Abstract:
The use of social media platform nowadays has become popular among
students, especially WhatsApp. This study was intended to investigate students’
perception on the implementation of speaking English through WhatsApp. The
aspects of perception covered in this study according to (Robinson, 2001) were
confidence, difficulties, interest, stress, and motivation. Source of data in this study
was 26 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students in 6th Semester of Universitas
Muhammadiyah Sumatera Utara, academic year 2021/2022. Primary data
technique was applied to get the data in this study that were obtained from the
answers of respondents who had filled out a questionnaire about speaking English
through WhatsApp via Google Form. The data of students’ perception were
collected through Likert-type scales questionnaire which mixed with open-ended
questionnaire for the reason of their response. Research design which was used in
this study was qualitative design. The qualitative data were described to support the
findings of students’ perception toward the implementation of speaking English
through WhatsApp. The finding showed that the majority of students had positive
perception towards speaking English through WhatsApp which led this study to
beneficial and gave positive impact to the students, especially in the aspect of
motivation, followed by aspect of interest and confidence. For example, in the
aspect of motivation, all the students answered strongly agree and agree, and no one
disagreed because of their strong desire to improve their English-speaking skill so
the students are willingly motivated to use WhatsApp as the media to engage in
conversations with their friends.
