International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 124

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
Method
Participants
The participants of the study were 60 students of Department of Public Health, the State
University of Gorontalo, Indonesia who took General English course. They took this course
as one of the general and compulsory subjects they undertake at their first year of their
undergraduate study. They were divided into two groups, i.e., an experiment class (n=30)
and a control group (n=30).
Data Collection
A mixed method of a quasi-experimental and a qualitative interview approaches was used
to collect and analyze data. Using a quasi-experiment with the pre-post test design with the
control group, intervention was given to the treatment group. The control group, however,
received the conventional face to face classroom instruction. A set of pre-test questions of
the English proficiency which contains a four-major skills of English test was given to the
group of participants both in control and experimental groups. This test was conducted to
determine their existing language proficiency. The pre-test questions were the same as the
ones that had been used for the post-test.
The treatment group undertook 8 meetings with the intervention of ICT usage of
English learning websites and Facebook (FB) group discussion integrated into every single
lesson of the meeting over a period of 8 weeks. Each participant in this treatment group
joined the FB group where they would have received updated postings regarding the topic
being discussed in the class. Every week, the link of the particular topic from the selected
English learning website was supplied to the FB group so that they could learn and play and
replay the materials. For the purpose of this study, Randal’s English learning website
(http://www.esl-lab.com) was selected for several reasons, such as its content, practicality,
variety of language learning activities, and the flexibility of language user leveling
adjustment. With the selected English learning website, participants were assigned to
integrated-language skills activities, i.e., listening, reading, writing and speaking. The topics
varied in every session, and were designed to suit their interests as well as being relevant to
their course. Some