THE USE OF FACEBOOK CLOSED GROUPSTO IMPROVE LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT IN THE ENGLISH PHONETICS COURSE

Abstract

             The objectives of this study were to: 1) evaluate the learning achievement of the course English Phonetics after the out-of-class learning activities using Facebook and 2) measure the attitudes of the students after using the learning activities. The sample subjects were first year English majors of ThepsatriRajabhat University (n=52). The instruments were three lesson plans (15 hours), an attitude measurement test, a pronunciation test. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, namely, mean, standard deviation and one sample t-test and the qualitative data analysis were based on content analysis.

            The findings suggested that 1) the learning achievement of the subjects improved after the out-of-class learning activities using Face book, with the post-test mean score of37.46 out of 50(74.92%).  Comparing to the criterion of 70%, it was found that the post-test mean score was higher than the criterion at the significance level of .05, and 2) the attitude measurement indicated that the topic obtaining the top three mean scores were: aiding the self-practice as often as desired based on the individual’s learning ability (M=4.65, S.D.=0.56), convenient as a means to disseminate information simultaneously(M=4.63, S.D.=0.53), and convenient for self-learning anytime and anywhere(M=4.56, S.D.=0.64).