STUDENTS' MOTIVATION AND CHALLENGES IN LEARNING VOCABULARY USING SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Social media among young generations can serve as a platform for entertainment and learning. Despite its use to post their status and pictures related to their everyday life, it can be used for education, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19. The current study investigates social media to identify learners' motivation and challenges in using the platform for vocabulary learning. Seventytwo participants were employed in the qualitative study using an open-ended questionnaire. The data gathered using Google form obtained thick descriptions of their motivation and challenges using the platform to learn English vocabulary. Four themes emerged from the responses concerning their motivation. These themes are (1) the availability of useful features to ease understanding, (2) communication across boundaries and the use of English, (3) pleasurable experience provided, and (4) exposure to various sources. Another four themes were formulated regarding the challenges that students faced using social media for learning vocabulary; (1) perceived problems associated with language, (2) social media users' unfavourable feedback and behaviour, (3) issues with an internet connection, and (4) negative effects on the users. The study implied that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Telegram, Tik Tok and WeChat were able to motivate students to learn vocabulary. However, the main obstacle to use these platforms was internet connection issues. The researchers concluded that such was the effect of learning during the pandemic. Internet access might be limited since household members used the service for learning during the pandemic.