Analysis of the effectiveness of WhatsApp in improving online English learning

This research was a quantitative study using a questionnaire instrument. This study aimed to determine the responses of students of SMP Negeri in Bandar Lampung in the learning process using the WhatsApp application and to analyzed its effectiveness from the results of the questionnaire. Students involved in this study amounted to 30 students. Students were asked to fill out a questionnaire that has been made by the researcher, which amounts to 20 statements.


Introduction
The outbreak of Covid-19 in Indonesia has had a significant impact. This impact was also felt by all schools in Indonesia, especially for Junior High Schools (SMP). There is an appeal to carry out all teaching and learning activities at home and replace it with online meetings. The Minister of Education and Culture issued Circular No. 3 of 2020 concerning the Prevention of Covid-19 in the Education Unit on March 9, 2020 and Circular of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education and Culture No. 36603 / A.A5 / OT / 2020 on March 15, 2020. By holding an online class, it is hoped that it can help teachers in providing students with activities that can stimulate students' brains so that when they return to their original activities, students are ready to restart learning. There are several media used in the implementation of online learning activities, such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Edmodo, WhatsApp, and others.
WhatsApp is one of the most widely used social media users, including educators and students. This application can be an alternative in implementing online learning. This application can provide them with more exposure and intensity of language exercises, students, especially students in Junior High School (SMP), become more active in teaching and learning activities and greatly help them learn language better. The use of this application can make the instructional learning process more interesting and has positive results that can be obtained by the students, Mhandeni and Mwakapina (2016) stated that "students are always afraid to make mistakes while they are learning, but using the WhatsApp application makes them feel relaxed among friends. In this case, they tend to participate and learn more, especially those that do not require face-to-face interaction ".
Based on the views presented above, it can be concluded that using WhatsApp in learning English online can be an easy and effective tool for developing English learning for students.

Literature review
This research described the effectiveness of using WhatsApp application as a means of learning for students at State Junior High Schools (SMP) in Bandar Lampung. Effectiveness can be defined as a situation where something can have a successful effect on something. According to Susanto (1975), effectiveness is the power of messages to influence or the level of ability of messages to influence. The effectiveness of message exchange can be seen from several things, namely intensity, communication and satisfaction.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) greatly influences the world of education. The use of ICT in education, including language teaching and learning, is a positive response to developments in information and communication technology in the third millennium (Hartoyo, 2009). There is a new trend in the ICT world called social networking. Social networking has been defined by many people and is generally seen to refer to networking tools that allow people to meet, interact, and share ideas, artifacts, and interests with one another (Anderson, 2010). This social network has opened up new opportunities for interaction and collaboration between teachers and students.
With the increasingly rapid development of information technology, communication can be done in various ways, one of which is currently developing through the WhatsApp application. According to Lister (2009), the application of technology has been demanded by most students who are often forced to study anywhere, anytime, for example at school or at home. Currently, WhatsApp has positive characteristics as a relatively new learning social media in the world of education. Students can access it easily anywhere and anytime, such as at home and on holidays.

Methods
The method used in this research was quantitative research. The researcher analyzed the effectiveness of the learning process using WhatsApp for junior high school (SMP) students in Bandar Lampung. The instrument used in this study was a close-ended questionnaire. In this study, the researcher used purposive sampling to determine the sample. The sample used in this research amounted to 30 students SMP in Bandar Lampung. There are 3 concepts that wre used as guidelines for making statements in the questionnaire; that are intensity, communication and satisfaction.
In this study, the measurement scale used was the Likert scale. According to Kriyantono (2006), the Likert scale is a scale used to measure attitudes, opinions and perceptions of a person or group of people about social events or symptoms. The method of measurement was by confronting a respondent with a statement and then asked to provide an answer from 5 (five) answer choices, where each answer has a different value. So that, each element of the effectiveness of using WhatsApp as a means of learning discussion which was measured and analyzed was then included in a scale ranging from very ineffective to very effective. Effectiveness criteria: very ineffective (on a scale of 1.00-1.80), ineffective (on a scale of 1.80-2.60), moderately effective (on a 2.60-3.40 scale), effective (on a scale of 3.40-4.20) and very effective (on a scale 4.20-5.00)

Results and discussion
In this study, the researcher collected and analyzed the results of the questionnaire that the students had filled in. The analysis carried out by the researcher was by calculating the percentage of student answers from each aspect. This was done to present more specific research results.

Intensity
According to Wahyuni (2017), intensity is the level of a person's or individual's doing a certain activity due to an impulse from within themn and the activity is carried out continuously. In this intensity indicator there are 5 questions, the calculation of each of these questions as folows:

Scale of Intensity
Scale Figure 1 shows that most students answered that WhatsApp provides benefits to respondents. Based on the criteria of effectiveness, it can be said that in this aspect WhatsApp is effective.

Communication
According to Rubent, Brent & Stewart (2005). Communication is the process through which individuals -in relationships, groups, organizations and societies-respond to and create message to adapts to the environment and one another. that communicates, not just information, but also ideas, emotions, and skills. The calculation of indicators in the communication dimension is as follows.  Figure 2 shows using WhatsApp in the discussion of learning materials to increase knowledge and information needs is effective. It can be seen from the scale of the students' answered.

Satisfaction
In general, satisfaction is feeling happy or disappointed in someone that comes from a comparison between impressions of something in accordance with their expectations (Kotler, 2009). the calculation of each of these questions as folows:  Figure 3, it can be concluded that the use of WhatsApp in providing satisfaction to respondents in discussions or providing information is effective.

Discussion
Based on the percentage results from the three aspects above, it can be concluded that the use of WhatsApp in learning English online was effective during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mistar and Embi (2016) state that WhatsApp has many benefits for students, it also allows improving student learning performance in a way to promote the development of active learning in WhatsApp conversations or discussions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, WhatsApp was one of the most widely used social media by teachers and students as a place for discussion. Based on the explanation, it can be said that WhatsApp social media was useful for making it easy for students and teachers to exchange information. According to Susanto (1975), effectiveness is a condition where something can have a successful effect on something. The effectiveness of using WhatsApp has a positive impact as an alternative learning media between students and teachers.

Conclusions
This study has examined the effectiveness of WhatsApp as a media of online English learning for the students at SMP Negeri in Bandar Lampung. Based on the criteria of the effectiveness and the data from each aspects which described in the discussion, it can be concluded that the use of the WhatsApp application as a media in learning English online is effective during the Covid-19 Pandemic. 0 1 2 3 4 5 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 190 | 6 Using WhatsApp application as a means of learning English online was included in the effective category. But in fact, it can still be improved to become a very effective criterion if an evaluation is carried out that returns to the user himself as the person who uses it. With a few points, that are the students actively participate in discussions on WhatsApp groupchat and the students participate actively in the discussion of learning materials.