Putri Anggraeni, et al / Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (1) (2017) 1 ELT FORUM 11(1) (2022) Journal of English Language Teaching http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt Investigating the use of YouTube as virtual teaching medium in ELT among non- English students Aprilian Ria Adisti1 1IAIN Salatiga, Indonesia Article Info ________________ Article History: Received on 29 July 2021 Approved on 28 January 2022 Published on 30 March 2022 ________________ Keywords: YouTube; medium; ELT; non-English students ____________________ Abstract ________________________________________________________________ Since the COVID-19 pandemic came up suddenly to this world, everything takes a drastic turn. The Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia reacted to this issue by making an online learning policy Number 3 of 2020 on Prevention of COVID-19 in the Education Unit. Many education institutions adopted this policy by creating online tools such as YouTube as a resource of transition from face-to- face learning to virtual learning since it is seen as a popular medium used in online classes. This research investigates the use of YouTube as a medium in the English 1 course for non-English students at one of State Islamic University in Salatiga. YouTube is an online learning platform that enables lecturers and students to upload, view, share, and even interact through the comments column in the learning videos. A descriptive qualitative method is used to achieve the objective of the research, which involved three classes from the Early Childhood Islamic Education study program, the Islamic Elementary School study program, and the Islamic Religious Education study program as the objects in this research. The researcher limits the content of YouTube from the channel "AR," while the materials are about Degree of Comparison and Collocation. Students' responses from those three classes in the YouTube column have been analyzed to investigate the findings. The finding shows that YouTube brings a good impact on non-English students in ELT. This finding is supported by the result of the analysis answer sheet of the quiz from students, the survey on students’ perception, and other comments about the materials on the YouTube comment column. Finally, it can be concluded that YouTube can be an effective virtual teaching medium in ELT among non-English students at IAIN Salatiga based on the result of survey by respondents.  Correspondence Address: p-ISSN 2252-6706 | e-ISSN 2721-4532 Kampus 3 IAIN Salatiga, FTIK Jalan Lingkar Selatan Salatiga KM 02, Salatiga E-mail: aprilian@iainsalatiga.ac.id http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1333515478&1&& http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1576658845&1&& Aprilian Ria Adisti | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 2 INTRODUCTION Since the COVID-19 pandemic came up suddenly to this world, everything takes a drastic turn. The impact of this pandemic is drastically changing the lives of people around the world. Schools and universities must be closed. This situation, of course, made many universities have turned to remoteness learning as a means of continuing the teaching and learning process (Amiruddin et al., 2021). The Ministry of Education and Culture Republic of Indonesia reacted to this issue by making an online learning policy in the education sector. Many education institutions adopted this policy. One adaptation is creating online tools as a resource of transition from face-to-face learning to virtual learning. Online learning means distance education, where the learning is intentionally designed to be delivered fully online through the internet. Unlike face-to-face learning, online learning builds a new perspective that teachers face the challenge of being a creator, a presenter, and a guide in the classroom (Gjelaj et al., 2020). The school will use strategies to give instruction, deliver the material, create learning media, engage students, and create assessments specific to learning in a virtual environment. Furthermore, online learning in this pandemic era influences the English students' proficiency level since it limits the interaction between teachers and students (Astia & Yunianti, 2020). Then, of course, it will also bring effect to their motivation in learning English. Meanwhile, one of the challenges in this pandemic is a readiness to change. The students have problems with wifi, hotspot, and distancing learning (Armstrong-Mensah et al., 2020). UNICEF has surveyed on May 18-29, 2020, and 5-8 June 2020 in 34 provinces in Indonesia showed that as many as 66% of 60 million students at different levels of education in 34 provinces said they were unhappy studying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of guidance from teachers. Hence, in this pandemic, teachers should face and adapt effectively to the new situation in which some problems commonly happen. On the contrary, one of the positive impacts of this situation is an opportunity to rethink how digital technologies can be used as valuable media to support the teaching and learning process (Dennis, 2021). Teachers should be familiar with digital technologies as the media in delivering the lessons so that online learning goals can be achieved well. English Learning Teaching at one f State Islamic University in Salatiga during the pandemic era also transitioned from offline learning to online learning. This fact also has an impact on all lecture activities that cannot be done face-to-face. Consequently, lecturers must use digital media to support online learning success for students (Alchamdani et al., 2020). For example, in the Degree of Comparison and Collocation material, learning is carried out using Youtube medium. Those materials are part of the English 1 course. This course is taken by all Teacher Training and Education Faculty students in the first semester, both English and non-English majors. There are three non-English classes students in the academic year 2020/2021 taking this course: the Early Childhood Islamic Education study program, the Islamic Elementary School study program study program, and the Islamic Religious Education study program. Therefore, this research investigates How effective is YouTube as a virtual medium in English 1 course according to non-English students at one of State Islamic University in Salatiga? Some research revealed the use of YouTube in the teaching and learning process. The study from Shafwati et al. (2021), Watkins and Wilkins (2011), Puspa (2016), and Medoukali (2015) claimed that the use of YouTube videos can give improvement towards students’ listening skills. These previous studies exposed that YouTube provides both audio and visual to the students and allows them to figure out the speech or words they have heard from the YouTube videos. Then, the study from Prastiyo et al. (2018) entitled “Development of YouTube Integrated Google Classroom- Based E-Learning Media” showed that students who use the YouTube integrated Google Classroom Based E-Learning Media get significantly better achievement than students who use the internet to access the website without control. Another research entitled “Investigating the Effectiveness of YouTube as a Learning Tool among EFL Students at Baghdad University” from Abbas & Qassim (2020) exposed that YouTube has a significant impact on the learning process as the students will find the educational environment more encouraging and exciting. Furthermore, the study from Nasution (2019) entitled “YouTube as a Media in English Language Teaching (ELT) Context: Teaching Procedure Text” showed that YoutTube helps reduce cognitive load on learners and appeals to multiple learning styles. In addition, the study entitled “The use of Youtube Video in Teaching English for Foreign Language at Vocational High School” from Cahyana (2020) revealed that the students have a favorable opinion about the improvement Aprilian Ria Adisti | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 3 obtained in learning English. They argue that the implementation of YouTube can decrease monotonous teaching and increase motivation in learning English. This study has a novelty compared to previous studies because this study analyzes YouTube as a virtual medium for delivering English 1 course for three classes of non-English students at IAIN Salatiga. Actually, social media is also part of the new technology in digital media that becomes our daily lives. They can be integrated into English Language Teaching more naturally than ever, given how many students fit and are attuned. Each social media platform offers many different ways to use it in the classroom. Some of the most popular platforms in social media are YouTube, Facebook (and its associated Facebook Messenger), TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, LINE, Snapchat, and more (Voorveld et al., 2018; Alhabash & Ma, 2017). Those social media platforms can be taken advantage of as learning tools in the classroom from the primary until university level. However, Youtube is the most popular social media in Indonesia today. YouTube is mainly an online learning platform that offers dynamic opportunities because it allows the lecturer and students to upload, view, share, and even interact through the comments column in the learning videos (Prastiyo et al., 2018). Youtube allows the flexibility to learn procedurally, so the students can enjoy learning wherever they are. YouTube is an effective medium because we can find many videos that can support us while teaching in a class (Heriyanto, 2015; Albantani & Madkur, 2017; Almurashi, 2016). This media can also increase students’ understanding of the material by watching the educational video uploaded on the Youtube channel. Furthermore, Burke and Snyder (2008) strengthen that students who watch learning videos on YouTube will get a better understanding of the subject matter. In addition, YouTube has the potential as a learning medium in digital era. There are some benefits of using YouTube for English Language Teaching. Kim and Kim (2021) claimed that YouTube could help expand students' perspectives on cross-cultural understanding. The use of YouTube as a learning medium also encourages students to academic pursuits and engagement while studying abroad since YouTube offers content that provides knowledge and skills materials in learning English. Moreover, it enhances the students’ knowledge of English as a global language in the world by taking ownership. Furthermore, YouTube plays an essential role in supporting international students’ who study abroad for their academic and social progress in the transitional phase from their home to host countries. Hence, YouTube as one social media could be an alternative learning medium during the pandemic COVID-19 era for effective multilingual and multicultural education. Meanwhile, Nofrika (2019) argued that YouTube brings six advantages in enhancing learners’ English competencies, such as; giving flexibility and practicality for learners in the aspect of accessibility, helping the learners to learn and understand the topics, providing fun videos of learning, facilitating the learners especially for macro practice, encouraging the learners to improve their vocabulary, and providing the interaction in a real-life context. On the contrary, YouTube also has the negative side as a learning medium. In accessing YouTube, it is needed stable internet connection, so many students will look for wifi or mobile data to access it (Gracella & Rahman Nur, 2020). The user of YouTube should also consider which channel can be used as the reference in learning since the validity of video sources is not always guaranteed. Some of the YouTubers do not give the sources of the information on their videos. Moreover, students have become addicted and engrossed in using YouTube lately. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate YouTube, especially in learning English, to find out the impact on students. METHODS This research applied a descriptive qualitative research design. This research design has the goal of describing a phenomenon and its characteristics of something. Furthermore, the descriptive qualitative research design is concerned with what happened rather than investigate how or why something happened (Nassaji, 2015). In this study, observation and survey tools were used to gather data. In addition, qualitative research is more holistic. This research design often involves a rich collection of data from numerous sources to gain a deeper understanding of individual participants, including their beliefs, perspectives, attitudes, and opinions (Ryan et al., 2009). This study involved three classes from the Early Childhood Islamic Education study program, the Islamic Elementary School study program, and the Islamic Religious Education study program as the objects in this Aprilian Ria Adisti | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 4 research to get their deeper perspectives and opinions on the use of YouTube as a medium in the English 1 course. Additionally, this study limited the content of YouTube from the channel "AR," while the materials were about Degree of Comparison and Collocation. Then, students' responses from those three classes in the YouTube column and the perception of using YouTube as their learning media had been analyzed to investigate the findings. Systematically, the steps of the research also stated in Figure 1 as follows: Figure 1. The steps in conducting the research Doing observation was the first step in conducting this study. This step did to get the information about using the medium in teaching the English 1 course for non-English students at Teaching Training and Education Faculty of State Islamic University in Salatiga. Not only the medium of English Language Teaching but the materials also were investigated. The result showed that one of the media used in English Language Teaching for non-English students at Teaching Training and Education Faculty of one of State Islamic University in Salatiga is using YouTube. Then, it was also known that the materials for the English 1 course in the 2020/2021 academic year at the first semester were the Degree of Comparison and Collocation. The second step in this study is doing field research. At this stage, an investigation was conducted to highlight the impact of using YouTube on non-English students in English Language Teaching by analyzing the answer sheet of the quiz from students, students’ perception and others comment about the materials on the YouTube comment column. The researcher limited analyzing comments on the Youtube channel to only 3 classes who were respondents in this study. The observation process was carried out for 2 weeks with 2 different materials to obtain data that would be analyzed in the next process. After doing field research to get the findings, then the data have been collected and interpreted. The analysis was carried out by looking at the comments in the YouTube column from the three classes who were respondents in this study. The analysis focused on the answers of the respondents and their comments on YouTube. Furthermore, to increase the credibility and validity of research findings, the researcher did theoretical triangulation by combining theories, methods, or observers in a research study. Finally, creating a research report is the last step after the findings have been analyzed. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The implementation of YouTube as a medium in english language teaching The English Language Teaching for non-English students requires more effort than teaching for English students. In the English 1 course, two materials are delivered through YouTube as a medium for lecturers to explain the material. Three sub-topics are taught in the Degrees of Comparison material, namely positive, comparative, and superlative. Based on the observations in the YouTube video, the lecturer explained the theory first about degrees of comparison. Then, to strengthen the explanation, the lecturer gave related examples of sentences about degrees of comparison through pictures. The lecturer also explained five different types of conditions that could explain the degrees of comparison, including consisting of 1 syllable, ends with -y, a vocal between consonants, consisting of 2 or more syllables, and irregular patterns. Moreover, after explaining the theory and examples of degrees of comparison, the lecturer continued by giving examples of practice questions related to the material. Not only giving examples, but the lecturer also provides a discussion on the examples of quiz that has been given. At the end of the video, the lecturer instructed students to create five sample sentences on degrees of comparison, posted in the YouTube comments column at the appointed time. The total duration of the video is 14 minutes 45 seconds. Creating Research Report Doing Observation Doing Field Research Interpreting the fact (Field Data) Aprilian Ria Adisti | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 5 After observing the ELT video, this research analyzed students' answers in the YouTube comments column. The investigation found that students from the three non-English study programs could distinguish degrees of comparison in a sentence. Furthermore, students could also construct five sentences correctly according to the instructions given by the lecturer through YouTube videos. However, some students still have difficulty distinguishing the degrees of comparison, and only a few from each class. Below is an example of a video that has been uploaded and responded to by students in Figure 2. Figure 2. The screenshot of the YouTube video On the other hand, the following video analyzed contains material about collocation. This video explains the meaning, pronounce, and use of collocation in the sentences. In this video, the lecturer explained some collocations and idioms such as; cope with, succeed in, look for, supposed to, leave something up to someone, rely on, hang out, in touch, and many others. In the end, the lecturer instructed the students to write five sentences containing collocations and idioms and their meanings. Furthermore, after observing the video, this research analyzed students' answers in the YouTube comments column. The investigation found that students from the three non-English study programs did the instruction very well. They could write five sentences of collocation and idiom with the meaning correctly. However, there are some errors in writing the sentences for some students related to the grammatical. Figure 3 is an example of a video that has been uploaded and responded to by students in Figure 3. The result of students’ perception on YouTube In order to find out the perception of non-English students about English Language Teaching using YouTube, a survey was conducted at the end of the semester. Eight questions are given to students that consist of three options, agree, neutral and disagree. The survey results revealed that the students have a positive perception of the use of Youtube as an ELT medium. The survey on students’ perception of using YouTube as a virtual medium in English 1 course is showed in Figure 4. Aprilian Ria Adisti | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 6 Figure 3. The screenshot of the YouTube video 80% 7% 13% agree neutral disagree Figure 4. Percentage of students’ perception The diagram showed that 80% students agree that YouTube videos significantly improve their understanding of the material Degrees of Comparison and Collocation. Only 13% students disagree, and 7% students are neutral to this. This finding also was in line with the study from (Watkins & Wilkins, 2011; Gracella & Rahman Nur, 2020; Abbas & Qassim (2020) who exposed the significant impact of YouTube towards encouraging students’ motivation in learning English. The result of virtual observation showed that videos of Degres of Comparison and Collocation materials via YouTube were very useful in building a learning atmosphere in ELT online classes. This learning video was also more significant in increasing student participation when compared to using other types of media such as text-based learning media. The use of English videos through YouTube could improve students' critical thinking skills. This video also allowed students to see real and more realistic learning objects. Learning English through YouTube could support learning effectiveness because it almost had the same instructions as face-to-face learning. Furthermore, the availability of this learning video could be watched everytime by students. This is certainly more effective than traditional learning where all the information center and control of information delivery were only on the teacher. Moreover, the result of the perception survey of 105 students were also triangulated through the YouTube comments column to strengthen the survey results. Based on the oservations, it showed that the students' comments have a positive tendency towards the videos posted about the theme of the related material. Students are engaged in this learning material. This fact can be Aprilian Ria Adisti | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 7 analyzed from their participation during learning. They participated and wrote some questions; of course, it described the virtual interactions in this situation. YouTube is one of the many social networking sites that are being widely used today. The use of YouTube as an online medium in teaching English is an attempt to integrate technology into teaching activities. The results showed that the use of YouTube in the ELT class received a positive perception from the respondents. Content on Youtube allows students to view learning videos, download videos that can be shared with others and provide space to interact virtually through the comments column. In addition, based on the perception, respondents claim that YouTube is a video-sharing service that makes it easier for them to understand the material in audio-visual form. Therefore, this study highlighted that YouTube as a virtual media has a good impact on non-English students learning the English 1 course at IAIN Salatiga. CONCLUSION In this pandemic era, mastery of technology is the most crucial foundation in the education sector. This fact strengthens that by mastering technology, the goal of online learning can be successfully realized. Students can still learn through digital media wherever and whenever they want without interacting face-to-face with the lecturers in the classroom. Youtube is considered one of the media with great potential to improve the quality of online learning, especially in English Language Learning for non-English students. This medium can create freedom of expression and add experience in improving students' ability to understand learning materials through video content uploaded on the YouTube channel. The investigation revealed that Youtube could motivate non-English students in English Language Teaching. This fact was obtained from the analysis results of the answer sheets and comments in the YouTube comment column. These results indicate a positive attitude of students towards the use of this media. From the three classes, non-English students seemed to understand the explanations, instructions, and exercises given through an explanation video uploaded on YouTube on the Degrees of Comparison and Collocation material. However, some students are late in posting their assignments due to signal problems. Furthermore, most of the students from those three classes also posted the answer sheets on the YouTube comment column. They also got excellent results from doing assignments based on the explanation from the YouTube video. Some comments also showed students’ positive feelings during focusing on lecturer’s explanation on the video. The survey on students’ perception of using YouTube as a virtual medium in ELT showed that 80% students agree that YouTube videos significantly improve their understanding of the material Degrees of Comparison and Collocation. Only 13% students disagree, and 7% students are neutral to this. This investigation concludes that YouTube could be an effective virtual teaching medium in ELT among non-English students at IAIN Salatiga. 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