





































Putri Anggraeni, et al / Journal of English Language Teaching 6 (1) (2017) 

63 

 

 
ELT FORUM 11(1) (2022) 

 

Journal of English Language Teaching 

 
http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/elt 

 
 

Enacting Hot Potatoes to engage and motivate the undergraduate learners  

in the Business Correspondence course 

  

Ruth Dewi Indrian1 

 
1English Language Studies, Universitas Sanata Dharma, Indonesia

 

Article Info 
________________  
Article History: 

Received on 21 

September 2021  
Approved on 25 March 

2022 

Published on 30 March 

2022 

________________  
Keywords:  

business correspondence 

course; CALL, Hot 

Potatoes; web-based 

learning  
____________________ 

 

 

 

Abstract 
____________________________________________________________________ 
Technology has become the answer to students’ interests to be engaged in the learning 
process. In this case, the use of the Hot Potatoes application was employed to facilitate 

students’ needs in learning the Business Correspondence course. This study was a content 
analysis that employed the CALL approach as the assistance of students’ learning process 

(Egbert & Shahrokni, 2018). This study aimed to investigate the implementation of the Hot 

Potatoes application to assist students to learn the materials of three topics of Business 
Correspondence, namely Replying to a Job Applicant, Requesting a 
Service, and Confirming a Service (Lougheed, 2003). The results showed that the use of 

Hot Potatoes web-based learning brought beneficial impacts to students’ learning process 
of Business Correspondence course of the fourth-semester students. The researcher 

discovered that the implementation of this application engaged students’ attention and 

motivated them to be involved mindful for the learning activity. Moreover, Hot Potatoes 
exercises helped the students comprehend the elements of a letter and vocabulary and 

expressions used based on the context of the letter. The researcher suggests that future 
researchers can fill in the gap on how the Hot Potatoes application can be applied in various 

courses in English Language Departments.  

 
  


Correspondent Address: p-ISSN 2252-6706 | e-ISSN 2721-4532 
Jl. Tlogo Putri, Kaliurang Barat  

Hargobinangun, Pakem, Sleman, Yogyakarta, 55582  
E-mail: ruthdewiindrian@yahoo.com 
 
 

  

http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1333515478&1&&
http://issn.pdii.lipi.go.id/issn.cgi?daftar&1576658845&1&&
mailto:ruthdewiindrian@yahoo.com


Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

64 

 

INTRODUCTION 

In this fast-growing era of technology, there are ways to encourage students’ interest to learn. 

According to Egbert (2005), CALL helps the teacher to encourage students to be involved mindfully 

in the learning process since the visual features capture students’ interest to learn. The teacher can also 

employ different media to engage the students to learn meaningful language use instead of the study 

of language. Furthermore, CALL encourages the students to play roles for an effective and attractive 

learning environment. Here, it also provides adequate information to assist the students to create 

critical choices for the learning process (Egbert, 2005). In this case, a teacher has the opportunity to 

design web-based learning through the Hot Potatoes application. The web-based learning is expected 

to integrate the technology itself with the high quality of materials (O'Neil & Perez, 2006). Therefore, 

Hot Potatoes itself is a tool for the teacher’s instructional design to create online exercises with various 

types of exercises, namely JCloze, JQuiz, JCross, JMatch, JMix, and The Masher. Hot Potatoes was 

invented by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing 

and Media Centre which functions for creating web-based learning exercises (Erben et al., 2009). 

Furthermore, Hot Potatoes also gives a great influence in pedagogical settings, especially in facilitating 

the learning process (Sadeghi & Soleimani, 2015). In relation to students’ motivation, Hot Potatoes 

exercises are applicable to learn business correspondence which may be considered hard to design. 

Therefore, it is essential to discover how the implementation of Hot Potatoes web-based learning can 

engage students’ motivation to learn business correspondence.  

Previous research conducted by Setiawan (2016) investigated a study on the use of Hot Potatoes 

application to teach vocabulary at the eleventh grade in SMA Bodhisattva. The researcher designed 

Hot Potatoes exercises for the students to discover students’ motivation and their vocabulary 

improvement. The results showed that the students were engaged in the learning activity and their 

enrichment of vocabulary improved (Setiawan, 2016). Secondly, Hot Potatoes exercises were 

employed in the descriptive text of seventh-grade students in one of the private schools in Surabaya 

(Anggoro & Arif, 2018). The researcher designed six kinds of exercises by using JCloze, JQuiz, JCross, 

JMatch, JMix, and The Masher. The results showed that the web-based learning exercises were 

applicable to be used in teaching descriptive text (Anggoro & Arif, 2018). To date, there has not been 

adequate research that examines the use of Hot Potatoes exercises to learn the topics in business 

correspondence. Hence, it is beneficial to bridge the gap of how Hot Potatoes exercises help students 

to learn business correspondence.  

This research aims to discover the students’ experience of using Hot Potatoes exercises in 

Business Correspondence class in Mahasaraswati University. The research questions addressed to this 

study cover two questions, namely 1) How does the use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning engage 

students’ interests to learn Business Correspondence?, and 2) How does Hot Potatoes web-based 

learning help students learn the Business Correspondence course? Thus, the purpose of the study is to 

unfold the implementation of Hot Potatoes in the Business Correspondence course.  

Literature review 

In this chapter, two sections are addressed accordingly, namely theoretical backgrounds of CALL 

(Computer Assisted Language Learning), Hot Potatoes, Business Correspondence, and previous 

studies of the use of Hot Potatoes in language learning. 
 

CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) 

Throughout the practice in pedagogical settings, CALL has been significantly integrated into language 

learning and technology (Farr & Murray, 2016). According to Egbert (2005), as cited in his book, 

CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) is a field that copes ‘the search for and study of 

applications of the computer in language teaching and learning’ (Levy, 1997, p. 1, as cited in Egbert, 

2005). In this sense, CALL is compatible to be applied in class since it meets the educational goals. 

CALL gives beneficial inputs to both teachers and students (Egbert, 2005; Egbert & Shahrokni, 2018). 

The teacher should highlight the several elements while using technology for designing materials for 

the students. Firstly, a teacher should employ technology to meet the pedagogical goals of the learning 

and curriculum. Secondly, the teacher needs to maintain that the use of technology is user-friendly for 

the learners so that they can access it effectively. Thirdly, when the teacher uses the technology, she 

or he needs to use it as a medium that helps the learners practice and improve their proficiency. 

Fourthly, a teacher also should use the technology effectively and efficiently to make the students 

learn faster and reach the learning goals (Egbert, 2005; Egbert & Shahrokni, 2018).  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Victoria


Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

65 

 

According to Egbert & Shahrokni (2018), the principles of task engagement carry several points. 

Firstly, the task has to be authentic which introduces the learners through real-world tasks. Secondly, 

the given exercises need to be interesting that meet learners’ interests. Thirdly, the teacher has to 

maintain that the task can build social interactions between the learners. Fourthly, the teacher needs 

to consider the support challenge to the learners so that they can get an adequate level of difficulty. 

Fifthly, the teacher needs to scaffold the learning autonomy so that the learners can explore their 

learning process. Lastly, the teacher assists the learner with effective scaffolding that includes learning 

resources and feedback (Egbert & Shahrokni, 2018).  

In this case, CALL assists the teacher makes the course design easier, and for the students, it 

attracts them in the learning process so that it apprehends students’ interest and motivation to be 

involved in the new concepts and ways of thinking (Egbert, 2005). Therefore, several elements that 

CALL occupies are proposed. Firstly, students have opportunities to socialize and negotiate in their 

community. Secondly, learners have interaction in the target language with a real audience. Thirdly, 

learners are engaged in real-world tasks. Fourthly, learners are encouraged to produce good language. 

Fifthly, learners have enough time and washback. Sixthly, learners are directed to be involved 

mindfully in the learning activity. Seventhly, learners work with an ideal anxiety level. Lastly, learner 

autonomy is reinforced. Therefore, with the assistance of computer-based learning, the educational 

goals and effective learning process in class can be achieved (Egbert, 2005). 

Therefore, for the learners, CALL assists them to accomplish the learning goals in learning the 

language. Firstly, learners can communicate the language socially and negotiate the meaning. 

Secondly, the learners can interact with the target language with the target audience so that they can 

practice listening and replying. Thirdly, they can have opportunities to explore the authentic tasks that 

can help them be engaged in the learning process. Fourthly, the learners can explore producing 

creative and various outcomes while learning the language. Fifthly, they can have sufficient time and 

feedback to meet the learning goals. Sixthly, the learners learn in an adequate learning atmosphere 

with an ideal anxiety level. Lastly, CALL helps them to learn autonomously so that they can explore 

the experience in learning the language (Egbert, 2005). 
 

Hot Potatoes 

Hot Potatoes is an application used for designing online exercises for the World Wide Web 

(Rottmeier, 2019). Hot Potatoes was invented by the Research and Development team at 

the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre which functions for creating 

web-based learning exercises (Erben et al., 2009). Hence, Hot Potatoes is implemented in English 

language learning so that the teacher can engage the students’ interest and motivation to 

learn. Teachers can create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, 

matching/ordering, and gap-fill exercises by using JCloze, JQuiz, JCross, JMatch, JMix, and The 

Masher features (Arneil & Holmes, 2012). Firstly, the JCloze feature creates gap-filling exercises but 

only one correct answer for each blank is acquired. Secondly, the JQuiz functions to create short 

answer practices that require the learner to fill in the blanks. Thirdly, the Jcross feature is used to create 

small-sized crossword puzzles in which the clues can be provided either in word form or in the form 

of pictures. Fourthly, the Jmatch feature functions to create matching exercises through two listing 

exercises. Fifthly, the Jmix feature can produce jumbled sentence exercises and allow the teacher to 

enter various combinations of answers. Lastly, The Masher feature is a useful tool that automatically 

organizes clusters of Hot Potatoes exercises into parts (Arneil & Holmes, 2012). In the practice of 

educational settings, Hot Potatoes is the teacher’s instructional design to create web-based learning 

with various features of exercises. 

 

Business correspondence  

According to Lougheed (2003), business correspondence is the exchange of information in the area of 

business activities in a written form. Many kinds of letters help us to correspond to our colleagues, 

such as cover letters, ordering supplies, and providing information. In this study, the researcher 

focused on designing three topics of business correspondence, namely Replying to a Job Applicant, 

Requesting a Service, and Confirming a Service. Firstly, Applying to a Job applicant is when an 

individual sends a letter to our company and we need to decide whether or not we will proceed with 

the application. In this case, an HRD needs to screen the data of the applicant to see whether or not 

she/he occupies the requirements. Therefore, it is time for the company to reply to the applicant’s job 

application. Secondly, Requesting a Service is used for asking for detailed information about the 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Victoria


Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

66 

 

service that a company offers. In this case, we need to specify what kind of service we would like to 

have and any other information that we want to ask. Therefore, it will be easier for the recipient to 

give a clear and accurate response. Thirdly, Confirming a Service is used for clarifying the service that 

we would like to have by restating all the details of the service. In this case, the recipient will 

understand easily and provide the service based on our needs (Lougheed, 2003). Hence, these three 

topics are beneficial for the students to learn, especially if they need to apply the knowledge in real-

world life. 

 

Previous studies of the use of Hot Potatoes in language learning 

In this section, two previous studies give contributions to the current study. Firstly, Gohil & Parmar 

(2018) conducted a study on the use of Hot Potatoes software for language teaching and learning. The 

researchers focused on the use of Hot Potatoes features, such as JCloze, JQuiz, JCross, JMatch, JMix, 

and The Masher. The study gave insights into how these features were applicable and beneficial to 

create exercises in educational settings. Furthermore, the researchers suggested that it is effective for 

English teachers to design web-based learning exercises through the Hot Potatoes application. 

Therefore, the implementation of this application will serve individuals’ learning pace and improve 

their cognitive aspects (Gohil & Parmar, 2018).  

Second, Fansury et al. (2018) researched the use of the Hot Potatoes application to increase 

language students’ achievement at the second-grade students of Junior High School 8 Makassar. The 

researcher employed a quasi-experimental method to obtain the data of the study. The findings 

showed that the use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning was effective to increase students’ interest in 

learning and it also decreased the anxiety of learning English. Therefore, the results of this study 

showed that Hot Potatoes exercises were applicable for teaching English in junior high schools 

(Fansury et al., 2018).  

Thirdly, Susiati et al. (2019) conducted research on Hot Potatoes multimedia applications in 

the evaluation of Indonesian learning in junior high school students in the Buru district. The study 

aimed to discover the influence of the Hot Potatoes application in evaluating students’ learning 

outcomes in Indonesian language learning. They employed a quantitative and qualitative description 

to uncover the students’ learning outcomes by using a multiple-choice test. The findings showed that 

the use of Hot Potatoes multimedia application raises a significant positive influence on students’ 

learning process. They conclude that the use of this application has brought positive outcomes as the 

type of activities were given in an interesting method. Moreover, the quality of the learning process 

also improves students’ motivation to learn the language (Susiati et al., 2019). 

 

METHODS 

In this chapter, the researcher provides the methodology employed in this study. Four sections are 

addressed accordingly, namely research method, the object of the study, data collection, techniques 

of data analysis, and research procedures. The description of each section is presented as follows.  

This study was qualitative research that employed a content analysis. According to 

Krippendorff (2004), content analysis is “a research technique for making replicable and valid 

inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use” (p. 18). The researcher 

employed this method to answer the two research questions. There were two research problems, 

namely 1) How does the use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning engage students’ interest to learn 

Business Correspondence?, and 2) How does Hot Potatoes web-based learning help students learn the 

Business Correspondence course? Hence, content analysis is applied to examine the implementation 

of Hot Potatoes web-based learning in the Business Correspondence course. 

 

Respondents 

The object of the study was the students’ perception of the implementation of Hot Potatoes web-based 

learning in the Business Correspondence course in Mahasaraswati University. The researcher 

distributed questionaries by using the Google Form link group. Therefore, the participants were 70 

fourth-semester students of English Letters of Mahasaraswati University. The instrument of the study 

was a list of fifteen statements consisting of students’ perceptions on the use of Hot Potatoes web-

based learning in the Business Correspondence course. In this study, the researcher made closed-

ended question questionaries with Five-Point Likert Scale (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, 

strongly disagree) to obtain students’ responses to the implementation of Hot Potatoes exercises (Roy, 

2020).  



Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

67 

 

 

Data collection procedures 

To gather the data, the researcher designed exercises of business correspondence. The lecturer of this 

course provided the book to the researcher so that it could be used for creating the exercises. The 

researcher created three topics of this course, namely Replying to a Job Applicant, Requesting a 

Service, and Confirming a Service (Lougheed, 2003). Firstly, in the practice of Applying to a Job Applicant, 

the researcher employed vocabulary matching exercises by using the JMatch feature. Secondly, for 

the Requesting a Service, the researcher used the JQuiz feature to design the exercises by filling proper 

vocabulary or expressions in a letter. Thirdly, in the practice of Confirming a Service, the researcher 

created a multiple-choice exercise by using the JCloze feature. Fourthly, after designing the exercises, 

the researcher handed the three exercises to the lecturer of this course. Lastly, the lecturer assigned the 

exercises to the students in an online class.  

 

Data analysis 

To conduct this study, the researcher employed content analysis that contains four stages to analyze 

the data (Creswell, 2009). Firstly, the researcher organized and prepared the data for analysis. 

Secondly, the researcher read through all data. Thirdly, the data were calculated based on each 

statement in the questionnaire. Table 3 shows the criteria of the scoring criteria of the results of the 

questionaries calculation.  

 

 Table 1. Scoring criteria 
Frequency Percentage Meaning Rating 

1 – 70  
71 – 140 

141 – 210  
211 – 280  

281 - 350  

20 
40 

60 
80 

100 

Very Bad 
Bad 

Neutral 
Good 

Very Good 

1 
2 

3 
4 

5 

 

The fourth stage is interrelating the data based on their classification. Lastly, the researcher interpreted 

and presented the results of the analysis. To validate the data, the researchers repeatedly checked the 

data of the questionaries and how the data could be elaborated with the theories. During the validation 

process, the researcher encountered some mistakes and revised the discussion of the findings.  

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

In this research, the researcher discovered that most of the students were engaged in the learning 

activity by using Hot Potatoes web-based learning exercises. The findings of the implementation of 

Hot Potatoes in the Business Correspondence course are manifested through two sections in this 

chapter. Firstly, the discussion of the use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning to engage students’ 

interests to learn the Business Correspondence course. Secondly, the exploration of the use of Hot 

Potatoes web-based learning to help them learn the Business Correspondence course. The findings of 

the study were obtained from the closed-ended question questionaries with Five-Point Likert Scale. 

To evaluate this instrument, the researcher applied the pilot test to measure the validity and performed 

the test-retest to evaluate the reliability of the questionaries (Jenn, 2006). The statements in the 

questionaries were adopted from Setiawan (2016). To see the detailed findings, a table presenting the 

findings is provided in Table 4. 

 

Table 2. Number of occurrences of questionnaire 

Items Statement 
Rating 

R Total % C 
5 4 3 2 1 

1. 
It is the first time I use 
Hot Potatoes to learn 

business correspondence. 

19 45 2 4 - 70 289 82.6 
5 

2. 
The use of Hot Potatoes 

is user-friendly. 
25 40 3 2 - 70 298 85.1 

5 

3. 
The use of Hot Potatoes 
is fun and exciting. 

39 28 3 - - 70 316 90.3 
5 



Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

68 

 

4. 

The use of Hot Potatoes 

motivates me in learning 

business correspondence. 

19 43 7 1 - 70 290 82.8 
5 

5. 

The use of Hot Potatoes 

reduces anxiety in 

learning business 
correspondence. 

10 44 15 1 - 70 273 78 
4 

6. 
The use of Hot Potatoes 
creates a meaningful 

context for language use. 

22 43 5 - - 70 297 84.8 
5 

7. 

The practice of replying 
to a job applicant helps 

me enrich my vocabulary 
in business 

correspondence. 

25 45 2 - - 70 311 88.8 
5 

8. 

The vocabulary practice 
of replying to a job 

applicant helps me 
recognize the meaning 

and relation of the 

vocabulary and its use. 

24 43 3 - - 70 310 88.6 
5 

9. 

The practice of replying 

to a job applicant is 
difficult to do. 

5 10 19 32 4 70 290 82.8 
5 

10. 

The practice of 

confirming a service 
helps me comprehend the 

proper vocabulary used 

in the letter. 

19 48 3 - - 70 296 84.6 
5 

11. 

The practice of 

confirming a service 
helps me comprehend the 

proper expressions used 

in the letter. 

19 47 3 1 - 70 294 84 
5 

12. 

The practice of 

confirming a service is 
difficult to do. 

3 9 22 33 3 70 186 53.1 
3 

13. 

The practice of 

requesting a service helps 
me recognize the 

structure and elements in 
the letter. 

17 50 3 - - 70 294 84 
5 

14. 

The practice of 

requesting a service helps 
me comprehend the use 

of each element in the 
letter. 

16 53 1 - - 70 295 84.3 
5 

15 

The practice of 

requesting a service is 
difficult to do. 

3 12 17 31 7 70 183 52.3 
3 

Code Description of Table 4 

R : Respondents 
C : Criteria 

 

The use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning to engage students’ interests to learn the business 

correspondence course 

The use of the Hot Potatoes web-based learning in the Business Correspondence course was something 

new for the students. The findings showed that 82.6% of the students firstly experienced learning 

Business Correspondence through Hot Potatoes exercises. In this case, technology needs to be 

introduced to the students as the media of their learning activity. Especially, it was something new for 

them to use Hot Potatoes exercises in learning Business Correspondence course. Here, the researcher 

discovered that the implementation of this web-based learning needs introducing since the students 



Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

69 

 

were also eager to use technology as it allows them to explore the experience of learning. In relation 

to this, the use of technology allows the students to learn autonomously as it breaks the bridge of 

power structure between the teacher and the student (Ardi, 2017). In addition, the implementation of 

Hot Potatoes was also considered user-friendly for the students. The findings showed that 85.1% of 

the students were able to operate the website practice. Since the learning activity was conducted online 

due to the Covid-19 situation, the students could access it easily. In this case, web based-learning was 

helpful for them as they could do the exercises anywhere and anytime (Astuti, Wihardi, & 

Rochintaniawati, 2020). Here, the accessibility of web-based learning has to be user-friendly since the 

function itself is to make it easier for the students to do the tasks (Egbert & Shahrokni, 2018; Dinc, 

2017). Thus, the use of Hot Potatoes exercises in this course was successful enabling the students to 

access the tasks much more easily.  
Therefore, the findings showed that 90.3% of the use of Hot Potatoes exercises was also fun 

and exciting for the students. In relation to this, web-based learning offers a number of features that 

give an attractive look to the practice itself, such as the use of solid colors, pictures, and backgrounds. 

Furthermore, the use of web-based learning also engaged students’ attention and interest to do the 

task (Egbert & Shahrokni, 2018). To boost students’ motivation to learn, a teacher needs to create a 

student-centered instructional design that serves beneficial attention for the students (Barger & Byrd, 

2011). In this case, a teacher needs to give interesting activities to increase students’ interest. Therefore, 

the use of web-based learning exercises is one of the ways to boost students’ motivation to learn.  In 

relation to this, 82.8% of the students felt motivated through the learning activity of this course. 

Setiawan (2016) also concluded in his study that the use of the Hot Potatoes program influenced 

students’ motivation to understand the material easier. Moreover, the features of this application also 

have become a factor in the successful learning process as engagement plays an essential role in 

learning (Collie & Martin, 2019). Thus, the implementation of Hot Potatoes web-based learning 

successfully helped them be willing to learn the Business Correspondence course and be engaged in 

the learning process. 
In summary, the implementation of Hot Potatoes web-based learning successfully engaged 

students to learn the materials of the Business Correspondence course. The learning activity also met 

the psychological needs, such as motivation to learn and autonomous learning (Gagné, 2014). There 

were two major positive effects that the students experienced. Firstly, the students firstly knew and 

used Hot Potatoes web-based learning for this course. Since the Hot Potatoes application is user-

friendly, the students were able to access the task easier. Secondly, the attractive features of the Hot 

Potatoes application also engaged students’ motivation to learn and the exercises helped them to 

understand the material of the Business Correspondence course better. Thus, the Hot Potatoes 

application is suitable to be used in the Business Correspondence course as it facilitates students’ needs 

in their learning process.  
 

The use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning to help students learn the business correspondence 

course  

Through the learning process of the Business Correspondence course, the students were assigned to 

do the Hot Potatoes exercises. Three topics applied to Hot Potatoes application namely, Replying to 

a Job Applicant, Requesting a Service, and Confirming a Service (Lougheed, 2003). Referring to the 

findings, the implementation of Hot Potatoes helped students’ a lot in understanding the materials of 

these topics. In this case, the Hot Potatoes application successfully facilitated students’ learning 

process of this course. First of all, in the topic Replying to a Job Applicant, the vocabulary exercises 

helped students enrich their vocabulary of the business correspondence field. Based on the findings, 

88.8% of the students discovered that the vocabulary exercises enhance their bank of vocabulary. The 

matching vocabulary exercises also helped students understand the relation between the meaning and 

the vocabulary and how it suited to the context used in business correspondence. Furthermore, the 

students also considered that the exercises were quite difficult since the researcher needed to maintain 

the level of difficulty of university students. Therefore, the vocabulary practice given matches with an 

ideal anxiety level (Egbert, 2005). McCarten (2007) asserts that learning of vocabulary needs to be 

given to the students with teaching principles. In this case, it is important to provide the vocabulary 

with its meaning so that the students will be able to acknowledge the use of the vocabulary based on 

the context. Furthermore, Setiawan (2016) also concluded in his study that the implementation of Hot 

Potatoes vocabulary exercises also helped students improve their vocabulary enrichment. Thus, the 



Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

70 

 

vocabulary practice of this topic enabled students to enrich their vocabulary and the relation of the 

vocabulary and meaning based on the context of business correspondence.  

Second of all, in Requesting a Service practice, the students were assigned to do the multiple-

choice exercises of the elements of the structure of this type of letter. Based on the findings, the 

researcher discovered that 84% of the students experienced that the use of Hot Potatoes exercises 

helped them recognize the structure of this letter easily. Moreover, the task also helped the students a 

lot in understanding the use of each element in the letter. Furthermore, 52.3% of the students 

considered that the task was not too difficult to do since the researcher consider difficulty level for 

fourth-semester students. Therefore, the task assigned was compatible with an ideal anxiety level 

which balances the students’ competence in this course (Egbert, 2005). Therefore, the activity of this 

web-based learning, helped students comprehend the pattern of requesting a service letter and how the 

element works in the letter of requesting a service.  

Third of all, in Confirming a Service practice, the researcher discovered that the implementation 

of the Hot Potatoes task successfully facilitated students’ learning process. Referring to the findings, 

84.6% of the students experienced that the practice assigned helped them enrich their vocabulary and 

particular expressions used in this letter. McCarten (2007) asserts that learning vocabulary can be 

presented in various ways, such as frequency, collocation, and grammatical patterns. Therefore, in 

this practice, the researcher designed the practice by using grammatical patterns in which the students 

were asked to fill in the blank spaces of a confirming a service letter. The students needed to choose 

the appropriate vocabulary and expressions based on the context. In this case, the students learned a 

new level of vocabulary comprehension through placing them in the right phrases or sentences. 

Therefore, the researcher also considered the level of difficulty of this practice, and it turned out that 

students’ response about the task was on the middle level 53.1%, which means it did not hugely absorb 

students’ energy. Therefore, the use of this web-based learning also reduced students’ anxiety in 

learning this course since the application contained attractive features and a propositional number of 

questions. Hence, the vocabulary practice of this topic helped students comprehend the use of certain 

expressions used in the context of business correspondence, especially in confirming a service letter.  

In short, the implementation of Hot Potatoes web-based learning helped students understand 

the materials of the Business Correspondence course. There were three topics of this course, namely 

Replying to a Job Applicant, Requesting a Service, and Confirming a Service that the researcher used 

as the reference to make the exercises. Firstly, the results showed that the practice of replying to a job 

applicant helped students learn new vocabulary and the relation between the vocabulary and their 

meaning. Secondly, the practice of requesting a service helped the students to understand the rhetorical 

patterns and the use of the elements in this letter. Thirdly, the practice of confirming a service also 

helped students to learn proper words, phrases, and expressions based on the context used in the letter. 

From all these three topics, the researcher also concluded that the level of difficulty matched students’ 

level as university students. The findings also highlighted that the use of this application reduced 

students’ anxiety in the learning process. In this case, the Hot Potatoes web-based learning brought 

significant influence on the efficacy of the exercises (Soleimani & Raeesi, 2015). Hence, the 

implementation of Hot Potatoes exercises successfully facilitated students’ needs of learning the 

Business Correspondence course.  

CONCLUSION 

In closing, the use of Hot Potatoes web-based learning in the Business Correspondence course 

successfully brought beneficial impacts to the students’ learning process. First of all, the Hot Potatoes 

application was user-friendly for the students, especially it was the first time they used this application 

to learn the Business Correspondence course. Second of all, the students were engaged and motivated 

to learn this course since Hot Potatoes offers attractive features that capture students’ interest. Third 

of all, the implementation of the exercises given through three topics of this course helped students 

understand the materials better and easier. In this case, the practices helped them a lot in vocabulary 

enrichment, the rhetorical structure of the letter, the use of the elements, and the use of phrases and 

expressions based on the context used in the letter. In relation to this, the level of difficulty of each 

exercise was also set up to be adjusted for university students. Fourth of all, the findings also showed 

that the use of Hot Potatoes exercises decreased the students’ anxiety of learning this course since it 

offers an interesting and effective way to learn Business Correspondence. In conclusion, the 

implementation of Hot Potatoes web-based learning successfully assisted students’ needs of learning 

the Business Correspondence course. In addition, the present study still needs improvements as the 



Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

71 

 

discussion of the challenges of the technical problems and the challenges of students’ engagements in 

implementing the Hot Potatoes exercises still need addressing. Therefore, for further study, the 

researcher suggests that future researchers can fill in the gap on how the Hot Potatoes application can 

be applied in various courses in English Language Departments.  

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

My sincerest gratitude goes to Ibu Ni Made Verayanti Utami, S.S., M.Hum. of Mahasaraswati 

University, Bali, for allowing me to conduct this research in her class. I would also like to express my 

gratitude to my advisor, Bapak Dr. Benedictus Bherman Dwijatmoko, M.A. for his guidance patience, 

support, suggestions, and time in helping me finish this research. I am sure that this research will not 

exist without their guidance. Hopefully, this research will be beneficial both for the reader and the 

research enrichment.  

 

REFERENCES 

Anggoro, S. D., & Arif, M. (2018). The effects of using hot potatoes application in teaching descriptive 

text. Media of Teaching Oriented and Children Journal, 2, 25-33. 

doi:https://doi.org/10.31090/paudmotoric.v2i1.713 

Ardi, P. (2017). Promoting learner autonomy through schoology m-learning platform in an EAP class 

at an Indonesian university. The Journal of Teaching English with Technology, 17(2), 55-76. 

Arneil, S., & Holmes, M. (2012). Creating interactive web‐based exercises in hot potatoes. The 

Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, 16(3), 1-9. 

Astuti, L., Wihardi, Y., & Rochintaniawati, D. (2020). The development of web-based learning using 

interactive media for science learning on levers in human body topic. Journal of Science Learning, 

3(2), 89-98. doi:DOI: 10.17509/jsl.v3i2.19366 

Barger, A., & Byrd, K. (2011). Motivation and computer-based instructional design. Journal of Cross-

Disciplinary Perspectives in Education, 4(1), 1-9. 

Collie, R. J., & Martin, A. J. (2019). Motivation and engagement in learning. New York: Oxford 

University Press. 

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). 

Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. 

Dinc, E. (2017). Web-based education and accessibility. International Journal of Technology in Education 

and Science (IJTES), 1(1), 29-35. 

Egbert, J. (2005). CALL essentials principles and practice in CALL classrooms. Virginia: Teachers of English 

to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL). 

Egbert, J., & Shahrokni, S. A. (2018). CALL principles and practices. Virginia: Teachers of English to 

Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 

Erben, T., Ban, R., & Castañeda, M. (2009). Teaching english language learners through technology. New 

York: Routledge. 

Fansury, A. H., Agreani, A. V., & Lutfin, N. (2018). Web-based learning model using hot potatoes 

application to incease language student achievement. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social 

Sciences, 4(2), 1546 - 1553. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2018.42.15461553 

Farr, F., & Murray, L. (Eds.). (2016). The routledge handbook of language learning and technology (1st ed.). 

London: Routledge. 

Gagné, M. (Ed.). (2014). The oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory. 

New York: Oxford University Press. 

Gohil, H. M., & Parmar, M. (2018). Use of hot potatoes software for language teaching and learning. 

Research Guru, 12(3), 374 - 380. 

Jenn, N. C. (2006). Designing a questionnaire. Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, 1(1), 32-35. 

Krippendorff, K. H. (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (2nd ed.). Thousand 

Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. 

Lougheed, L. (2003). Business correspondance: A guide to everyday writing (2nd ed.). New York: Pearson 

Education, Inc. 

McCarten, J. (2007). Teaching vocabulary, lessons from the corpus, lesson from the classroom. New York: 

Cambridge University Press. 

O'Neil, H. F., & Perez, R. S. (Eds.). (2006). Web-based learning: Theory, research, and practice (1st ed.). 

New York: Routledge. 

Rottmeier, M. (2019). Hot Potatoes. Retrieved from Hot Potatoes: https://hotpot.uvic.ca/ 

https://usd.ac.id/detail_dosen.php?id=00187


Ruth Dewi Indrian | ELT Forum 11(1) (2022) 

72 

 

Roy, A. (2020). A comprehensive guide for design, collection, analysis and presentation of likert and other rating 

scale data. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services LLC. 

Sadeghi, N., & Soleimani, H. (2015). A description and evaluation of hot potatoes web-authoring 

software in educational settings. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(11), 2407-2415. 

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0511.28 

Setiawan, E. (2016). The use of hot potatoes for teaching vocabulary at the eleventh grade of SMA 

Bodhisattva. The 4th International Conference on Education and Language (pp. 232 -241). Bandar 

Lampung: Universitas Bandar Lampung. 

Soleimani, H., & Raeesi, A. (2015). Hot potatoes: The merits and demerits. Theory and Practice in 

Language Studies, 5(6), 1291-1295. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0506.24 

Susiati, RismanIye, & Suherman, L. O. (2019). Hot potatoes multimedia applications in evaluation 

of Indonesian learning in junior high school students in Buru district. ELS Journal on 

Interdisciplinary Studies on Humanities, 2(4), 556-570. doi:https://doi.org/10.34050/els-

jish.v2i4.8455 

 

 


