The Effectiveness of Using Memrise Application in Improving Students’ Speaking Skills

Abstract

This study aims to identify the impact of using the Memrise application on improving the speaking skills of eighth-grade students at SMP Negeri 12 Purworejo in the 2024/2025 academic year. This study employs a quantitative research method with a quasi-experimental design, where data were collected from 64 students through pre-tests and post-tests. Two groups of students participated in this design, and their growth in speaking skills, including greeting, leave-taking, thanking, and apologising, was evaluated using pre-tests before the treatment (Memrise app) and post-tests after the treatment. Statistical analysis using the t-test revealed that the average score of the experimental group was 81.44, while the control group scored 77.38, with a difference of 4.06 points. The t-value obtained was 2.845 with a degree of freedom (df) of 62 and a significance level of 0.005. Since p < 0.05, there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups. These results indicate that the Memrise app can significantly improve speaking skills compared to conventional methods. This finding also shows that technology-assisted language learning not only improves students' cognitive aspects but also has a positive impact on the affective and motivational aspects, which are very important in learning speaking skills. This study has limitations in terms of the scope of the population and language skills examined, as it focuses solely on the speaking skills of eighth-grade students. Therefore, it is recommended that future researchers conduct further studies on other language skills such as listening or vocabulary mastery, and apply similar research to different educational levels.