Students' Communication Ability in Learning English Assisted by Google Classroom and Zoom Meetings

Abstract

In online learning, lecturers are not only expected to be creative and innovative, and to become facilitators and motivators, but also students must be creative and innovative, and are required to be independent. The ability to communicate using adequate English is a necessity in the modern era considering its function as an international social language. English communication skills are required in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. Based on data from the results of the final semester examination for the ESP 1 course in 2021, students’ communication skills were still low. Moreover, this year’s learning for ESP courses was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to describe students’ communication skills in online learning assisted by Google Classroom and Zoom meetings during the COVID-19 era. A descriptive qualitative approach was used. The subjects in this study were students of the English S1 study program, University of 17 Agustus 1945 Semarang in odd semesters who were taking ESP 2 courses. According to the findings, of the 16 students who filled out the questionnaire, were interviewed and practiced orally for presentations using English in the ESP2 course, only four quite mastered the language level that was necessary. This showed that the students’ English-speaking abilities were still minimal, which will greatly affect their ability to speak English in the world of work later. It was shown that during online learning assisted by Google Classroom and Zoom meetings, the students still had difficulties and lacked confidence.
 Keywords: communication skills, online learning, Google Classroom, Zoom Clouds Meetings, English for Specific purposes (ESP)