STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE USE OF WHATSAPP IN LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The COVID-19 pandemic made people stay at home for months forcing educators to engage the use of WhatsApp and some other digital platforms in teaching. This investigation, therefore, was to find out the perception of students on the use of WhatsApp in learning English language in particular. The target subjects are the students of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ). This study employed the survey design, observation, and structured interviews. Four structured interview questions were used for data collection. The sample for this study consists of twenty-five (25) respondents from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism in the IfakoIjaiye Area of Lagos State. This was done using Simple Random Sampling. The data collected was analyzed using a derived table. The results showed that the use of WhatsApp in learning the English language is highly effective. Many of the students are positively affected by the use of WhatsApp in learning the English language, although they still prefer physical learning (traditional face-to-face) since they are easily distracted whenever they learn using WhatsApp as the communication mode. The findings indicated that WhatsApp cannot easily pass all the needed information in the teaching and learning process. The study strongly recommends blended learning; the use of WhatsApp as well as traditional face-to-face teaching.