Using YouTube as a Platform to Learn Social Expression

Abstract

Social expression is an essential English language skill that every child should possess. In order to have a good command of the language, a child should have mastered the rules of thumb in the social skill. However, ESL learners having many constraints in social conventions as they are not native speakers of English language. In the Malaysian context, 21st century learning skill which is communicative skill has been emphasised and given utmost importance (Pandian & Baboo, 2015). However, the social skills among the Malaysian students are at unsatisfactory level whereby the social convention has not been given top priority in Malaysian schools (Azman, 2012). This study is intended to unveil the effectiveness of using YouTube in teaching social expression. This innovation of incorporating ICT and social media platform (YouTube) in teaching social expression could be an effective blended learning approach. This is because usage of YouTube, a prominent and familiar social media platform among pupils, could trigger pupils’ responses in more conducive manner as it caters their multiple intelligences (Bakar, 2007). In this intervention, 60 Year five pupils from three national schools in Perak were selected as participants. 6 YouTube videos, covering all the four language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing) based activities were conducted to explore the effectiveness of this platform features in learning social expression. Pre and post-test and questionnaires were used as data collection methods. The main findings showed that the numbers of correct questions in post-test results increased significantly, thus portrayed understanding of social expression. As a conclusion, visualisation through YouTube is an ideal tool which could sustain participants’ interest and wanting to acquire the language more.