INTERACTION: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Vol. 9, No.

1: Mei 2022
P-ISSN: 2406-9558; E-ISSN: 2406-9566

YouTube-Assisted Self-Regulated Vocabulary Learning:

Indonesian EFL Learners’ Experiences

Mad Suli
madsuli1720@gmail.com

Acep Bahrum Kamil

acep.bahrumkamil@fkip.unsika.ac.ud

Mobit
mobit@fkip.unsika.ac.ud

Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang

ABSTRACT
This research is aimed to explore students’ YouTube-assisted
vocabulary learning in the self-regulated learning context. This
research was conducted with the participants of four students from a
vocational high school in Karawang. This research used narrative
inquiry approach; thus, the data were collected through interview,
specifically semi-structured interview. The data of this research were
analysed by thematic analysis method. This research has discovered
that students would start to learn when they had spare time to use,
they also had to keep on eye to the internet connection during their
learning process, and lastly, they tried to recall the vocabulary they
just learned after they finished their learning. Students also had some
criteria for the videos they watched in their learning process. This
research also found that students experienced some enjoyments in
their YouTube-assisted vocabulary learning, although they were still
reluctant to continue their learning.

Key words: self-regulated learning, vocabulary learning, YouTube

INTRODUCTION

There are lots of components that need to be learned in the English language by the
students. However, among those components, vocabulary needs to be learned first
by the students because in every language learning, vocabulary is one of many
crucial components that needs to be prioritized (Kabooha & Elyas ,2015). It is
necessary to be done because by not prioritizing vocabulary first, students will
experience difficulties in their English learning as stated by Nor Hani, Maslawati,
Melor & Azizah (2017) that students with limited vocabulary find themselves
struggling to read, write, listen, and speak in English. It explicitly implied that if
students do not know any necessary words, they will not be able to proceed their
English learning properly. Therefore, it is a clear sign for the students to start to

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prioritize on the vocabulary learning so they can have better understanding in their
English learning.

In the process of the vocabulary learning, students can utilize any media which are
familiar to them as an assistance in their learning process, and in this case it would
be YouTube. YouTube is one of a form of entertainment-provider that is well-
known by people worldwide. Someone who has a smartphone will definitely know
and use YouTube. There are millions of videos on YouTube that are ready to be
watched, and those number will keep growing even bigger every day with no sign
of stopping. Although YouTube was created to provide entertainments, it does not
mean it cannot provide some education to the people. With so many videos that are
available on YouTube, there is very likely it can be used as an assistant for the
students’ vocabulary learning process.

As a matter of fact, there have been several researches exploring about YouTube as
an assistance in the students’ vocabulary learning. Raniah and Tariq (2018) reported
students showed positive feedback to the use of YouTube in classroom to help their
vocabulary learning, they also felt more enjoy when learning which improved their
vocabulary learning process. Afshan, Rehana and Zahoor (2019) discovered that
teachers and students believe YouTube improved vocabulary acquisition as it
increases interest level of students in learning process. Lystiana (2019) showed that
YouTube is effective in teaching vocabulary for learners and improve their
vocabulary mastery. Lida, Eva, Paola and Veronica (2020) found YouTube-based
activities in teaching and learning vocabulary provide new experience which led to
better result in students’ learning vocabulary process. Based on those previous
researches, the participants showed positive impression to the vocabulary learning
with YouTube assistance. Therefore, this research also tried to explore students’
vocabulary learning with YouTube assistance in the self-regulated learning context.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Previous Related Study

There are some researches on the use of YouTube in self-regulated language

learning, but they were discussed the language learning on general. Wang and Chen
(2019) discovered that the learners watch English-teaching YouTubers’ videos to
find extra information to complement their formal learning. The research also
discussed the process of the learner use YouTube in their learning. One thing they
do before learning is setting goal, and then they search the video that are relevant
with their goal. The goal is based on how they will use English language in their
life. After watching the video, they usually give a like and share it to their friends.
Some learners subscribed the channel if they feel the video is useful, and maybe
taking some notes from the video. The learners also put the video in their playlist
so they can watch it in other time, and the last thing they do is to give comment to
the video.

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P-ISSN: 2406-9558; E-ISSN: 2406-9566

Fadhilah (2019) also conducted a study about YouTube in self-regulated language

learning. She discovered that participants used YouTube to regulate different
aspects of their language learning outside the classroom. Moreover, students
showed positive engagement in using YouTube in their learning for goal
commitment, affective and resource regulation. Putri, Agus and Slamet (2020) also
conducted study on YouTube in self-regulated language learning. The results
showed positive perceptions from students towards self-regulated language
learning using YouTube. Participants believed that the use of YouTube could
facilitate them in regulating their learning English, brings joy, pleasure, and
excitement during the learning process. It was found that the strengths of self-
regulated learning using YouTube are it provides a lot of learning materials, easy
to use, and flexibility of time and place when using YouTube in their learning.
Meanwhile the weaknesses are financial constraints and problem of Internet
connectivity of learners.

Vocabulary

Nothing can be done without the vocabulary, because it is the basis for
communication. Jamalipour and Farahani (2012) state that the vocabulary is
commonly recognized as the main communication tool. Vocabulary can be seen as
a manifestation of the human mind, it is because vocabulary is used by people to
express their feelings, ideas, opinions and so on. Compared to another language
aspect, according to linguistic perspective vocabulary seems to be more useful and
urgent than grammatical role. Staehr (2008) stated that regardless of the various
degree of its contribution, the number of the vocabulary positively predicts the main
language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It has a more beneficial
contribution to the reading and writing abilities, but is moderately related to
speaking and listening skills. Although the benefits of vocabulary mastery are not
equally shared, vocabulary still serves as vital role on the any language skills.

Vocabulary learning is incredibly notable in English language learning. It is

because learning vocabulary can be viewed as a fundamental stage of language
learning (Alhamani, 2014; Nation, 2001). It is unfeasible for a learner to
communicate without the required vocabulary. Vocabulary is one of the keys to
understand a comprehension or paragraph or statements, so without understanding
the words it means the students will not be able to understand anything. Vocabulary
acquisition is central to language acquisition, regardless the language is first,
second, or foreign (Decarrico, 2001). As students build connections between known
words and unknown words, they develop a deeper understanding of their learning.
If learners lack vocabulary knowledge, they soon discover that their ability to
comprehend or express themselves is limited (Decarrico, 2001; Nation, 2001). It
shows on how important is having enough vocabulary regardless of learners’
language background.

Self-Regulated Learning

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The method of learners learning something by themselves is known as Self-

Regulated Learning (SRL). According to Zimmerman (1986, p.4), self-regulated
learning is a state when learners are metacognitively, motivationally, and
behaviorally active participants in their own learning process. Mastering self-
regulated learning will be helpful because it will not only improve students’ school
academic, but also prepare them to be able to overcome the challenges they will
face in their further education. Moreover, as Low and Jin (2012) stated that learning
is a complex human activity that needs to be done by students rather than to be done
for students. It proved by nowadays learners mostly are taught to learn material by
only themselves rather than taught to assimilate knowledge from their teacher.
Schools also tried their best to change from institutions of teaching to institutions
of learning.

Various experts have developed models of self-regulated learning. Schraw (1998)

developed a model which are planning, monitoring, and evaluating (p.8). Planning
occurs before learning process. They decide what they want to learn and how they
will do it. Monitoring happens on the learning process. They try to make sure the
learning goes smoothly, and how they can overcome any possible interferences.
Evaluating happens after the learning process. They try to analyze on how much
they understand the material and what they need to change in the next learning
process. Zimmerman (1998, 2002) also proposed similar model, they are
forethought, performance, and self-reflection (p.9). Forethought is the stage when
students decide the goal and strategies of their learning. Performance is when the
students use the strategies and adjust them to support their learning process. The
last stage is self-reflection, when students evaluate on what they have learned and
what they need to improve in the next learning process.

METHOD

Design and Samples

The researcher used qualitative research approach, specifically narrative inquiry

method. The reason it was chosen because this research focused on the experiences
of the participants toward YouTube-assisted vocabulary learning in self-regulated
learning context. This research was conducted with participants of 4 students from
Vocational High School in Indonesia. By studying each student’s experiences,
researcher expected to be able to find the information related to the students’
YouTube-assisted vocabulary learning in the self-regulated learning context.

Instrument and Procedure

The researcher conducted an interview to the participants to collect data from their
experiences. The researcher used semi-structure interview so the researcher could
ask them some more questions based on their answer to collect more data for this
research. The interview questions on this research were adapted from Wang & Chen
(2019). Through the interview, the researcher expected to collect information about

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the process and perceptions of students’ YouTube-assisted vocabulary learning in

the self-regulated learning context. Due to the pandemic that was still happening,
the interview had to be done virtually to ensure the safety of both the researcher and
the participants.

Data Analysis

The data in this research were analysed qualitatively. The researcher used thematic
analysis by Braun and Clarke (2006) because this research used narrative inquiry
which is one of the qualitative researches, and thematic analysis is quite known as
a method in analysing qualitative researches. There are six steps of analysing this
data: 1) familiarizing the data, 2) identifying the codes, 3) searching for themes, 4)
reviewing themes, 5) defining and naming theme, and 6) producing the paper.

RESULT AND DISUSSION

1. The process of students’ YouTube-assisted vocabulary learning in self-

regulated learning context.

The process about students’ vocabulary learning process would be presented within
the framework model from Zimmerman. In the forethought phase, the first thing
the students did was deciding when they would start their learning. All students had
the same factor in their consideration, which is the availability of the spare time.
Students would start their vocabulary learning when they were really sure they had
some spare time to use. It varies from one student to another, but they mostly tried
to learn in the night when they did not have any activities or any assignments, and
before they went to sleep. However, there was one student tried to learn in a very
specific and distinctive time compared to the other students, which was before the
virtual class begin.
“Ada, biasanya saya coba belajar sekitar jam 9 pagi sambil nunggu kelas mulai.”
[Yes, I have. I usually tried to learn in the 9 AM while waiting the class to begin.]
Vignette 1

Apparently, the virtual class of the students in this academic year started from 9:30
and ended up in 12:30 (11:30 for Friday), so she had around 30 minutes before the
class begin. She tried to utilize her spare time by learning some vocabularies. The
next thing that students prepared was making sure their phones still have enough
mobile data and battery. They sometimes prepared earphone so they could
concentrate more in their vocabulary learning process. The students’ preparations
before started their learning which this research found were quite different from
what participants did in the previous research by Wang and Chen (2019).

In the performance phase, there was one thing that students needed to keep in eye,
which is the internet connection condition. Students quite often experienced
unstable internet connection while watching the videos on their vocabulary learning

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process. The problem which students encountered was the same as the previous
research by Putri, Agus and Slamet (2020).
“Koneksi internetnya suka macet-macet kak saat lagi nonton videonya”
[The internet connection often stuck while I watch the video]
Vignette 2

“Sinyalnya kadang tiba-tiba hilang mendadak”

[The signal sometimes suddenly disappears]
Vignette 3

When they experienced the unstable internet connection, they firstly tried to pause
the video for some time to wait the internet connection became more stable by itself.
If the connection did not seem getting better, they tried to fix it through mobile
network settings in their phone. Lastly, if the unstable internet connection was
worse than they anticipated, they would try to move around in their home to find a
better spot for getting better internet connection.
“Saat sinyal sering hilang, saya coba benerin di pengaturan hp saya kak”
[If the signal kept disappearing, I tried to fix it through mobile networks settings in
my phone.]
Vignette 4

“Kalau sinyalnya sering banget putus-putus, saya biasanya coba pindah-pindah

tempat di dalam rumah kak. Tempat yang biasanya bisa ngasih sinyal yang lebih
bagus sih di halaman rumah.”
[If the signal disconnected too often, I tried to move around inside my house. The
place that usually gave better internet connection was in the front yard.]
Vignette 5

Students have tried everything they could to minimize this unstable internet
connection issue. Unfortunately, this issue was beyond their control so the best
thing that they could do was to get used to it.
In the self-reflection phase, there was one thing that students tried to do after they
finished their vocabulary learning process. They tried to recall the vocabulary they
have just learned.

“Setelah nonton videonya, saya coba mengingat-ngingat kembali materinya kak.”

[After I finished watching the videos, I tried to recall the materials from the videos.]
Vignette 6

They also apparently did not try to make any notes on a book or phone to help them
in recalling vocabulary they have just learned. The whole process only happened
inside the mind of the students without using any external tools. In addition,
students did not seem to do something to the videos they watched like the
participants did from a research by Wang and Chen (2019). They did not try to give
a like or comment to the videos they watched, and they did not try to subscribe to
the channel either.

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All in all, the whole process might look different from some previous researches
related to this research. However, it is worth to mention that those previous
researches explored about participants’ YouTube-assisted for language learning in
general, unlike this research which only explored in the vocabulary aspect.

2. Students’ criteria on choosing video in their vocabulary learning

The main criteria that students consider before choosing the videos is easy to
understand. Another criterion that students had but they did not explicitly state it
was simple videos, but they provide quite specific examples which represented that
criterion in which can be seen as follows:
“Kriteria saya saat milih video itu yang videonya mudah dipahami”
[My criterion for choosing the videos is easy to understand.]
Vignette 7

“Saya nonton video yang gampang dipahami kak, kaya video tentang pengenalan
sayuran.”
[I watch the videos that are easy to understand, like the video that introducing
vegetables.]
Vignette 8

Picture 1. A screenshot of video example that students watched

This is an example of the video that students showed to the researcher. It can be
seen that the video is quite simple and straightforward. The video consists of an
example picture of a certain vocabulary, the written text of the vocabulary, the
Indonesian translation in the subtitle and also the audio pronunciation by native
speaker. All students mostly watched the videos with those criteria in their
vocabulary learning.

3. Students’ perceptions toward YouTube-assisted vocabulary learning in the

self-regulated learning context.

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The students gave both positive and negative feedbacks regarding to the YouTube-
assisted vocabulary learning in the self-regulated learning context which were quite
similar with a previous research by Putri, Agus and Slamet (2020). The positive
feedbacks from students indicated that YouTube could provide some enjoyments to
the students’ learning process. For the negative feedbacks, they experienced some
difficulties in their learning because of unstable internet connection and limited
mobile data. Furthermore, they also expressed their attitude toward their further
learning which can be seen as follows:

“Saya tertarik sih Kak buat lanjut belajar kaya begini, cuma kuotanya yang kurang
mendukung.”
[I am actually interested to continue learning like this, but my mobile data doesn’t
really support it.]
Vignette 9

“Tertarik dan gak tertarik sih Kak. Tertariknya karena video-videonya asik dan
mudah dipahami, kalua gak tertariknya karena sinyal suka hilang tiba-tiba.
[I am both interested and uninterested. I am interested because the videos are
interesting, but what I am not interested is because the internet connection often
suddenly disappear.]
Vignette 10

“Saya kurang tertarik buat lanjut karena menurut saya belajar seperti ini kurang
terlalu efektif. Saya lebih suka cara belajar yang langsung biar bisa bertanya buat
memahami materinya.”
[I am not really interested to continue doing it because I think learning like this is
not really effective. I prefer to a direct learning that can make me able to ask some
questions to help me understand the materials.]
Vignette 11

Based on their statements, it could be concluded that the possibility of the students
to continue their learning was unfortunately quite low. The unstable internet
connection and limited mobile data made the students hesitant to continue their
learning. In addition, the student’s preference to the more conventional learning
also decreased the students’ interest to continue their YouTube-assisted vocabulary
learning in the self-regulated learning context.

CONCLUSION

There are several things this research has discovered about the students’ YouTube-
assisted vocabulary learning in the self-regulated learning context. In short, students
would start to learn if they have made sure that they have spare time to use. During
their learning process, there was one thing they had to pay attention which was the
internet connection. Last but not least, they finished up their learning process by
recalling the vocabulary they have just learned. In addition, students had some
criteria for videos they wanted to watch in their vocabulary learning. This research

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also discovered that YouTube could provide some enjoyments to the students’
vocabulary learning process. However, the unstable internet connection, limited
mobile data and the learning method preference resulted on the hesitation of the
students to continue their learning.

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