Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Learning Pronunciation

: The objectives of this research are to analyze the students' perceptions of the use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in pronunciation learning and to analyze the problems faced by the students regarding the use of the MALL in pronunciation. Additionally, this research was conducted using a mixed method design. The data for this research were taken from 15 students in the English Education Study Program, at Tadulako University. In collecting the data for this research, the researcher used questionnaires and interviews with the students. The questionnaire was in the form of a statement and it included five degrees of answer options. The interview, on the other hand, was in the form of semi-structured and included 10 items. Then, after analyzing the data obtained, it was concluded that the general perception of the students is that the perception of the students on the use of MALL in pronunciation is positive as they perceive that MALL is effective and beneficial for their pronunciation learning. Further, the students explained that there is one major problem they face regarding the use of MALL in pronunciation that deals with internet connectivity. However, as can be inferred from the students' explanation, there are three more problems that cause difficulties to students. They are the students' phones performance; the possibility of the students being redirected; and the students' familiarity with using mobile phones for learning. a positive attitude toward technological learning. The findings of this study also depict the potential and power of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) to encourage students to engage in classroom activities and monitor their learning. Hence, it can be concluded that MALL is pivotal and can be one alternative to facilitate students' pronunciation learning. Thirdly, a study conducted by Nuraeni (2020), "Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL): Students' Perception and Problems towards Mobile Learning in the English Language." This study was conducted through a quantitative method with 70 students used as the samples who registered as students in English Major at Bima Sarana Informatika University. The results of the study showed that first, the majority of the students had positive perceptions of the use of MALL to support classroom activities of English learning. Second, since the kind of MALL used deals with internet connectivity, the participants in this study found it the biggest problem in terms of MALL use. Fourthly, the study conducted by(Haryadi, 2020), "Integrating "English pronunciation" app into pronunciation teaching: How it affects students' participation and learning." This study aimed to find out whether the integration of the English Pronunciation app in pronunciation class at Mandalika University of Education (UNDIKMA) can increase students' participation and self-learning. This study made use of a quasi-qualitative design. The result of the study indicates that the integration of the English Pronunciation app in teaching pronunciation increased the students' participation (engagement, attitude, and conduct). In addition, the app brought a positive effect on the establishment of independent learning for a significant number of students. Fifthly, a study conducted by(Nariyati, 2020) entitled "EFL Pre-service Teachers' Perception toward the Use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning in Teaching English." This study was conducted using an explanatory sequential mixed method design with 70 students from the eighth semester of English Language Education at the Ganesha University of Education, who was referred to as EFL pre-service teachers, selected as the participants of the study. The questionnaire and interview were employed as the instruments of this study. The results showed that pre-service sequential is done with the quantitative data collected (Aratusa, 2017) and analyzed first and is more paid attention to than the qualitative data (Mills, 2016). Other than that, the quantitative data determine the findings of the research and are elaborated together with the qualitative data. The quantitative data have numerical symbols to represent or manipulate as well as describe and explain the phenomena that were collected and reflected during the research. In addition, the quantitative data of this research were obtained from the questionnaire which aimed at finding out the students' perceptions of the use of MALL in pronunciation and the problems faced by the students regarding the use of MALL in pronunciation. To get more understanding of the students' perceptions, the researcher also used qualitative data to explore more of the students' individual thoughts on the items given. This research was conducted at Tadulako University, specifically on the second-year students or fourth-semester students from batch 2021 in the English Education Study Program, Language and Art Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education. There were fifteen students from the second semester were recruited for the sample. They were involved in pronunciation class. The students were assigned questionnaires and then followed with in-depth interview sessions. The questionnaire used in this research was designed by the researcher and the experts whom the researcher obtained assistants from. that, it is also to note that the questionnaire which was delivered has been through the readability and validity processes. The questionnaire that was used in this research is a set of positive statements given to collect opinions or perceptions of the students about a current issue, in this case, MALL in pronunciation learning. The questionnaire was given to students who were selected. It was given online to the students through a google form. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed both descriptively and quantitatively as well as explained and interpreted. The positively-oriented


INTRODUCTION
Previous studies highlighted the importance of pronunciation in English communication(e.g. Levis, 2005;Morley, 1991). Pronunciation becomes a major aspect of understanding and interpreting speakers' intentions and spoken language and speakers can be considered unintelligible if they have poor pronunciation (Reed & Levis, 2019). On the other hand, pronunciation, as part of spoken skills, has been overlooked and considered unnecessary in the teaching of English (Benzies, 2017). This belief might be the justification for why many teachers, English trainers, and English lecturers deny its importance as part of English mastery. There is one true thing about this despairing assumption that it is contagious to students. In other words, it brings an adverse effect on students' participation, attitude, and pronunciation learning. However, the statement above could be true for some reason.
First, pronunciation is one of the difficulties faced by both English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and learners Sayer (2015) states EFL teachers are likely to experience pressure about the idea of teaching pronunciation. While Derwing in (Jahangiri, 2016)states The fact that EFL teachers are born in a country where English is not their first or even their second language reasonably influences their accent which may sometimes lead to the unintelligibility of self' skill in speaking yet speaking confidence.
Second, the accent of Non-native English speakers (NNES) is typically influenced by the language of their origin. Chung (2017) indicates further that Asian and Chinese have not very attractive accents, in which the writer would say that people from these regions have off-target vowels, wrong or missing consonants, misplaced stress, and odd intonation. Being aware of being a Non-Native can be the source of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), as research draws a conclusion that speaking is the most affected skill by Foreign Language Anxiety (Kralova, 2017).
As English learners, it is important to reach our goal to increase speaking skills, especially pronunciation. Pronouncing a particular word is something English Foreign learners need to know more about when they have actually learned the new word (Aratusa, 2018a). Therefore, it is important since it plays a major role in communication, and mispronunciation may result in communication The availability of mobile devices and the surplus number of sites, apps, online language learning devices, and more, unfortunately, have not much been explored maximally for educational benefits by most English lecturers and learners in Indonesia (Aratusa, 2018b). Although Pratama (2018) reveals that over 95% of Indonesian university students possess a smartphone, most of them generally use their devices on social media. This is a clear indication of how university students are fond of smartphones. It is certainly an opportunity in learning, not a hindrance. Vazquez-Cano (2014) and Nurdin, et al., (2021) states that smartphone and other mobile devices are useful teaching resources for university students both distance and face-to-face learning. However, many English teachers/lecturers are unable to take benefit from this opportunity. As a result, teaching pronunciation remains monotonous and unable to increase students' learning, participation, and learning attitude.
Even though many studies have found the relationship between the use of mobile technology with the improvement of English acquisition, there is limited studies that have been conducted to find out the use of mobile technology in pronunciation learning. This might hinder our understanding of the benefits of mobile technology used to improve English pronunciation. This study, therefore, examined the students' perception of the use of mobile technology in learning English pronunciation within a higher university context in Indonesia. Our study might shed light on the importance of the use of mobile technology in English teaching in particular in English pronunciation. Concerning this problem, we will answer the following research question: What are the students' perceptions of the use of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in English pronunciation learning?
This paper is structured as follows. After this section, the related studies are presented and followed methodology section in the third section. Results and discussion are discussed in the fourth section, which is then followed by the conclusion and limitation of the study respectively.

RELATED STUDIES
There have been similar and related studies conducted before by some experts which in this case taken by the researcher. Firstly, a study conducted by (Kwangsawad, 2019) entitled "University Students' Perceptions of MALL in EFL Classes." This study was conducted through a qualitative approach. 103 EFL students enrolled in TEFL 1-2 at the faculty of education, Mahasarakham University, Thailand. This study was done using the interview as its instrument. The results showed that all students have experienced the use of MALL in their EFL learning. In Kwangsawad's study, the kind of MALL used were smartphones and ipads which were found beneficial, fun, and productive by the participants of the study. Participants also gave some feedback on the use of MALL which is related to the misuse of smartphones in EFL classes, so they demanded strict guidelines on its use. Some of the students also answered that the problem with MALL is the difficulty faced by lecturers to incorporate it effectively.
Secondly, a study conducted by (Miqawati, 2020), "Pronunciation Learning, Participation, and Attitude Enhancement through Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)." This study is a collaborative classroom action research. Thirty students enrolling in the Pronunciation class at English Study Program Politeknik Negeri Jember were taken as the source of data. The result showed that the materials and practices in Tflat courseware could enrich students' pronunciation learning, improve their participation, and nurture a positive attitude toward technological learning. The findings of this study also depict the potential and power of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) to encourage students to engage in classroom activities and monitor their learning. Hence, it can be concluded that MALL is pivotal and can be one alternative to facilitate students' pronunciation learning. Thirdly, a study conducted by Nuraeni (2020), "Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL): Students' Perception and Problems towards Mobile Learning in the English Language." This study was conducted through a quantitative method with 70 students used as the samples who registered as students in English Major at Bima Sarana Informatika University. The results of the study showed that first, the majority of the students had positive perceptions of the use of MALL to support classroom activities of English learning. Second, since the kind of MALL used deals with internet connectivity, the participants in this study found it the biggest problem in terms of MALL use.
Fourthly, the study conducted by (Haryadi, 2020), "Integrating "English pronunciation" app into pronunciation teaching: How it affects students' participation and learning." This study aimed to find out whether the integration of the English Pronunciation app in pronunciation class at Mandalika University of Education (UNDIKMA) can increase students' participation and self-learning. This study made use of a quasi-qualitative design. The result of the study indicates that the integration of the English Pronunciation app in teaching pronunciation increased the students' participation (engagement, attitude, and conduct). In addition, the app brought a positive effect on the establishment of independent learning for a significant number of students.
Fifthly, a study conducted by(Nariyati, 2020) entitled "EFL Pre-service Teachers' Perception toward the Use of Mobile Assisted Language Learning in Teaching English." This study was conducted using an explanatory sequential mixed method design with 70 students from the eighth semester of English Language Education at the Ganesha University of Education, who was referred to as EFL pre-service teachers, selected as the participants of the study. The questionnaire and interview were employed as the instruments of this study. The results showed that pre-service teachers of English Language Education at Ganesha University of education are familiar with what Mobile Language Assisted Language Learning is. It was proved by qualification from each dimension of the questionnaire which showed a very high perception. They also believed that MALL facilitated English learning with rich information sources in relation to educational content as well as supporting the designing process of material through mobile technology.
In relation to the previous studies, this research develops and combines what the previous studies lacked. To begin with, the first study by Kwangsawad used only interviews as the instrument. The researcher believes that using only one instrument will not provide the researcher with satisfying results as the data obtained might not be complete or not confirmed properly since the results of the interview might complement or add explanations to the results of the questionnaire and that they confirm each other. So that the current researcher decided to use two instruments to get more satisfying results. Other than that, the first study used smartphones and iPad when referring to MALL which is very in contrast with the current study. This current study focuses its study on the platform of MALL which is a mobile dictionary app or the "software media" not on the "hardware media." The second study by Miqawati (2020) focuses her study on the MALL as the alternative to facilitate students' pronunciation learning. She focused her study on the students' perceptions of pronunciation learning, participation, and attitude enhancement through MALL. On the other hand, this current study also adapts these points in the questionnaire. This division helps and inspires the current researcher to focus on specific items regarding MALL and how students perceive its use so that they will not be mixed in confusion. Similar to the first study, the study by Nuraeni (2020) referred to the online platform in the realm of MALL use. It is because they talked about the technical difficulty in MALL implementation which deals with internet connectivity. This is in contrast with the current study that focuses more on the platform of MALL or the software that is or was installed on the students' phones.
Moreover, the fourth study Haryadi (2020) is in line with the case of the second study which the researcher adapts. The current researcher adapts the items that deal with the "participation" of the students in the use of MALL. This study by Haryadi (2020) emphasizes or establishes the use of MALL as the source of independent learning for the students. The fifth study by Nariyati (2020) employed both questionnaires and interviews as its instruments. The use of two instruments sounds reasonable since the use of only one instrument might not describe the whole information needed during the research. All in all, this current study adapts and develops some points taken from the previous studies deciphered earlier. This step is found to strengthen the future outcome of the current study as well as additional values to the previous studies.

METHODOLOGY
In this research, the researcher used a mixed method design (Creswell & Clark, 2011). It is a combination or a "mixing" of quantitative and qualitative methods. The mixed method that was used in this research is explanatory sequential. sequential is done with the quantitative data collected (Aratusa, 2017) and analyzed first and is more paid attention to than the qualitative data (Mills, 2016). Other than that, the quantitative data determine the findings of the research and are elaborated together with the qualitative data. The quantitative data have numerical symbols to represent or manipulate as well as describe and explain the phenomena that were collected and reflected during the research. In addition, the quantitative data of this research were obtained from the questionnaire which aimed at finding out the students' perceptions of the use of MALL in pronunciation and the problems faced by the students regarding the use of MALL in pronunciation. To get more understanding of the students' perceptions, the researcher also used qualitative data to explore more of the students' individual thoughts on the items given.
This research was conducted at Tadulako University, specifically on the second-year students or fourth-semester students from batch 2021 in the English Education Study Program, Language and Art Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education. There were fifteen students from the second semester were recruited for the sample. They were involved in pronunciation class. The students were assigned questionnaires and then followed with in-depth interview sessions.
The questionnaire used in this research was designed by the researcher and the experts whom the researcher obtained assistants from. Other than that, it is also important to note that the questionnaire which was delivered has been through the readability and validity processes. The questionnaire that was used in this research is a set of positive statements given to collect opinions or perceptions of the students about a current issue, in this case, MALL in pronunciation learning. The questionnaire was given to students who were selected. It was given online to the students through a google form. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed both descriptively and quantitatively as well as explained and interpreted. The positively-oriented items were provided with five scales from Likert (1932) in which the ratings are: 5= strongly agree; 4= agree; 3= neutral; 2= disagree; and 1= strongly disagree.
Furthermore, the questionnaire consists of 20 items with four different focuses. They are (1) students' general perceptions of MALL; (2) students' pronunciation learning; (3) students' attitude towards the use of MALL; and (4) students' participation in learning pronunciation through MALL. The focus or variables can be seen in the following In analyzing the data of the research, the researcher used both statistical and descriptive analyses. Since the design used is an explanatory sequential mixed method design (Nurdin, 2017), the result analysis was through the following processes explained by (Mills, 2016):

A. Questionnaire Results
To obtain information from the students, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to 15 students of batch 2021 in the English Education Study Program, Language and Art Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Tadulako University. The questionnaire consists of 20 items. The statements used in the questionnaire answer or highlight the first problem statement which is about the students' perceptions. The questionnaire was given to the students on June 20 th , 2022. In obtaining the students' responses, each statement is provided with five degrees of agreement or answer options to be selected by the students which is also known as the Likert scale. The result of the data is shown in numbers, diagrams, and percentage form. The percentage is obtained by dividing the obtained answers by the number of students/responses and multiplied by 100. As mentioned earlier in Chapter III that the questionnaire is divided into four variables. They are students' general perception of the use of MALL, students' pronunciation learning, students' attitude towards the use of MALL, and students' participation in learning pronunciation through MALL. Due to them, the researcher then deciphered the result based on its division. This is purposed to give a detailed understanding of the results of the questionnaire Moreover, to see the percentage of how frequently each response appears on the questionnaire, the researcher calculated the percentage in order to give more details regarding this research. The result can be seen in Table 2 below. Based on the above table, the most frequent response in the first item of the questionnaire is Agree response (60%) followed by the response on the Strongly Agree response (40%). In the second, third, fifth, tenth, twelfth, fifteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth, 100% of students selected Agree response. Unlike the previous ones, the fourth, thirteenth, and nineteenth items have a During the interview, the researcher rephrased the questions to make them easy for the students to understand considering the students' English proficiency. In interviewing the students, the researcher correlated the content with the ones in the questionnaire. The intention is the same which is to see the students' perceptions of the use of MALL in pronunciation. Results of the interview are used and elaborated to ensure whether or not the interview results clarify the questionnaire results.
To begin with, in the first item of the interview, the researcher asked the students whether or not they enjoyed learning pronunciation. This question is highly important to be put first since it can correlate with the next items. If one student has a negative answer on this item, the rest items will not be answered in a positive way either. Then, in line with the first question of the interview, the students answered that they enjoy learning pronunciation. It is because they believe that pronunciation is the bridge to fluency in speaking. Pronunciation, as they responded, improves their speaking skill directly. One student even responded that many things can be learned from learning pronunciation that will benefit her in the process of learning itself.
In the second item of the interview, the researcher asked the students about a special technique or way that the students do to support their pronunciation learning. Depending on the question, the students provided different answers which show how varied their pronunciation learning way and experiences were. The first student answered that she improves her pronunciation by watching YouTube videos. As can be inferred from her response, she watches YouTube videos in English and has every word pronounced in videos repeated. She imitates the pronunciation modeled in the videos. She believes that by doing so, her pronunciation will be slightly improved. Different from the first student, the second student practices pronunciation by reading a book. Although she did not mention further what kind of book she reads or how she does it, it can be inferred from her that she reads a book out loud. Practice reading out loud allows the students to listen to their own articulation. Other than watching YouTube videos and reading a book, another student answered that she listens to music and watches English movies in line with pronunciation learning. Listening to music, as she signified, makes her pronunciation improve in a fun and entertaining way. However, it is important to remember that songs the students have to listen to are the ones sung by native English speakers or native-like English speakers to get the accurate articulation of each word. Watching English movies is also the one answered by a student. It is believed that conversation in movies is close in its use to daily expressions; which means that imitating words spoken in movies improves not only pronunciation but also phrases and expressions.
The third item of the interview deals with what the students do if they encounter problems in English pronunciation learning. Relying on the question, the students answered that practice makes perfect. Practicing pronunciation makes the students improve even better. Some of the students, in response to this question, refer to their answers to the previous item of the interview. They explained that to handle the difficulty, they need to level up their way of learning. This can be done by watching English videos more often, so that they will get accustomed to spoken English perfectly well, in this case, intelligible pronunciation.
The fourth item of the interview is about whether or not the students use any application to learn pronunciation. The students answered that they use the application to learn pronunciation. The applications they use are varied according to their preferences. Two of the students interviewed answered that they use Google Translate (they might refer to the text-to-speech feature in it) and an online dictionary. Another student answered a specific type of online dictionary, the U-Dictionary application, which is another popular electronic/online dictionary these days. They all believe that the mentioned applications help them learn how English sounds are enunciated.
In the fifth item of the interview, the question starts to narrow to the main focus. The researcher asked the students about their perceptions of the use of mobile phone dictionary apps in pronunciation learning. The students answered that the use of a mobile phone dictionary app of any kind is good since it can improve their pronunciation due to the feature in it. All of their answers on this item of the interview are still parallel to their responses in the questionnaire which clarify that the students highly perceive the use of the mobile phone dictionary app or MALL to be beneficial for them in pronunciation learning. Again, this is due to the textto-speech feature in the MALL application itself.
In the sixth item of the interview, the researcher asked about the students' preferences in using either a printed dictionary or an online dictionary. The students answered that the online dictionary, compared to the dictionary, is more convenient to use. It is because of its practicality that it is easy to carry around. While looking up a word, the user only needs to type the targeted word and it appears in less than a second (depending on the processors of the mobile phone used). The printed one, according to the students' answers, is heavier to carry around and it is quite time-consuming to look for targeted words in it.
In the seventh item of the interview, the researcher asked the question dealing with the students' major difficulty in using both types of dictionaries in pronunciation learning. The answer to this question is still related to the one in the previous item. In line with the question, the students answered that the difficulty of using a mobile or online dictionary is the connectivity. Since the internet connection is not strong enough in some parts of the campus, the students claimed that it is difficult to load the online dictionary. This is also true for mobile phone dictionary apps. Some words are unavailable in the mobile dictionary app students need to connect to the internet to find out the translation and its pronunciation. WiFi or internet connection is still an issue in this case. Regarding printed dictionaries, the students answered that other than their impracticality, it is also difficult sometimes to look up words manually. It will be even more frustrating if a student is limited in time. Therefore, compared to the online/mobile dictionary major difficulties, difficulties found in using a printed dictionary are more of an issue.
In the eighth item of the interview, the researcher asked a question that deals with the student's belief about whether or not learning pronunciation through a mobile phone dictionary app improves their English. Relying on the question, the students answered that they agreed with the question. One of them responded that she is positive about it because she has proven it herself. She has experienced how the mobile phone dictionary app affects her English in a good way. Another student also gave the same answer as the previous ones she explained in the previous items of the interview. All in all, the students showed positive answers on this item which clarifies and strengthens their selection of responses in the questionnaire.
In the next item, which is the ninth item of the interview, the researcher asked the students about the features or menus that a mobile phone dictionary app has, and whether or not it is helpful. Depending on this question, the students answered that the features provided by the mobile phone dictionary app are clear and helpful to support their pronunciation learning. Another response from the student highlights the use of the pronunciation feature in the mobile phone dictionary app. It has always been the main focus of the students when it comes to the use of mobile phone dictionary apps to learn pronunciation. Due to this, other features are slightly ignored by the students. In line with its pronunciation focus, one student explained that the features help her to find out how words are written and how the IPA symbols are written.
In the last item of the interview, the researcher asked the students about the continuity of the use of mobile phone dictionary apps by the students, inside or outside the classroom. Referring to this item, the students answered that they will always use a mobile phone dictionary app in the future. It is due to its reliability and practicality that the students prefer using it to printed dictionaries, especially in the classroom.

C. Students' Perceptions on the Use of MALL in Pronunciation
Previously explained, the questionnaire focuses on four variables that specify the students' perceptions. With the results calculated in the previous part, it can be inferred from them that (1) on the use of MALL, the students' general perception is positive since most of the answer they selected was Agree on response. According to the interval determined earlier, this shows the high category of perception; (2) on pronunciation learning, the students' perception is also positive. This is proven by the fact that the most frequent responses were Agree and Strongly Agree on ones. As the results calculated, there is no doubt that the positive view given by the students resulted from the beneficial effect of the use of MALL in pronunciation learning; (3) on the students' attitude towards the use of MALL, the same positive perception as obtained in the previous ones takes place once again. The students develop a positive attitude and perception because they already knew and experienced the effectiveness of using MALL in pronunciation learning, and depending on (4) students' participation in learning pronunciation through MALL, all students conclude positive result perception on participating in using MALL in pronunciation class.
This happens for any reason, two of them because the use of MALL in language learning, especially pronunciation, is not a new thing. Thus, the students found the use of MALL in pronunciation learning familiar. The second reason why the students have a positive perception is that all the responses they gave belong to the high category of the interval. To sum up, all the positive responses and perceptions given by the students happen because the students are familiar with the use o MALL in pronunciation learning. Therefore, there are no hesitations for the students to select the best responses.

CONCLUSION
Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that the perception of the students on the use of MALL in pronunciation is positive and the responses belong to the high category mostly. The reason why the students selected the mentioned response is that the students are quite familiar with how to use a mobile phone dictionary app in pronunciation learning. Despite the perception, there are also problems the students face regarding the use of MALL in pronunciation. The problem resulted from the students' interview results deals with the internet connectivity. However, as can be inferred from the students' explanation, the researcher found the following issues that may contribute to the students' problem. They are (1) the students' phones performance; (2) the possibility of the students being redirected; and (3) the students' familiarity with using mobile phones for learning.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
We acknowledge that our study has some limitations. First, the respondent in this study was very few which was fifteen students. Second, the response rate of the questionnaires was also low in which we distributed more than a hundred and fifty questionnaires, but they were returned only a hundred questionnaires. However, from those hundred questionnaires, there were only fifteen questionnaires were valid and included in the analysis. Further studies, should expand the studies within a broader context and with more respondents to increase the validity of the study.