Information Technology used by Millennial Good English Language Learners in an Indonesian University to Improve their English Skills

Abstract

This is a part of research findings entitled Language Strategies used by Good Language Learners in Millennial Era: A Positive Case Study in an Indonesian university. The research was conducted in 2020. Research participants were selected based on their academic achievements.  The participants include 40 students of English Department of an Indonesian university who have 20% the best academic achievements.

An interesting finding deals with the information technology (IT) media used by the research participants.  The findings reveal that some information technologies were useful to improve their English Skills. The findings were specified based on the four types of English Skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing skills.  For improving their Listening Skill the media used by research participants cover 14 types: YouTube; Spotify; JOOX; Netflix movies; Website TED; Listening section TOEFL; Social media; Podcast; Libri Vox; Voice feature in Google Translate; Tiktok; Zenius; Spoon; Cake; and Yolkradio. For Speaking Skills, they used 15 types of media covering YouTube; Peer; Mirror; Social media; Video/film; Songs; Hand phone, Audio Recording, Dictionary, Aplikasi Discord; TV; FGD; Voice Feature; Game; and Duolingua. For Reading skill, they used 14 types of media consisting of Novel/literary work; Books; Social media; Artikel; Google; Webtoon; Newspaper; Wattpad; Reading Section TOEFL; Game; Libri Vox; Thoughtcatalog; 8freebook.s.net; and Yolkradio. For Writing skill, they used 14 types of media including Book, Social media, Microsoft word, Google, Hand phone, Grammarly, Duolingo, Dictionary; YouTube; Tiktok; Zenius; Spoon; Cake; and Yolkradio. Under the section of findings, the technologies used by the research participants are presented based on the proportion of the users. In addition, we describe the contents and the channels the good language learners used to improve their English skills. This information is beneficial for ELT teachers, learners, and further researchers.

Keywords-good language learner; millennial era; information technology media; listening; speaking; reading; writing