9Journal of English Language Learning (JELL), Vol.

6 No 2, 163-168 ISSN 2599-1019

The Implication of Using Social Media During the Pandemic

on Indonesia Netizens’ English Skills
Ratna Purnamasari1, Totoh Tauhidin Abas2
University of Singaperbangsa Karawang, Karawang, Indonesia
*e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid increase in the use of social media. With the
increasing use of the internet, it is becoming easier to access information in multiple languages,
especially English. This study wanted to see that the increasing frequency of playing social media
was proportional to its usefulness in helping participants improve their English skills. This study aims
to describe how important social media is to help participants' English language skills. This study
uses a qualitative descriptive approach to describe a phenomenon related to the problem. The
participants were 20 people as a random sample who were social media users from a population
called netizens. The results of the study reveal that the use of social media as a tool to develop
English skills is known to have little effect on active skills which are writing and speaking, but has a
small impact on passive skills which are reading and listening.

Keyword: social media, English skill, passive skills activity

INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought extraordinary changes in all fields, including education. The
problem in Indonesia's world of special education is the uneven learning process. Both the standard and
the quality of the desired learning outcomes. The success of its education can measure the success of a
country's development. Therefore, human resources are needed to improve the quality of a country
(Herliandry et al., 2020). Atsani (2020) also stated that with education, the next generation could be born
who are intellectually and emotionally intelligent, skilled, and independent to achieve the development
of the Indonesian nation. Covid-19 has changed learning methods from traditional methods to
synchronous and asynchronous learning. In one year of this pandemic, students are forced to study
online. The provision of materials and assignments is made using a cellphone. Students learn at home by
receiving material the teacher has distributed online (Asdar, 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic,
online learning continues. This learning process has a positive and negative influence on the quality of
student learning. Online learning requires interactive contact between students and teachers through
information and communication technology. The internet has been included as a medium to support
language learning (Asdar, 2020).
Social media or social networking site (SNS) is an online-based platform or site that is used to build a
communication network between fellow users who incidentally have similar backgrounds, hobbies,
activities, jobs, etc. (Kusuma, 2016). Through research conducted by Kusuma, (2016) Indonesian people
are active users of SNS where 50%-60% of Indonesian people in each province are internet and SNS
users. In this pandemic, the use of social media has increased rapidly because activities at home are
supported by plunging into social media to see the state of the world. According to Jatmiko (quoted from
Harahap & Adeni, 2020), internet users shot up to 196.7 million, or 73.7 of the total population in 2020.
Based on research by Wearesocial Hootsuite, social media users in Indonesia reached 150 million, or
56% of the total population. (databox in Harahap & Adeni, 2020). AECT (1997) defines the media as all
forms of information distribution. AECT also suggests that the media is a tool that can convey messages.
Social media support the activities of teachers and students to achieve learning objectives. In addition, it
can also facilitate the achievement of learning objectives (Harahap & Adeni, 2020).
Easy access to various information, especially the amount of information in English, makes it easier for
users to absorb English vocabulary. Based on previous research, much learning is provided through
social media such as Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter. Therefore, the author aims to
determine the implications of social media use for Indonesian netizens on English language skills.
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Numerous studies support the idea that social media may be both an advantage and a hindrance to higher
education, contributing to difficulties including poor time management, distraction, privacy concerns,
information overload, and other challenges. (Tess, 2013, Falahah & Rosmala, 2012, Manca & Ranieri,
2016, Hamid, et al. 2015; quoted in Bold & Yadamsuren, 2019). Miller, et al. (2017) came to the
conclusion that social media might affect schooling in both good and bad ways. Their research reveals
that social media fosters better interpersonal connections among learners and offers new resources to
supplement conventional instruction. Social media could obstruct learning, though. The results of
previous studies stated that social media provides several benefits such as faster delivery of information
so that communication becomes easier, reducing the use of paper which is more environmentally friendly
and enriching teaching materials available from various content worldwide (Bold & Yadamsuren, 2019).
In Indonesia, English is now a required subject at all levels of education, from elementary school to
university. The purpose of teaching English is to provide pupils an assessment so they can use the
language in various communication contexts. High school students are expected to be able to participate
in social activities and communicate in order to access information that is supplied in English by
understanding the language. The goal of teaching English in senior high school is to help students
become highly proficient in the four abilities of speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Abadi,2015).
According to Nunan's (1989) research, the majority of students believed that engaging in learning
activities outside of the classroom was advantageous and that classroom instruction alone was
insufficient to advance their English language proficiency. Lai, Zhu, and Gong (2015) claim that
studying outside of the classroom offers a crucial environment for the best possible development of
language. Additionally hampered is face-to-face learning. Therefore, through social media, English skills
can be learned from anywhere at any time in this epidemic era. The research is escorted by research
questions so as not to get out of the root of the problem, Research Questions: 1. How important is social
media in netizens' English-speaking skills?

METHOD
This research uses a qualitative approach. The research design in this article is a descriptive study.
Qualitative descriptive research is an analysis used to find and understand behavior or phenomena about
what is experienced by research subjects in the form of sentences and language, which are not intended
to test hypotheses (Hardiyani, 2021). Data was collected using a closed questionnaire by distributing
questionnaires to participants or research samples online because the research was carried out during a
pandemic. Questionnaires are distributed on selected social media platforms based on social media that
are widely used by Indonesian netizens. Samples were obtained randomly according to the range of the
distributed questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of seven questions related to RQ and answered
RQ.
The participants were 20 people who came from netizens on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
Whatsapp. Data analysis was carried out using qualitative data analysis techniques. This study has three
stages of analytical procedures: data reduction, data display, and conclusions (Rezkia, 2020).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results showed that the use of social media based on message exchange, such as Whatsapp, was
higher, as much as 85% or 17 people from the total sampling. Instagram with 55% or 11 people from the
entire sample, then Facebook and Twitter with 35% each or seven people from the total sampling.

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Figure 1. Social Media that is widely used

According to research results, the use of social media increased after the pandemic outbreak with a
percentage of 55% or 4-24 hourss a day, while before the pandemic, it was only about 3-5 hours.

Figure 2. Social Media time usage

As many as 35% of the total participants often find English sentences/text, indicating that it is easy to
access English content through their devices nowadays. The results show and confirm whether the
respondent often encounters or is familiar with English writing or sentences.

Figure 3. Ease of finding written content in English

The figure of 95% is a large percentage to know that participants are curious about the context of
information in English.

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Figure 4. Numbers of participants who interpret English text

As many as 40% or 8 participants considered that interpreting and knowing the word’s meaning could
add new English vocabulary, so it said insight and much information.

Figure 5.Interpreting activities increase English vocabulary

However, the questionnaire results show that half of the participants are still passive in using English in
reading and listening skills. Half of the participants were active in using language for reading and
listening, with a percentage of 30% very often and 20% often.

Figure 6.Number of participants in reading and listening activity

As an active skills, writing and speaking skills in this study were found to be used very rarely, with the
results of a percentage of 10%, 40% on average, and 5% often.

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Figure 7. Number of participants in writing and speaking activity

Based on the facts of the field, all participants often use social media such as WhatsApp. Therefore,
WhatsApp is used as an online primary communication tool. WhatsApp's social scope is only limited to
family and close friends. Unlike other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, which have
features such as fan pages that can contain broader information so that English vocabulary is absorbed
more. But after the Pandemic period, the time to play social media also increased to almost a day. That
way, the activity absorbs many English sentences and text to translate them more often. This activity is
important to improve participants' vocabulary, so they must be given valuable and varied content.

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings, it is known that social media as a learning media to measure English skills does
not have much effect on aspects of writing and speaking. However, this is quite applied to the parts of
reading and listening skills. Certainly, teachers must also explore the benefit of social media as a
substitute for traditional media to be more sophisticated because the development of ICT today will
increase. The quality of writing in this study only focuses on social media implications for basic English
skills, the author advice for the others author is to be able to explore in-depth the use of social media that
affects more specific English language skills.

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