WHATSAPP USAGE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

Recently there has been a significant shift in the process of formation of a new education system that transforms pedagogical theory and practice of the educational process. The availability of modern technologies makes it possible to improve the process of learning languages, to make it more efficient and productive. The goal of the study is to investigate language progress in grammar skills with WhatsApp support. Commonly, WhatsApp is used as a tool for communicating. In our case we targeted at using this messenger for drilling of grammar exercises and sharing knowledge. In addition, students benefit from analysing peer mistakes because all the messages are available in the group chats. 24 students participated in doing grammar exercises sent via WhatsApp messenger. Due to the wide range in student performance levels, two groups were selected to examine the grammar knowledge of the English language. The second group exhibits greater fluency of A2, while the first group has a low pre-intermediate level. There are 13 students in the fluent group and 11 in the low-level group. The dynamics of the development of grammar skills was calculated by the formula of the mean value and standard deviation. The educator explained the grammar material and sent grammar tasks to students who got the immediate feedback on their answers. The analysis of grammar mistakes showed the students’ performance on the use of infinitive and gerund after verbs, conditionals and time clauses. Findings show that language growth of two groups of students was developing satisfactorily. A set of grammar exercises were given with a month interval so the final statistics embraces three tasks. The research design might be used both for online learning and traditional classroom. The future research might include using WhatsApp messenger for teaching speaking, reading and listening.