Whatsapp Goes to Campus
Promoting Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Islamic Higher
Education
Rully Agung Yudhiantara, Aan Hasanah and Uus Ruswandi
UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Jl. A.H. Nasution no 105 Cibiru Bandung 40614
Keywords: English language learning, English language teaching, mobile assisted language learning (MALL), whatsapp.
Abstract: One of the most favorable apps that is used by students in their mobile phone for chatting purposes is whatsapp
(WA). There is a need to investigate this mobile application for MALL researchers in an effort to use WA
that is geared toward education. This study is aimed at investigating WA which is tailored to support English
language learning (ELL) activities. This study applied case study using observation as main instrument for
gathering data. This study found that WA was significant in helping ELL activities since it was used by both
students and teachers for ELL related activities. WA increased idea contribution among students and provided
faster and easier communication with their peers. According to students, there were some advantages of using
WA for their ELL activities: technical advantages, such as simple operation and low cost. These advantages
enhanced learning opportunities outside classroom for students. To summarize, WA facilitated ELL activities
as an effort toward MALL implementation which offers promising benefits in Indonesian Islamic higher
education (IHE).
1 INTRODUCTION
WA has gained more attention from educational
researchers because it offers technical benefits. It uses
web 2.0 platform which may be used to establish
conversation and relationship between teacher and
students (Solomon and Schrum 2007), and performed
better than conventional messaging service (Church
and de Oliveira 2013). It can be considered as a
communication platform with its characteristics that
can be used as educational platform (Calvo, Arbiol
and Iglesias 2014).
Several studies investigated WA use for
education– related activities. WA was used to
establish communication between teacher and
students to support learning process (Bouhnik and
Deshen 2014). It was deemed as the easiest platform
to communicate between students and their teacher
(Bere 2013). It improved student motivation and
greater enthusiasm for reading activities in foreign
language (Plana et al. 2013). It helped university
students to improve their achievement in ELL
(Ta'amneh, 2017).
To date, the studies concerning WA use in
Indonesian Islamic higher education is rarely
discussed. This study is intended to address this gap.
This study seeks to explore how students and teachers
use WA to assist ELL activities outside classroom.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Mobile- Assisted Language
Learning (MALL)
The advancement of Internet and mobile devices have
triggered mobile learning in educational institutions.
Mobile learning is defined as the use of portable
gadget in order to achieve educational objectives and
the encouragement toward autonomous learner (Boy
and Motteram 2013). In foreign language teaching
and learning, researchers specifically have developed
MALL which has been defined by many scholars. It
requires the basic elements and characteristic in that
the handheld device can be used anywhere and
anytime to boost language learning (Ozdamlia and
Cavusb 2011).
Yudhiantara, R., Hasanah, A. and Ruswandi, U.
Whatsapp Goes to Campus - Promoting Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Islamic Higher Education.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 477-480
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
477

2.2 Whatsapp (WA) Application
WA has been a champion for messaging and texting
service among worldwide users. It has several
features, according to Cohavi (2013) that made
whatsapp the strongest social media among other
competitors. It gained 350 million users and deemed
as the most downloaded application in 127 countries
(Cohavi 2013).
There is a number of reasons why people adopt
WA as their main communication channel rather than
other applications (Church and de Oliveira 2013).
WA offers low cost application yet it has the ability
to send an unlimited number of messages. Moreover,
Solomon and Schrum (2007) claimed that WA
provides a conversation platform to everyone which
allows the existence of a relationship among them
(Solomon and Schrum 2007).
Some studies reported WA contribution for
education. A Study revealed that the use of WA could
help the students to share many things with the
lecturer. In other words WA allows a two-way
communication in a very short time (Hamidin, 2015).
Other studies reported that WA encouraged learners
to be active in their learning by maintaining
interaction with their teachers (Cifuentes and Lents
2011). It cultivated sense of belonging and
community and it overcame breakdown of teacher
student social barriers (Doering et al. 2008). Other
study reported that students tended to take writing
assignments more seriously when they used WA to
impress their peers (Sweeny 2010). WA has become
a shared platform that enhances accessibility,
encourages cooperation and intensifies motivation to
take an active part in academic assignment (Chipunza
2013).
The above mentioned benefits of using WA has
been made possible because of WA features. It has
the following collaborative Features: 1) Multimedia;
2) Group Chat; 3) Unlimited Messaging; 4) Cross
Platform Engagements; 5) Offline Messaging; 6) No
Charges involved; 7) Pins and Users Name (Bere
2012).
2.3 Previous Research
A study examined WA use in South Africa and it
reported positive feedback from students who
claimed that WA helped to communicate with their
teachers and the rest of the class (Bere 2013). In
Spain, a study reported that student got better
motivation and greater enthusiasm for reading in
foreign language (Plana et al. 2013).
Other study found that WA is used for several
main purposes. The participants in the study found
that WA use for learning was interesting and
educationally useful. They mentioned that WA
increased their social interactivity with their peers and
teacher. Their attitude toward WA for learning was
favorable (Bansal and Joshi 2014).
The above studies have not discussed WA in
Indonesian Islamic higher education context. In order
to fill in the gap, this study tries to investigate WA
use among students learning in Indonesian Islamic
Higher education context.
3 RESEARCH METHOD
This study applied case study and it investigated how
WA application was used out of the classroom by
students and teachers. Participants took a part in this
study were students belonged to first year of Islamic
religion education in Tarbiyah Faculty UIN Sunan
Gunung Djati Bandung. There were 22 female and 20
male students. They studied English 1 subject in
semester two.
This study applied observation and interview. It
observed how WA was used by the teacher and
students throughout English 1 subject especially for
their interaction outside class. Interview is conducted
to some students to investigate their comments on
using WA. The data gathered were described and
analyzed to achieve the objective of the study.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This study found that WA was used by students to
support ELL activities. WA was helpful in providing
communication platform, nurturing community sense
and maintaining communication atmosphere among
students and teachers. This section describes findings
from observation and interview concerning students’
activity in using WA to support ELL activities.
4.1 Encouraging File Sharing among
Students
This application was used as a means for sharing file
among students. This happened when teacher shared
file for classroom assignment then students shared the
files to their friends/group. The assignment were
usually given in form of PDF file. Other files that they
exchanged were images and video that supported
ELL activities. A student commented as follows:
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
478

“WA helped me to share file to my friends and it
is good for me to support English learning”
This illustrated how students perceived WA as
helpful application that support their ELL activities.
4.2 Providing Learning Platform
This study found that students learned better English
since the application facilitated them to interact
among their classmates, collaborate concerning
exercise and task that they studied in the classroom.
WA allowed files sharing that enabled them to
discuss and practice English learning outside
classroom. This is in line with student’s comment as
follows:
“I can use WA not only for chatting but also for
learning purpose because material sharing and
discussion can be done in this application”
This excerpt showed students’ view that WA was
capable of providing sphere where they can interact
and collaborate on ELL activities.
4.3 Increasing Idea Contribution
among Students
The application provided group chat and this allowed
participation among students in the group to happen.
Idea sharing among members of the group can be
exchanged through this application when they discuss
the assignment. This is in line with students’
comment:
“Since i bring mobile everywhere, my friends and
I can share any ideas i have concerning English
assignment”
This comment showed that mobile phone with
WA application encouraged mobility for learning
where student could exchange their ideas to
accomplish assignment.
4.4 Providing Faster and Easier
Communication
WA application facilitated communication between
students. Since the application is designed for
messaging instant and chatting, student got faster and
easier channel to collaborate using the application
WA in English language learning. A student
commented as follows:
“Compared to other chatting platform
application and conventional messaging, i prefer WA
for my communication purposes”
This comment revealed that students preferred
WA compared to other messaging services in dealing
with communication to accomplish their assignment.
4.5 Discussion
This study investigated WA use among students in
ELL activities. The findings of this study are in line
with Previous studies showing that researchers have
positive attitude towards the adoption of Mobile
Learning application in educational situations (Bere
2013; Bouhnik and Deshen 2014; Cochrane 2012)
Students in this study used WA for sharing file
concerning ELL material. WA served as chatting
platform and encouraged file sharing among them
(Solomon and Schrum 2007). It is in line with the
previous study conducted by Norfaezah (2015). In
other words mobile phone with its application offered
benefits to seize by EFL teachers (Yudhiantara and
Nasir 2017).
This study found that WA served as learning
platform for students since it facilitated students to
learn everywhere. WA encouraged learners to be
active in their studies (Cifuentes and Lents 2011). It
cultivated students’ sense of belonging and it
overcame breakdown of teacher student social
barriers (Doering et al. 2008).
Idea contribution among students happened in
this study because of WA assistance. It had
collaborative feature that allow students to
collaborate on their task and assignments (Bere
2012). Students had deployed WA for various
educational purposes in trying to accomplish several
tasks in ELL.
5 CONCLUSIONS
MALL has offered some benefits for EFL teachers
and learners. This study investigated an application
called WA for educational purposes. To summarize,
there were various activities done by students to deal
with ELL for example collaboration with their peers
in accomplishing tasks. This study provides insight
for teachers in EFL teaching to integrate their mobile
phone and seize WA application to support their ELL
activities.
This study is qualitative in nature. Future study
may apply experimental to investigate the
effectiveness of WA use to support ELL.
Whatsapp Goes to Campus - Promoting Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Islamic Higher Education
479

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