College EFL Students’ Perception towards LINE Webtoon Application forTheir English Reading Habits

Reading is one of four primary English skills that can help students gain knowledge and information. As one of numerous digital literacy platforms, LINE Webtoon application which provides comics with a lot of genres can be used to assist students in reading on many gadgets. The purpose of this study was to discover the students' experiences in using LINE Webtoon application regarding their English reading habits and the significance of LINE Webtoon application on their English reading skills. The descriptive qualitative research design was utilized to collect the data. Six female students in English Language Education Department participated in this study which was conducted at one of the Islamic private universities in Yogyakarta. The data were collected through interview. Based on the result of the interview, the students shared their experience when reading English comics in LINE Webtoon application, including that first they got interested because of its illustrations. They also experienced that reading LINE Webtoon was easy; the language in LINE Webtoon application was simple, and the stories were relatable to their life. In addition, during using LINE Webtoon application, the students always impatiently looked forward for the update and they applied certain ways to read such as open translation machine or dictionary and guessing. They felt that there was a change on their enthusiasm in reading English after using LINE Webtoon application for English reading and their reading routine and duration increased. Related to the students’ perception on the significance of LINE Webtoon application towards their English reading skills, the findings showed that they felt their English vocabulary and grammar increased because of reading LINE Webtoon. After reading English using the LINE Webtoon application, it is hoped that there will be positive implications in improving English reading habits and reading skills.
Keywords: LINE Webtoon application, reading habits, reading skills, reading experience