the sense of the main idea .
, which is a group of connected ideas that a writer presents as a whole when developing a theme.
Instead of performing the unique roles of transition, restatement, and emphasis, this term refers to the work of communicating ideas.
Organizasation.
Organization is the logical arrangement of the content .
It has logically constructed sentences that flow naturally.
The order of the sentences and ideas is referred to as the logical arrangement.
Deals with effectiveness of inroduction, logical sequence of ideas, conclusion, and length of the writing.
Grammar.
Grammar is the process of separating, combining, and grouping ideas in words, phrases, clauses, and sentences to enhance a logical relationship in a paragraph.
It also refers to the use of proper grammar and syntactic structure.
Grammar is concerned with the proper use of sentence structures and constructions, as well as accuracy and correctness in the use of articles, pronouns, prepositions, and negations Vocabulary.
Vocabulary refers to the selection of words that are appropriate for the It starts with the assumption that the writer wants to express his or her ideas as clearly and directly as possible.
As a general rule, clarity should be the primary goal.
The word choices that accurately express the meanings are highly valued.
Mechanics.
Mechanic refers to the use of the language's graphic conventions.
For instance, there are the stages of arranging letters .
, punctuation, hyphenation, capitalization, and paragraph indentation.
From the explanation above, all of these aspects should be addressed so that the intended readers can effectively comprehend the message or information shared by the writer.
Concept of teaching writing In the teaching of writing, the teacher is expected to give many opportunities for the students to practice and produce the text.
It means that the teacher should put the students in a new U-JET.
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Not only that, but the teacher should organize the teaching and learning in order for students to know and understand how to write well.
In fact, the teacher will have some difficulty teaching writing because of the students' low motivation to write.
To solve the problem, the teacher should build the students' enthusiasm for joining the lesson.
Sokolik and Nunan .
state that there are some principles for teaching writing.
Understand the studentAos reasons for writing Give students numerous opportunities to write Make feedback helpful and meaningful The teacher must clarify to himself and his students how their writing will be evaluated.
Harmer et al.
state that teachers have a number of important tasks to do when helping students become better writers.
The tasks that teachers have to do before, during, and after student writing are the following:
Demonstrating.
The teacher should be able to explain the material specifically and make the students familiar with the layout of the text and the language used in a certain text.
Motivating and Provoking.
When students become stuck in their writing, the teachers assist them in coming up with new ideas.
In this problem, the teachers should be problem solvers when the students have difficulties learning.
Supporting.
Students need a lot of help and reassurance when they are writing, both with ideas and how to carry them out.
Responding.
In order to assist the students in writing descriptive text, the teachers may give comments or suggestions for its improvement.
Evaluating.
Teachers point out where students do well and where they make mistakes, and they are rewarded when they do well.
We can conclude from the explanation above that in the teaching and learning process, students are first exposed to learn the organization of writing because the clear expression of ideas is the main point in writing, and grammatical problems will become the focus in the following step.
Procedure of Teaching Descriptive Text by Using Hellotalk Application The researcher used some procedures for applying HelloTalk Application to write descriptive text by the following:
The teacher created a group page (HelloTalkgrou.
titled "Fun Learning".
The group is a closed group that contains the student who gets accepted by the teacher or the student who inputs by the teacher.
The teacher expanded his or her knowledge of the topic by sharing material in the form of PowerPoint presentations, videos, pictures, and Word documents.
The teacher asked the students to give examples of what they don't understand from the The teacher re-explained the material that the students do not understand in the class.
The teacher provided an example of descriptive text.
The teacher gave some instructions to guide the student in writing descriptive text.
U-JET.
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The teacher gave additional knowledge to the students to made a good writing product from a mistake of the studentsAo in HelloTalk.
Then did the post test on the class.
Advantadges and Disadvantadges of Teaching Descriptive Text by Using Hellotalk Application Based on a previous study conducted by Nugroho.
Nafasya.
Nurshanya, and Awaliyah .
, there are some advantages and disadvantages in terms of teaching vocabulary by using hellotalk application.
It also occurs when teaching descriptive texts using the HelloTalk The advantadges of using hellotalk application were easy to use, and the features of the application did not make the students confused.
The interfaces of the features piqued the students' interest.
This application has a clear explanation and interesting pictures and stories.
HelloTalk has various features that students can use, such as: dictionaries, translations, and a grammar checker, to organize their writing.
While, the disadvantages of using hellotalk application were the students often times complain about the stability of the internet sometimes froze and could not be operated because of the unstable internet connection.
This application was not free of charge and only offered a seven-day trial.
The users must pay for it, and that was a barrier for the students to use this application on a daily basis.
The users got limitation using the features in Hellotalk Application.
ai grammar and translation only three times in a day to free access were users allowed to access the features of hellotalk application.
For instance, the users will get three free time uses of the grammar checker tool in a day, but if the users used it more than three times in a day and want to learn more than one language, they must pay for VIP version.
Theoritical Assumption In teaching writing, it is important to use an interesting learning strategy that can help students reach the goal of the teaching-learning process.
One of the learning strategies that can be used to make students get ideas easier in their writing is hellotalk application.
researcher assumed that HelloTalk was effective tool to students in improving their writing skills in descriptive text, the learning process will be more effective and enjoyable because the students enjoy to find features .
rammar checker, translations and dictionarie.
that availabe in hellotalk to make a better writing.
Based on Fella and Fadhly .
Hellotalk was problem-solving in learning english with fun way because it makes students feel confident, enjoy and motivated.
The students were able to compose and express their ideas in hellotalk application.
Briefly.
HelloTalk is a useful tool for learning languages, especially for the younger generation because of its entirely social setting.
Hyphothesis A hypothesis is a specific, test able prediction about what you expect to happen in your study.
This research is to answer such a question:
There is significant difference between the studentsAo skills in writing before and after being taught descriptive text by using HelloTalk Application in writing skills.
Grammar is the aspect of writing that improve the most after being taught by using HelloTalk Application.
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METHOD
Design This design consists mainly of one group, which is an experimental group.
The purpose of this study is to find out if using the HelloTalk app in descriptive texts in senior high school can help students improve their writing skills.
T1 X T2
Which:
T1: pre-test X: treatments .
T2: post-test (Arikunto,2.
Population and sample First grade students from SMA Ma'arif NU 5 Purbolinggo in the academic year 2021-2022, grade X IPA 2, formed the research population.
There are 25 students in the class.
Variables In this study, there are two types of variables, they are independent variable (X) and dependent variable (Y) It is categorized as the independent variable was hellotalk because it can influence the dependent variable to determine the effect of the phenomenon and the object that is observed.
Then, the dependent variable was writing skills measured to see the effect of the independent variable as a teaching model.
Data Collecting Technique To collect the data, the following tests .
re-test and post-tes.
are used.
The pre-test was given to students before they were taught using the hellotalk application post-test.
The posttest was given to the students after they were taught by the HelloTalk Application or after the treatment process or before the treatment process.
Instrument ycy =1Oe 6ycc2 ycA ycA2 Oe 1 The researcher will use tests to collect data for this study.
The tests consist of a pre-test and a post-test.
Before administering the treatment, a pre-test is used to determine the students' ability in writing descriptive text.
The students' achievement in writing descriptive text after treatment is determined using a post-test.
Some of the tests were written in the form of essays.
The pre-test topic was attractions, and the post-test topic was one of historical sites.
Validity - The content validity needs to depend on the "Kurikulum 2013.
" Students in the first grade of senior high school were expected to analyze the meaning of simple text in the form of descriptive text in order to interact with the society around them, according to the syllabus of the 2013 curriculum.
- The construct validity concerned whether the test was actually in line with the theory of what it means to know language (Shohamy, 1.
This research administered the writing U-JET.
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Notes:
P: Coefficient of rank order
N: Number of students d: The difference of rank correlation 1 Ae 6: Constant number
Data analysis Scoring the pre-test and post-test
S = 100
Where:
S: the score of the test R: the total of the right answer N: the total items (Arikunto,1.
Tabulating the results of the tests and calculating the means of pre-test and the post-test.
Note:
M: Mean .
verage scor.
: The Total of the StudentsAo Score N: The Total Number of the Students (Hatch and Farhadi, 1.
The researcher analyzed the improvement made by students on each aspect of writing with the following formulation:
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RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Result of The StudentsAo Score in The Pre-Test The total of all the data, divided by the number of data points determined as the pretest mean score was 61.
80 ans the median score was 60.
The mode score from the table was 60.
The minimum score was 50.
The maximum score was 70.
There are 14 students .
%) who got scores between 50-60, there are 11 students .
%) who got scores between 65-70.
Result of The StudentsAo Score in The Post-Test The total data divided by the number of data determined as the posttest mean score was The median score was 75.
The mode score was 75.
The minimum score was 65.
The maximum score was 85.
There are 5 students .
%) who got scores between 65-70, there are 20 students .
%) who got scores 75-85.
Furthermore, the researcher calculated the mean of studentsAo scores in pretest and post-test to know the gain of the test.
The result of the calculation is served in Table From the Table it can be seen that the mean pre-test score was 61.
80 and the mean post-test score was 76.
Besides, it is also revealed that the gain of the test is 14.
It is possible to conclude that students' scores improved from the pretest to the posttest.
In other words, studentsAo writing skills improved after they were taught using HelloTalk Applications.
Hypothesis Testing To know whether the hypothesis proposed by the researcher was accepted or not, it is a must to run a hypothesis testing.
In this research, the researcher used Paired Sample T-test to analyze the result of the test.
Based on the table above, sig.
-taile.
00 < 0.
The t-value was 12.
534 which was higher than t-table 2.
It could be inferred that there was a mean difference between the studentsAo learning outcomes in the pre-test and the studentsAo learning outcomes in the posttest.
Indicating that the use of hellotalk application has an influence on improving studentsAo writing achievement.
The mean result of paired differences was 12.
000, which can be found in the table paired sample test above.
As a result, t-value was higher than t-table .
it can be concluded Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted.
Result of StudentsAo Writing in Each Aspect Based on Table it can be seen that all of the writing aspects were statistically improved, including content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics.
as t-value of each aspect are 4.
, 8.
, 5.
, 3.
, and 437 .
which were higher than t-table 2.
However, the highest increase was in grammar with the gain of 0.
44 which was followed by organization with the score of 0.
Following that, mechanics was 0.
30, vocabulary was 0.
24, while content received 0.
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Discussion of Findings According to the findings of the study, the post-test results appeared to be superior to the pretest results.
At the end of the study, the posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores.
Unlike the pretest results, the posttest results show that students appeared to be more focused on doing their writing by using HelloTalk Applications.
They used a variety of vocabularies to describe something, and the content was clearer.
They also used better tenses and clearer language to make the readers feel, see, and understand what the students were When students composed descriptive texts without using any media, such as mobile learning, they found it easier to generate and share ideas.
The evidence presented above leads to the answer to the first research question, which is that the HelloTalk application improved students' descriptive text writing skills.
This is due to the fact that using the Hellotalk Application can increase students' motivation and interest, particularly in writing text.
Wibowo and Raihani .
stated that they use the HelloTalk app for a variety of purposes, including chatting with native speakers and correcting others' Similarly, the researcher analyzed the students' scores in each aspect of writing to answer the second research question, "Which aspect of writing improves the most after they are taught by using Hello Talk Applications?" It was discovered that after being taught using the HelloTalk Application, all aspects of writing improved.
The gain score for each aspect was calculated by comparing the means of the pre-test and post-test.
The content score was .
, the organization score was .
, the grammar score was .
, the vocabulary score was .
, and the mechanic score was .
The most improved aspect, based on the increase, is clearly grammar.
This occurred as a result of the students' unfamiliarity with the format of descriptive text, as well as some grammatical errors.
summarize, using HelloTalk Applications as mobile learning media to teach descriptive writing can help students improve their writing skills.
After learning descriptive text using HelloTalk Applications, all aspects of writing improved.
Because they were interested in the Apps, students were actively engaged in the class activity.
As a result, using HelloTalk can assist students in improving their writing skills.
IV.
CONCLUSIONAND SUGGESTION
Conclusion HelloTalk Application provides learners with how to write descriptive text effectively by utilizing HelloTalk features such as the grammatical checker.
As a mobile learning tool, the HelloTalk Application can assist students in creating descriptive texts, increasing their motivation and interest in the learning process.
Also, it assists students in developing an idea for their writing.
Using HelloTalk applications allows students to submit their work more easily, try to actively participate in the teaching and learning process, interact with one another without having to meet in person, and so on.
According to the findings, the students' test scores improved significantly after using the HelloTalk Application.
The researcher concluded that HelloTalk is a useful tool for improving students' writing skills.
Suggestion Suggestions for English Teachers Because the researcher discovered that most students are interested in this learning, the HelloTalkApplication is recommended for English teachers to use as a learning method.
U-JET.
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It belongs to the teacher's creativity to provide engaging materials and tasks in the HelloTalk Application.
Suggestion for Further Researcher - This study was conducted in the seniorhigh school level.
Therefore, the further researchers can try to find out the effect of using Hellotalk Application in different level such as junior high school level.
- Further researcher can try to apply Hellotalk Application with different skills to improve the learning process, such as speaking skills, vocabulary mastery or reading skills.
REFERENCES