ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH VOLUME 2, NO.

1 DESEMBER 2018

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD THE USE OF GOOGLE CLASSROOM ON

TRANSLATION SUBJECT IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF FKIP UMMY
SOLOK

Marsika Sepyanda, M.Pd.

Universitas Mahaputra Muhammad Yamin Solok
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This study aimed to know the students’ attitude toward the use of Google Classroom as an
application used in collecting their assignment on Translation subject. The importance of this
study was based on the development of IT and the use of mobile application as supporting
media in teaching and learning process. In addition, Google Classroom has been used as
supporting tool in collecting students’ assignments on several subjects taught at Department
FKIP UMMY Solok. One of the subjects is Translation subject that usually contains several
assignments that should be submitted by the students directly.
This research was conducted by using descriptive method. The subject of this research were
third year students of English Department FKIP UMMY Solok in 2017/2018 academic year
consisted of 9 students. The instrument of this research was a questionnaire where the
students were asked to give respond to each statement in 60 minutes. The questionnaire was
based on indicators of students’ attitude that categorized into three aspects: cognitive,
affective, and behavior.
The result of this study found that students’ attitude toward the use of Google Classroom in
collecting their assignment on Translation subject was in the “ good” level. In other word, the
students’ attitude toward the use of Google Classroom on Translation subject at third year of
English Department students of FKIP UMMY in 2017/2018 academic year Solok was
positive. So, it can be concluded that Google Classroom can be used as an effective tool in
collecting students’ assignments, especially in Translation subject.

Keywords: students’ attitude, Google Classroom, translation subject

A. INTRODUCTION
The development of technology brings wide impact toward education system. One
of the results can be seen from the use of technology in teaching and learning process,
especially in university level. Both of lecturers and students have already got the
advantage of technology to support their activities. They use computer and mobile phones
to help them in solving their problems or minimizing the difficulties whether it is
supported with internet connection or not.
Most of the lecturers use technology to get easiness in collecting students’
assignments. Commonly, the lecturers ask the students to submit their assignments by
sending via e-mail. This technique is better rather than asks the students to collect their

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assignment directly in form of paper task, because it saves times in collecting and
checking the assignments one by one.
However, this technique still has weaknesses. First, the students cannot have
discussion with the lecturer about their assignments. They only can send their assignment
without knowing the further continuation. Second, the students do not know their scores
because they need to wait until the lecturer announces on the next meeting. It means that
it brings slow responses from the lecturer. Third, students may send their assignment into
incorrect e-mail address. Absolutely, the assignment will not be sent to the lecturer’s e-
mail if the students do not realize their mistake.
In order to solve the weaknesses, lecturers need to get other techniques in
collecting the students’ assignments. Actually, the development of technology has given
easiness and support in education environment where there are many mobile based
applications designed that can be used as a tool in collecting students’ assignments. One
of the application is Google Classroom which is can be used to support teaching and
learning process.
Conceptually, Google Classroom is an application that have been developed by
Google Inc. for educational space intended to find a way out the difficulty of creating,
delivering, and classifying any paperless assignments. This application can be used on
smartphone where both lecturer and students can download it freely and log in easily. The
lecturer only need to create a class and share the class code to the students to let them to
join with the class created. Through this application, students can submit their assignment
easily, revise their assignment, and also check their scores given by the lecturer.
Furthermore, Smaldino (2012) stated that the development in using mobile
computing let the lecturers to record students’ assessment. This advantage can be found
by using Google Classroom where both of lecturer and students have the assessment
record on the application. In addition, the lecturer will not miss any students’ mark and
works. They are saved well on the application and can be checked anytime.
The purpose of the research was to know the level of students’ attitude toward the
use of Google Classroom in Translation Subject in English department FKIP UMMY
Solok 2017/2018 Academic Year. Their attitude was analyzed based on three aspects.
First, students’ attitude on cognitive aspect is related with their belief, ideas, and
understanding about the use of Google Classroom in Translation subject. Next, students’
attitude on affective aspect is related with their understanding about the use of Google

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Classroom. Then, students’ attitude on behavioral aspect is related with their action
toward Google Classroom and the assignment on that application.

B. RESEARCH METHODS
Design of the Research
This research was conducted as descriptive quantitative method. According to
Gay and Airisian (2009), descriptive research involved collecting data in order the test
hypotheses or to answer question concerning the current status of the subject of study. It
means that descriptive research would help the researcher in collecting the data. In
addition, quantitative research was the process of discovering knowledge by using
numeral data as the instrument to find information about what was wanted to know. It
means that quantitative research used the data in the form of the numbers and statistic
analyzing. So, descriptive quantitative is numeral related to statistic descriptive such as
measuring scale, portrays graphic and variability. The data would be in numeral statistic
and would be explained in narrative. In this research, the descriptive research was used to
analyze the students’ attitude toward the use of Google Classroom in Translation subject
in English Department of FKIP UMMY Solok.
Population and Sample
The population of this research was the third year students of English Department
of Universitas Mahaputra Muhammad Yamin Solok at 2017/2018 academic year
consisted of 9 students. The reason of taking this class was because they learn Translation
subject on that year. Moreover, total sampling was chosen to get the sample of this
research. It is based on Sugiyono (2013) that explains that total sampling is a sampling
technique where the number of samples equals to the population. So that, the sample of
this research was all of students included as the population of the research.

Instrument of the Research

The instrument of this research was questionnaire that consisted of 30 items. Each
item was consisted of a statement meant to measure students’ attitude toward the use of
Google Classroom in Translation subject in English Department of FKIP UMMY Solok.
The statements were constructed in form of positive statement where the responses used
Likert scale. Sugiyono (2011) states that the several measuring about social phenomena
by using Likert scale such as attitudes, opinions, and some perceptions. The several

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measuring of perception by using Likert scale should be in the categories such as Strongly
Agree (SA) = 4, Agree (A) = 3, Disagree (D) = 2, and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1.
The questionnaire was developed based on three components of attitude; they are
cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects. Indicator of the questionnaire can be seen in
the following table:
Table 1. Indicator of Students Attitude toward the
Use of Google Classroom in Translation Subject
No Indicator Sub-Indicator Item
1 Cognitive - Students’ belief about Google 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
aspect Classroom
- Students’ ideas about Google 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Classroom
- Students’ understanding about 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
the use of Google Classroom
2 Affective - Students’ experience in using 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
aspect Google Classroom
3 Behavioral - Students’ action toward 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
aspect Google Classroom
- Students’ action toward the 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
assignment in Google
Classroom

Technique of Data Collection

In collecting the data, the questionnaire was distributed as the instrument of the
research to the students on the sample of the research. Then, they were asked to give
response to each statement given on the questionnaire. The students got 60 minutes to act
in response the questionnaire. After that, it was collected from the students. After
collecting the questionnaire, the data was analyzed to measure students’ attitude toward
the use of Google Classroom in English Department of FKIP UMMY Solok at 2017/2018
Academic Year.

Technique of Data Analysis

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After the data was collected, the researcher conducted several procedures to
analyze them. First, the researcher analyzed the students’ questionnaire based on three
aspects of attitude. Then, the researcher calculated the frequencies into a table and put it
into percentages, calculated means of the score obtain. To find out the percentage of item,
the researcher used formula as below:

F
P= X 100 %
N

Where:
P = Percentage of the answer
F = Frequency
N = Total respondents

After getting the total percentage of students’ attitude scores, the researcher
classified the percentage of questionnaires. The result of questionnaire was classified
based on Arikunto (2009) into the following interval:
Table 2. Interval the Frequency and Classification
Level of the Students’ Attitude
Interval the Frequency of Classification Level of
The Students’ Attitude Students’ Attitude
81 % - 100 % Very Good
61% - 80 % Good
41 % - 60 % Average
21 % - 40 % Poor
0 % - 20 % Very Poor

C. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The finding of the research is based on the data got from the questionnaire where
there were 9 students who gave their response about their attitude toward the use of
Google Classroom on Translation subject. The data that has gotten can be seen on the
following table:

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Table 3. Level of Students’ Attitude on the Use of

Google Classroom in Translation Subject
Level of
Respondent Score Percentage
Attitude
1 89 74% Good
2 118 98% Very Good
3 93 78% Good
4 93 78% Good
5 76 63% Good
6 89 74% Good
7 76 63% Good
8 91 76% Good
9 109 91% Very Good

Based on the table above, it was found that there were 2 students that had very
good attitude toward the use of Google Classroom on Translation Subject. Then, there
were 7 students who had good attitude toward the use of Google Classroom on
Translation Subject. It means that most of the students of English Department of FKIP
UMMY Solok at 2017/2018 academic year had good attitude toward the use of Google
Classroom in Translation Subject. The result can be simplified into the following chart:

Chart 2. Level of Students’ Attitude on the Use of

Google Classroom in Translation Subject
Very Good (81 % - 100 % )

Good (61% - 80 %)

Average (41 % - 60 %)

Poor (21 % - 40 %)

Very Poor (0 % - 20 %)

Moreover, based on the research that was conducted on the third year students of
English Department of FKIP UMMY Solok at 2017/2018 academic year, it was found
that the students’ attitude toward the use of Google Classroom in Translation subject was
in good level. The general result of data analysis can be seen on the following table:

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Table 4. Frequency and Percentage of Students’

Attitude on the Use of Google Classroom in
Translation Subject
Responses
Strongly Strongly
No Indicator Agree Disagree
Agree Disagree
f % f % f % f %
1 Cognitive Aspect 39 28.89 86 63.70 10 7.41 0 0
2 Affective Aspect 10 22.22 30 66.67 5 11.11 0 0
3 Behavior Aspect 15 16.67 53 58.89 19 21.11 3 3.33
Total 64 23.70 169 62.59 34 12.59 3 1.11

Based on the table above, it can be seen that highest result of students’ response is
on agree category where the frequency is 169 (62.59%). It means that the level of
students’ attitude is on good level.

Based on the result above, it can be seen that most of students of English
department of FKIP UMMY Solok had good attitude on the use of Google Classroom in
Translation subject. Their attitude can be classified into three aspects; they are cognitive,
affective and behavioral aspect.
First, the students’ attitude on cognitive aspect was on good level where it is
related with their belief, ideas, and understanding about the use of Google Classroom.
Most of the student agreed that Google Classroom is a useful application for submitting
their assignment in Translation subject. It also gave them easiness to submit the
assignments because they could submit it anytime and anywhere. It is in line with Pappas
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(2015) who mentioned that students can use Google Classroom regularly and log in
easily, as well as obtain and collect their assignments. It means that Google Classroom is
easy to be used as supporting learning tool.
Second, the students’ attitude on affective aspect was on good level where it is
related with their experience in using Google Classroom. Most of the students agreed that
they felt positive feelings in using this application to submit their assignments. They felt
curious, encouraged, dynamic, challenged, and enthusiastic. it supported by Keith and
Joanne (2018) who state that Google Classroom is easy to use and it is relaxed the
learning atmosphere. It means that the relaxed atmosphere given during using Google
Classroom make the students get the positive feelings and emotions.

Third, the students’ attitude on affective aspect was on average level where it is
related with their action toward Google Classroom as an application and assignments
submitted on it. Most of students download the application of Google Classroom after the
lecturer tell about it. Then, they used class code given by the lecturer to join with
Translation subject. Unfortunately, not all of the students include private comments on
assignments that had been submitted in Google Classroom. They also do not look for
other applications that have same functions like Google Classroom. They tend to focus on
Google Classroom as application that was suggested used by their lecturer.

Whereas, Catapano (2014) explains that Google Classroom is additionally

designed for students to share ideas and resources with one another. Lecturer and students
can participate in online Classroom discussions, and everyone can post links to
informative resources within discussions or other sharing mechanisms. It means that the
students can get discussion about the assignment or related topic about material in
Translation subject.

So, it can be concluded that students of English department of FKIP UMMY

Solok has good attitude toward the use of Google Classroom on Translation subject. This
application is really helpful for the students in submitting their assignment, especially in
Translation subject that usually brought weekly assignments. Google Classroom also
gives some benefits for the students.

D. CONCLUSION

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Google Classroom is a useful application that can be used to submit students’

assignment on Translation subject. The result of the research shows that students of
English department of FKIP UMMY Solok has good attitude toward the use of Google
Classroom on Translation subject. So, Google Classroom can be used as an effective tool
in collecting students’ assignments, especially in Translation subject. Moreover, this
application also can be used on other subjects in order to give easiness for the students to
submit their assignment.

REFERENCES

Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2009. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: Rineka
Cipta.

Catapano, Jordan. 2014. ‘Technology in the classroom: a look at Google Classroom’.

Retrieved on April 21st from http://www.teachhub.com/technology-classroom-look-
google-classroom

Gay, L. R. and P. Airisian. 2009. Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and
Applicaton (Ninth Edition). New York: Prentice Hall.

Pappas, Christopher. 2015. ‘Google Classroom review: pros and cons of using Google
Classroom in e-learning’. Retrieved on March 15th 2017 from
https://elearningindustry.com/google-classroom-review-pros-and-cons-of-using-
google-classroom-in-elearning.

Smaldino, S. E., Lowther, D. L., & Russel, J.D. 2012. Instructional Technology and Media
for Learning. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Sugiyono. 2013. Metode Penelitian Pendekatan Kuantitatif, Kualitatif, dan R & D. Bandung:
Alfabeta.

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