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ARTICLE 1

The Effectiveness of Using WhatsApp Messenger as One of Mobile Learning Techniques

to Develop Students' Writing Skills
by Said Fathy El Said Abdul Fattah (2015)

Rapid change and incredible development in the information and telecommunications

technologies has affected all fields of life. Learning environments has tried to make use of all
these technologies. As a result of this change, most of learning institutions try to adapt their
systems to involve these technologies in their programs. English language learning is one of the
leading sciences that appeared this change. One of the potential technologies deemed suitable
to play a fruitful role in this regard are mobile ones. Portability and accessibility of mobile
devices in this digital era have attracted many scholars to apply them in the educational
settings. Furthermore, several researchers have attempted to prove applicability of mobile
learning as modern ways of teaching and learning (Naismith, 2004).

1. Learn a new language

Riyanto (2013) claims that WhatsApp can be used not only to socialize with friends, but
also to study and even learn a new language. He uses the example of English by stating
non-English students are able to learn English faster, better and more fun by joining a
WhatsApp group with fellow students and teachers. The teachers then are able to post
small assignments and ask students to complete them by using one of the possibilities
WhatsApp offers. In this way, students are able to read English and are obliged to
answer in English, which improves their English language skills. Because WhatsApp is
free, everyone using a Smartphone will be able to participate.

2. Developing students’ writing skills

All the students of experimental group have Smartphone with WhatsApp Messenger
already installed on their mobiles. They created a group on WhatsApp called the "Writing
Program". Each week, they had a specific essay topic to write about. This topic might be
introduced to the students as a title only or as a picture to describe or an event to write
about. Each student in the group was asked to write his own ideas about the selected
topics in the group. The students kept on generating ideas for the suggested topics.
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They were asked to share their own ideas on WhatsApp Group. Through drafting, the
main focus is on generating ideas through using brainstorming and gathering
information; that is, putting ideas on WhatsApp group. Therefore, mechanics and surface
structure such as spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure should not be a concern.
There should be no obstacles facing their flowing of ideas. It is centered on recording
ideas (Carter, 2007; p. 69). On the third day, students finished their brainstorming of
ideas. Then the students continued for one day reviewing their paragraphs. At this stage,
the participants were required to go through the content of their writing, looking for
improvement. Based on the instructions they received from the instructor before starting
writing. They had to clarify, add, delete, or even reformulate the whole draft in order to fit
the intended purpose. At this stage students could share information together and had
their peer corrections. On the fourth day, it was the time for the students to purify their
final drafts by examining the mechanics of writing such as spelling, punctuation, writing
format, grammatical rules, etc. On the sixth day, the students published their paragraphs
on the group in WhatsApp. Each one of the group published his own paragraphs in the
group. After that the students had peer corrections for their final paragraphs. We had a
three hour meeting every week; explaining notes related to their writing mistakes
especially to punctuation marks.

3. Express themselves freely in a non-restricted environment.

Rambe& Chipunza (2013) shows that students felt WhatsApp gave them the possibility
to express themselves freely in a non-restricted environment thus removing the low
participation constraints characteristic of lectures. Also their research showed students
learned technical skills by sharing and searching information on WhatsApp they could
also use on other study-related platforms like the Blackboard environment.

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1083503 (2015)

ARTICLE 2
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The Effect of Using WhatsApp Messenger in Learning English Language among

University Students
By
Dr. Mohammad Abd Alhafeez Ali Ta'amneh (2017)

Technology is considered an important and effective tool in language learning nowadays. It

plays a major role in facilitating teaching and learning. Prensky (2001) suggests that students
these days are all native speakers of digital language of computers and the internet. They adopt
new instructional technologies in their learning and constructing knowledge. Such technological
devices may make the educational environment differ from the traditional way that concentrates
completely on the classroom in giving information to learners to a new way of learning outside
the classroom. Besides, they provide learners and instructors opportunity to learn and
communicate with others at anytime and anywhere (Crescent & Lee 2011). One of these
applications is "WhatsApp messenger".They largely depend on it to know a lot of news around
the world. Besides, they may help them in their learning through exchanging information needed
in learning English language since it is used by most of the students. It provides access to
learning resources when teachers and students are separated by time and distance (Honeyman
& Miller, 1993)..

1. Learning foreign language

Attewell (2005) carried out a study about the effect of mobile technologies on learning.
Her participants were from three countries. She developed an SMS-based course to
motivate learners to study foreign language through mobiles. The findings showed that
the learners achieved a great improvement in reading comprehension. Besides, they
revealed that learners' motivation had increased towards learning and using the target
language. Cavusand Ibrahim's (2008) investigated the use of wireless technologies in
education with particular reference to the potential of learning new technical English
language words using Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. The researchers
developed a system called (MOLT). They tested 45 first-year students. Results indicated
that students enjoyed using their mobile phones to learn new words. They also revealed
that using the mobile learning tool system was an effective educational tool that
contributed to the success of students.

2. Improve student participation in learning

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Rambe and Bere (2013) investigated mobile instant messaging to make alternative
contexts for learners' collaboration in informal spaces in response to the very limited
lecture contact time and the little students’ participation. The researchers selected 163
third year Information Technology students at Central University of Technology. They
used interviews and a questionnaire to collect data using WhatsApp as a learning and
teaching tool in different contexts to achieve academic benefits. Results revealed that
WhatsApp positively influence students’ ability to participate and connect with peers
online at any time. WhatsApp online discussion interaction forums, are flexible
comparing to traditional lectures. The roles of the teachers have been changed to
facilitators and the learners’ roles have changed to generators, collaborators and group
leaders.

3. Develop student’s writing skills

AbdAlfattah (2015) conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of using a

WhatsApp Messenger as one of mobile learning technique to develop students' writing
skills. The participants were 30 second year college students, English department from a
private university in Saudi Arabia. They were divided into two groups (experimental and
control). The experimental group used WhatsApp technology to develop their writing
skills; whereas the control group was taught their writing skills through prescribed book.
Results revealed that WhatsApp technique had positive effects on the experimental
group comparing with control group.

4. Positive effect on foreign language teaching.

Cakir, I. (2015) explored the current use of mobile phones in a foreign language teaching
from prospective teachers' opinions and attitudes. The researcher presented the views
of prospective English teachers on utilizing the mobile phone as an instructional tool for
foreign language learning purposes in the educational and instructional setting of foreign
language teaching classrooms. A questionnaire was given to 193 participants in an
English Language Teaching (ELT) department. Results showed that most of the
participants liked to use their mobiles as instructional tools to help them in learning
English. The results also gave some insights as to how foreign language teachers could
employ suitable approaches to make the process of learning and teaching English
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meaningful and communicative. They suggested that the participants would like to make
use of mobile phones for educational purposes when they become teachers of English.

http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/ire/article/view/10801/8735 (13 March 2017)

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ARTICLE 3

Effectivity of E-Learning through Whatsapp as a Teaching Learning Tool

By
Sonia Gon and Alka Rawekar (2017)

WhatsApp is a free messenger application that works across multiple platforms like iPhone and
android phones, and this application is being widely used among undergraduate students to
send multimedia messages like photos, videos, audios along with simple text messages
(Lenhart, Madden, Macgill and Smith, 2007). Since internet facility is required for using
WhatsApp, lots of information can also be accessed in real time, and sharing that information
through technology is both instantaneous and convenient (Fogg, 2010). According to Bere
(2012), WhatsApp messenger has the following collaborative features such as multimedia that
allows the user to exchange videos, text messages, images and voice notes. Group Chat
supports the interaction of up to 50 group members. Unlimited Messaging which is the number
of messages you can share on WhatsApp is unlimited.

Knowledge sharing between students, and between students and teachers

In the present study, groups of 40 students were created on WhatsApp and TL activity was
done. It was observed that more interactions in the forms of questions, answers, sharing of
learning material as well as different emotional gestures of thank you, well done etc., were
present in the TL sessions of WhatsApp as compared to the didactic lectures. Rambe and
Chipunza (2013) also observed that WhatsApp supports knowledge sharing between students,
and between students and teachers. Students in their study named WhatsApp as a
“communication, transnational platform” where they can express themselves freely in a non-
restricted environment thus removing the low participation constraints characteristic of lectures.
Bansal and Joshi (2014) also observed in their study that 82% students’ were eager to post
videos, audios, texts on the problems and were also learning from other’s posts. Over the past
year, the high infiltration of Smartphones into the market has initiated growing use of Whatsapp
as a communication platform for various student groups, and more recently for groups for
teachers and their students as well. Teachers can create a group for their students that
constitute a type of “simple social network” for the class. (Fischer, 2013).
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WhatsApp is simple to use

Amongst technical advantages, most of the students agreed that WhatsApp is simple to use and
easily available and downloadable but 89.95% students disagreed that it is free of charge as the
college campus is still not WiFi enabled and they had to take packages with mobile data which
had cost slightly more than the plan without mobile data. Bouhnik & Deshen (2014) had
concluded that WhatsApp is simple and provides privacy along with low cost application as
compared to other social network like Facebook or twitter. Since students in the present study
also used to do social networking on Facebook and twitter.

Facilitator’s availability and Learning anytime anywhere

Facilitator’s availability and Learning anytime anywhere were top two advantages of learning
through WhatsApp with 86.72% and 86.55% students agreeing to it. M-learning increases the
flexibility of accessing a variety of resources for learning independently at anytime and
anywhere (Jardat, 2014). Seventy three percent students in a study of Bansal and Joshi (2014)
found learning anytime, anywhere convenient with disagreement coming only from those
students who did not want to compromise on family time

WhatsApp enables learning beyond the classroom’s borders

WhatsApp enables learning beyond the classroom’s borders and the high availability of
teachers to the students’ questions can potentially enhance the learning Process. It also
enables easy and quick transference of links to study materials (Bouhnik and Deshen, 2014).
Interaction between students, sharing learning material, easy accessibility to learning material,
High Interaction with facilitator and Doubts immediately cleared were the other educational
advantages of WhatsApp TL activity with more than 70% students agreeing to it. Fifty six
percent participants in a study of Bansal and Joshi (2014) agreed that learning through
WhatsApp in learning has educational benefits like immediate feedback to the problem; learning
on move; deeper clarity on issues; revision of previously learned topics; learning from others
problems; healthy discussions; and availability of learning material all the time.

http://www.informaticsjournals.com/index.php/mvpjms/article/view/8454 (January-June 2017)

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ARTICLE 4

WhatsApp Goes to School: Mobile Instant Messaging between Teachers and Students
by

Dan Bouhnik and Mor Deshen (2014)

WhatsApp has been functional as one of the main communication within a group among students and
teachers. Communicating with students,support social environment, encourage sharing among students
and learning platform is four main function of WhatsApp group. WhatsApp was very helpful in
education field such helps creating a friendly environment among the students and teacher The
characteristic of WhatApps such as simple operation, low cost, accessible has become a technical
advantages which easy to be use by students and teachers

1)Influence on interpersonal communication

An examination of the use of Whats App in a South African university class registered
positive feedback from students who claimed that it was an easier way to communicate with
their teachers and the rest of the class, that it was productive of fruitful discourse on relevant
issues in an informal environment where students could learn intimately and authentically,
and that it was also fun (Bere, 2013). Active participation in class, learning any time any
place, and informal communication, are common to all the platforms. ( Bounhik &Denshen,
2017).The students reported a rise in motivation and a greater enthusiasm for reading in a
foreign language (Plana et al., 2013). Sense of belonging and community (Doering, Lewis,
Veletsianos, & Nichols-Besel, 2008; Sweeny, 2010)

2)WhatsApp allows collaborative learning among the students.

A Meta research of 21 papers on microblogging in education revealed potential for

collaborative learning, sharing resources, learning any time any place, informal
communication between stu-dents and between students and teachers, and enhancing
students engagement( Bounhik &Denshen, 2017).Overall, WhatsApp has become a shared
platform that enhances accessibility, encourages cooperation, and intensifies motivation to
take an active part in academic assignments (Bere, 2013; Chipunza, 2013) .Another study,
of university students, communicating during and after the lessons via internal SMS system
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that the university developed, found that students tend to ask more question and participate
via IM system (Scornavacca, Huff, & Marshall, 2009). Usage of different platforms of Instant
Messaging (IM) between faculty and class reveals the following: potential for learning
enhancement (Smit, 2012);

http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol13/JITEv13ResearchP217-231Bouhnik0601.pdf (2014)