This paper discusses the use of WhatsApp as one of current beneficial devices to assist
students in communicative language learning. Based on the writer’s experience in teaching
English for Specific Purposes at Information Technology Department, WhatsApp can
increase students’ motivation in learning and it offers huge opportunities for them to share
and take ideas in the target language to improve their knowledge. It allows them to engage
actively in online conversation and create confidence to use English in daily communication
through two forms of conversation such as independent and dependent conversation. The
first type assists students to interact among themselves to discuss various interesting topics,
whereas teachers are not involved in their online dialogues. The latter, however, requires
teachers to guide the whole processes, and they are actively participating in the online
discussion. This media can help students build their confidence and motivation to learn.
Based on the questionnaire distributed to the subjects, it revealed that they felt confident,
independency, enthusiasm, and having positive attitude to learn English using the
application. Hence, WhatsApp is one of recent technologies that can be used in language
teaching especially to motivate non-English major students to learn English.
Keywords: whatsapp, conversation, English language teachin
