The particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code 2787 Copyright © 2024 The Author IDEAS is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 License Issued by English study program of IAIN Palopo IDEAS Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) Volume 12, Number 2, December 2024 pp. 2787 - 2795 Student’s Interest on Vocabulary Through Falou Application Aditya Muhammad1, Emeliya Sukma Dara Damanik2 E-mail: adityafebruari26@gmail.com, emeliya@uinsu.ac.id 1,2Tarbiyah Bahasa Inggris, FITK Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Received: 2024-12-24 Accepted:2024-12-31 DOI: 10.2456/ideas. v12i2.6075 Abstract This qualitative research investigates students' interest in vocabulary which is considered an important tool in language learning. Students can improve their knowledge and learning through the utilization of technology. The use of technology in education is expected to support educators and learners during classroom activities. Therefore, this study focuses on the use of falou application to learn vocabulary. Data were collected through observations and interviews with students before using the falou app and after using the falou app for vocabulary improvement. The results showed that students' interest was higher in learning vocabulary after using the falou application as an English language learning media. It can be said that the use of falou application in the vocabulary learning process is an effective solution for students at Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah. Keywords: Falou Application, Vocabulary, Interest Introduction In this era of globalization, children are required to be able to learn the languages of other countries in order to become their guide in a world full of fierce competition from various directions in getting the needs of life such as work, education, and so on. The most recommended language to master is English, because English itself has been established as a universal language commonly used to interact with outside communities from various parts of the world (Sasmitha, 2022). Based on the release of the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EFI) educational institution, it is revealed that the English language skills possessed by Indonesian human resources (HR) are in position 74 out of 100 countries which are still far behind fellow Southeast Asian countries. This should be a concern for the http://u.lipi.go.id/1457703302 mailto:adityafebruari26@gmail.com mailto:emeliya@uinsu.ac.id Aditya Muhammad, Emeliya Sukma Dara Damanik Student’s Interest on Vocabulary Through Falou Application 2788 government in particular and students in general so that the ability to master English is increasing (Wilson, 2022). The aim of English language teaching is to enable students to communicate in English both orally and in writing, with an emphasis on accuracy and fluency. Vocabulary mastery is one of the important elements in English language teaching. Vocabulary is the foundation for building language and plays a fundamental role in communication. Many researchers state that vocabulary is more important than grammar. Therefore, vocabulary mastery should be taught along with grammar to avoid problems in learning English (Nabela, 2024). According to (Badroeni, 2022) developing vocabulary is the most important aspect of learning a language. Vocabulary is the basic foundation of communication, as we all know and it is highly dependent on the vocabulary they acquire to use. Without vocabulary, students will lose interest in using the language. Mastery of vocabulary in a foreign language is very important. Language learners must have a large vocabulary. We cannot express our thoughts and communicate well without adequate vocabulary. The lack of adequate vocabulary hinders our ability to convey our thoughts and interact with others (Agustina & Maryati, 2024). Nowadays, many applications are available as a manifestation of the rapid development of technology. According to (Fithriani, 2018), in this 21st century, integrating technology in language learning has been widely promoted as a medium to solve language barriers as above. In the EFL classroom, sundry skills of language have been taught by using technology integration. The applications used to learn English such as: Duolingo, hello English, and falou. In more detail, the application that helps in developing English vocabulary is falou. Falou application is one of the applications that provides English learning media equipped with various interesting features. Falou app uses a recording feature to capture daily conversation sentences in English through the phone's microphone. The recorded audio will be analyzed by the app to assess whether the user's pronunciation is correct. The falou app is specifically designed to develop English speaking skills with an interactive and engaging approach. With various features such as speaking practice, instant feedback and real situation-based dialog, falou gives users the opportunity to practice in a more flexible way. One of the best features of this app is its ability to customize learning materials according to the user's ability level, making the learning process more personalized and effective. Confidence plays a key role in speaking ability and Falou is able to create an environment that supports users to practice without fear of mistakes (Putu Ratni, 2024). This app is found on Play store. This app can help master the pronunciation and speaking of the language. In addition, this app consists of language lessons created by more than 200 native speakers. The Falou app was updated on October IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2789 22, 2023 with version 0.069 which has been used by 5 million installations. The advantage of the Falaou application is that this application is very easy to get just by downloading the Falou application on Play store then we can immediately use it. Meanwhile, the Falou application also has disadvantages, one of which is that this application has several advertisements that must be skipped when applying it, then for the next stage users must pay to continue further learning contained in this application (Lainatusshifa, 2024). However, there are things that must be considered, namely students' interest. In teaching and learning, Students' interest has become a basic competency reference that makes the focus for the smooth and successful learning objectives in teaching English. Some research results show that the impact of information and communication technology on education can make teaching and learning more interesting (Chapelle, 2010) The benefits of students' interest are evident when technology used today in learning has been shown to improve speaking, writing and listening skills (Zurita, 2004). Even students' interest in learning vocabulary by using technology is also very important. According to (Hashima, 2017) stated that technology is essential for improving students' achievement, engagement, and participation in language learning. In addition, technology provides unlimited access to various resources. Technology also makes language learning easier. From the description above, the author is interested in examining students' interest on vocabulary through Falou application. Picture 1. Vocabulary Learning Sketch with Falou Application Method The quantitative data analysis approach method used in this research is descriptive analysis. Students' interest in the Falou application as a vocabulary learning tool is described descriptively. This research was conducted at Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah which is located at Jalan Glugur Rimbun, Diski gang Anggrek 12 No. B 227, Deli Serdang and was carried out in the month of August until the month of September The subjects of this study amounted to 23 grade 3 students chosen English Learning Vocabulary Falou Application Helps students learn vocabulary English vocabulary mastery Aditya Muhammad, Emeliya Sukma Dara Damanik Student’s Interest on Vocabulary Through Falou Application 2790 by the researcher because they studied English for one of the subjects in class. The researcher introduced the students to English lessons with the falou application. After the introduction, students were instructed to engage with the app, download the app and then navigate through the secondary curriculum pathways to complete one unit from each pathway. Then students shared their results and experiences using the falou app. Data collection was carried out using observation and questionnaire methods. The observation used in this research is participant observation, namely making direct observations in the field to find out the actual conditions of learning interest of class IX Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah students by using the Falou application. This aims to collect students' experiences and impressions in using the falao application to learn English vocabulary. To find out students' interest in vocabulary through the falou application, questionnaires and interviews were conducted. Table 1. Validity Test Results Question r-count r-table Description 1 0,741 0,413 Valid 2 0,758 0,413 Valid 3 0,649 0,413 Valid 4 0,734 0,413 Valid 5 0,717 0,413 Valid 6 0,714 0,413 Valid 7 0,776 0,413 Valid 8 0,818 0,413 Valid 9 0,839 0,413 Valid 10 0,804 0,413 Valid 11 0,751 0,413 Valid A questionnaire can be said to be valid if rcount> rtable and vice versa if the results rcount < rtable then the questionnaire is declared invalid. Based on the results of the validity test with a value of rcount is 0.413, the research questionnaire is declared valid. IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2791 Table 2. Reliability Test Results Cronbach Alpha r-table Description 0,912 0,06 Reliable To determine reliability, it can be done by means of the Cronbach Alpha test, with a test decision if Cronbach Alpha ≥ 0.6, meaning that the variable is reliable. Based on the results of the reliability test, the Cronbach Alpha result is 0.912, so the variable is said to be reliable. Results Researchers made direct observations by looking at student learning activities in English lessons without using the Falou application. Initial observations used an observation sheet to assess student interest in learning English vocabulary in class IX Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah. The following is student learning interest with indicators of attention, feelings of pleasure, interest, participation / involvement of students will be presented in the table as follows: Table 3. Observation Results of Students' Interest in English Vocabulary Learning No Aspects of Student Interest Good Not good N % n % 1 Attention 6 26,1 17 73,9 2 Feelings of Pleasure 4 17,4 19 82,6 3 Interest 6 26,1 17 73,9 4 Participation/Involvement 5 21,7 18 78,2 Based on the table above, the aspect of students' feelings of pleasure is not good, has a value of 82.6%, the aspect of student participation / involvement is not good, has a value of 78.2%, while the aspect of students' attention and interest is not good, has a value of 73.9%. Therefore, it can be concluded that students' interest in learning English vocabulary at Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah is still not good, so further research needs to be done. The next action to be taken is learning English vocabulary using the Falou application. Aditya Muhammad, Emeliya Sukma Dara Damanik Student’s Interest on Vocabulary Through Falou Application 2792 Table 4. Observation Results of Students' Interest in English Vocabulary Learning by using Falou Application No Aspects of Student Interest Good Not Good n % n % 1 Attention 18 78,2 5 21,7 2 Feeling of pleasure 17 73,9 6 26,1 3 Interest 17 73,9 6 26,1 4 Participation/Involvement 15 65,2 8 34,8 Based on the table, it can be seen that the increase in student interest in learning English vocabulary after using the Falou application. It can be seen from the aspect of good student attention has a value of 78.2%, the aspect of feeling happy and good student interest has a value of 73.9% and the aspect of good student participation / involvement has a value of 65.2%. It can be concluded that students' interest in learning English vocabulary at Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah has been categorized as good after learning using the Falou application, it is classified as a maximum according to the expected target. The results of observations made by researchers are supported by interview data from several informants of class IX students of Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah. The question asked by the researcher, how do you think about the Falao application, can it help you to understand the variety of vocabulary in English lessons? The following are the results of the researcher's interview: "falou application helps me in preparing vocabulary in English lessons, with various features that can facilitate me (participant 1)" "in my opinion, this app is more efficient for improving vocabulary, because it helps me in the learning process (participant 2)" "learning English vocabulary while using the app is very fun, it helps me in finding study materials (participant 3)" "I am not yet proficient in using this Falou application, there are many features that I don't know yet, which makes me not helpful in the English learning process (participant 4)" "this app is fun but too many ads make me slow to find new vocabulary (participant 5)" The results of observations made by researchers are supported by interview data from several informants of class IX students of Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah. The question asked by the researcher, what is the opinion of the English language learning application? The following are the results of the researcher's interview: IDEAS, Vol. 12, No. 2, December 2024 ISSN 2338-4778 (Print) ISSN 2548-4192 (Online) 2793 "I know several English learning applications, such as the Cake application, Grammarly application, hello talk application. For the falou application I just found out about this (participant 1)" "I know this application, this falou application is recommended for those of us who are still learning English (participant 2)" The results of observations made by researchers are supported by interview data from several informants of class IX Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah students. The question asked by the researcher, how do you think, do you easily memorize new words and get the new words you want when using the Falou application? The following are the results of the researcher's interview: "falou application can be used by recording sound and new vocabulary will appear (participant 1), this application can test our English language skills (participant 2), I like it because I can find everyday English sentences and apply them (participant 3)." Discussion Based on the results of the researcher's interviews with several informants, the researcher concluded that the Falou application is quite effective and has the potential to help students learn English vocabulary. Learning English vocabulary through the Falou application as a learning media can motivate students to learn English because this application is quite easy to use, interesting and fun. This research is supported by research conducted by Lainatusshifa, stating that the falou application has a significant increase in students' speaking skills (Lainatusshifa, 2024). After that, the study found that the falou app has a very low learning curve meaning that even if there are some students who are not tech-savvy, those students will have no trouble using it. After a few tries of the falou app, students were able to follow the lessons and could access the exercises easily. The falou app stands out for its in-depth approach, providing a simulation method of mimicking situations when teaching vocabulary or grammar that makes learning more fun and helps build confidence in speaking English. Through the observations and interviews that the researcher conducted regarding the falou app, many students gave positive rather than negative feedback. They liked the features presented in the falou app. This application is a useful tool to encourage students who want to perfect their Speaking English skills because it can be an effective approach to learning new information in unexpected scenarios. According to the grade ninth students of Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah, the falou app makes it easier for them to practice vocabulary and apply English in real-world situations. During the learning process, students can find inspiration and Aditya Muhammad, Emeliya Sukma Dara Damanik Student’s Interest on Vocabulary Through Falou Application 2794 motivation from the falou app. In addition, students have a greater desire to expand their vocabulary. Conclusion This quantitative research was designed to determine students' interest in vocabulary through the falou application. The findings show that the interest of grade IX students of Mts Madani Ikhwanul Hasanah in learning English vocabulary using the falou application is said to be quite good. The falou application has helped students in learning vocabulary correctly and extensively. Researchers give advice to students that they must further improve their Speaking English skills by improving good and correct vocabulary, in order to achieve these targets, students can take advantage of the falou application which is easily accessible and has interesting features that can improve students' English-speaking skills. It is important to know that the use of technology in education is very important because it can increase student motivation and learning outcomes. Educational applications are considered quite effective as learning media, one of which is the falou application. References Agustina, & Maryati. (2024). Student's Perception on Using Cake Application as Learning Vocabulary. Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 12(2) , 1049-1060. https://ejournal.iainpalopo.ac.id/index.php/ideas/article/view/5389/35 76. Annisa, N., Syam, A. T., & Masruddin, M. (2022). Teaching vocabulary through Round Robin Brainstorming Technique. 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