Effectiveness of Using Animated Videos via Google Sites in Enhancing Socio-culture of Native English-Speaking Countries

This research aimed at 1) studying the second-year university students’ achievement after using animated videos through Google Sites to enhance socio-culture of native English-speaking countries, 2) examining the efficiency of animated videos with an efficiency criterion of 75/75, and 3) exploring the students' level of satisfaction after using animated videos. The samples of the study selected purposively were 48 third-year students majoring in English for Communication program at a university in the southern part of Thailand. 15 aminated videos on Socioculture of native English-speaking countries, pre-test, post-test, and a questionnaire asking for the users’ satisfaction were used to collect data which were analyzed by means of average value ( ), standard deviation (S.D), T-test, and E1/E2. The results were as follows: 1) pre-test scores averaged to 13.81 ( = 13.81) while posttests averaged to 22.52 ( = 22.52). This revealed a statistically significant different level of .00, 2) the efficiency of the created animated videos on Socio-culture of native English-speaking countries was at 75.09/75.06 which was higher than the set efficiency criterion of 75/75, and 3) the students had a positive satisfaction towards the animated video at the highest level with the overall mean scores of 4.55 ( = 4.55). The results pointed out that using animated videos to enhance Socio-culture of native English-speaking countries can effectively help the students increase their knowledge and understanding.


Introduction
In this current era, the teaching and learning processes in Thailand have definitely evolved, more specifically the learning methods in order to meet the standards of the policies contained in the Thai education management called Thailand 4.0 such as Student-centered Learning, Self-learning, as well as Online Learning. These types of teaching and learning process are more obviously used and seen during Covid-19 epidemic. This is because online learning does not only help learners to develop their skills, but they can also learn through it any time at any places and still be able to interact with people just like in a classroom setting (Petchngernsee, Klinmalee and Rattanapan, 2018;Fungchantuk, 2010). To gain the attention from the learners, Adam et al. (2017) suggested that using animations can enrich learners' interests and simplify the complex content. Wijaya and Abbas (2018) asserted that traditional media, static slides, may not fully present complicated subject matter and concepts. The use of animation aids to have a more accurate portrayal of these difficult ideas because it displays stages on a regular basis. Berney and Bétrancourt (2016) concluded 3 functions of using animation for instructional purposes which are Directional animation, Transitional animation, and Instructional animation. The first function is utilized as attention gathering devices, bringing leaners to the place where the animation wants to be focused. This can be done through signals, arrows, or anything else that might draw the learner's attention. The second is utilized to aid and lead learners through topic changes, as well as how to move them from point A to point B and comprehend where they are, where they went, and how they got there. The third is about nonverbal communication, or how an animation conveys information without using words. Apart from this, Google Sites is one of the online platforms that can respond to the online teaching style because it is efficient in linking content from a variety of sources such as pictures, audio, videos, etc., that students can easily access and study on their own at any time in their own pace. If these two methods are utilized together, they will explicitly be useful for the students.
As regard teaching foreign languages at present especially English, the pedagogical processes and approaches involved in have certainly evolved over time. Various online media have been used for teaching and learning. Learners can search for self-learning materials on the Internet such as English language teaching and learning videos on grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and conversation. However, if it is claimed that English plays an important role in international communication, cultural awareness is also imperative.
Nonetheless, the current issue of teaching and learning culture is widely debated. Some refer to it as "Language as a lingua franca" (ELF), meaning that English is spoken as a middle language without referring to the norm of native speakers (Seidlhofer, 2016). Some refer to it as "World Englishes", which is English is spoken all over the world without sticking with the norms of the mother tongue, but the speakers use their own norms. Speaking of World Englishes, Kachru, (1985) had divided the countries into 3 Circles: Inner Circle, Outer Circle, and Expanding Circle as shown in the picture below. Inner Circle involves native speaking countries (eg USA, UK, Canada) while Outer Circle refers to the countries that use English as a second language (eg India, Malaysia, Philippines), and Expanding Circle where English is used as a foreign language (eg Germany, Japan, China, Thailand).
In Thailand, World Englishes phenomenon has been raised and widely debated in Thai academic world in terms of tactics and content including the perceptions and attitudes of both teachers and students towards the understanding of World Englishes. Many researchers have attempted to examine this issue for almost a decade. They concluded that teachers and learners in Thailand still maintain a positive attitude towards the use of language and cultural norms in Inner Circle countries and are unfamiliar with the term World Englishes (Jindapitak & Teo, 2012;Saengsukkha, 2015;Katchamat, 2017). The students in these studies also give importance to the cultural differences and intercultural communication issues, however. Ur (2009), Kongkerd (2013), and Songkhro (2020 confirmed that teaching English, especially in countries where English is used as a foreign language, learners should not only acquire linguistics but cultural issues should be included in both forms of interculture and target culture in order to help the learners reach successful communication. In regard to teaching English in Thailand, many universities offer courses related to Language and Culture, Intercultural Communication, Cross-cultural Communication, Socio-culture of Native English-speaking Countries, etc. for their students, particularly the ones majoring in English to provide learners with readiness and understanding of both international cultures and of native speakers. Oxford and Anderson (1995) stated that understanding of international cultures is important. This increases the understanding of intercultural communication and helps students develop their ability to communicate effectively from one culture to another. Although the content of Interculture and culture of native English speakers have already been included in the curriculum and taught to students, they still encounter problems in learning about such content. Such problems that have been stated are "important topics are not covered". "The content is quite difficult, complicated, and inapplicable". (Pasand and Nhem, 2020). In addition, from the survey of online teaching and learning media on Interculture and culture of native English-speaking countries available on the Internet, it was found relatively rare compared to listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
The researchers, thus, attempt in developing animated videos by using Google Sites as a platform to contain the animations and study its efficiency and achievement in order to simplify the complex content and arouse the students' attention which include facilitating their access to lessons from online platforms. The lessons mainly focus on the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries which responds to the curricula in Thailand and are still viewed as one of the important learning topics and standard.

Objectives
1. To compare the students' learning achievement in socio-culture of native English-speaking countries before and after using animated videos. 2. To determine the efficiency of the use of animated videos of the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries via Google Sites basing on the efficiency criterion of 75/75. 3. To explore the students' satisfaction towards learning with animated videos of socio-culture of native English-speaking countries.

Method
This research utilized the created aminated videos presented in 15 videos which revolved around the socio-culture of English-speaking countries. Pre-test, post-test, and a set of questionnaires asking for the users' satisfaction were used for the data collection procedures which are separated into four specific sections: participants, research instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis.

Participants
Forty-eight second-year students (42 female and 6 male) majoring in English for Communication program at a public university in the southern part of Thailand who enrolled in Socio-culture of English-speaking Nations course during the second semester of the 2021 academic year were selected through purposive sampling method.

Research Methodology
The researchers performed specific set of procedures involved in the research methods in order which are as follows: In order to create animated videos, pretest, posttest, and questionnaire, the researchers utilized Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation (ADDIE) model with the following steps: 3.2.1 Analysis 1. National and international documents and research papers on teaching of language and culture, more especially those related to the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries were analyzed. 2. After analyzing the documents, the notion of Hammerly (1982) on cultural knowledge that should be involved into the classroom was adopted for the creation of the animated videos in this study. He categorizes three types of cultural knowledge that teachers should teach and students should know. The animated videos in this study, thus, comprises 3 categories which are: 1) Informational culture (e.g history, geography, etc.), 2) Behavioral culture (e.g conversational patterns, gestures, expressions,

Design
1. The researchers consulted with an instructor having more than five years of experience in teaching Socioculture of native-speaking countries to determine the scope of the content and its learning objectives. 2. Selected topics on Informational Culture, Behavioral Culture, and Achievement Culture were used to create a storyboard in terms of its content, images, graphics, and sounds by focusing on the three functions of using animation for instructional purpose proposed by Berney and Bétrancourt (2016) as a model, namely, Directional animation, Transitional animation, and Instructional animation. 3. Animaker program was the tool used to create the animated videos. 4. Then, the researchers constructed a test to be used to gauge the students' learning achievement. 5. A questionnaire adopted from Khedif, Engkamat, & Suriani (2014) was modified further in accordance to the objectives of this study. It comprises 15 items with 5-Likert scale to assess students' satisfaction.

Development
1. Four experts, namely, 1 English native speaker, 2 English lecturers who have experience living in a native English-speaking country for more than 3 years, and 1 lecturer who specializes in media creation were the ones who determined the content validity of the 15 animated videos utilized in this study. The content validity value was found at 0.82. 2. With regard to the test used to determine the students' learning achievement, it consisted of 50 multiple choice items with four alternatives. Each item weighed 1 mark. The test aimed at measuring the students' knowledge of the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries after learning with the animated videos on Google Sites. The scores did not have any positive or negative impact on their English courses. 3. The test was examined for its correctness and content validity by three experts, specifically, 1 English native speaker, and 2 English lecturers who have experience living in a native English-speaking country for more than 3 years. The result was 0.80 which makes the test valid. 4. In this stage, a questionnaire asking about the students' satisfaction was also checked for Item Objective Congruence (IOC) for confidence by three experts, namely, two English lecturers and one lecturer who specializes in media creation. The validity of the questionnaire was found at 0.86.

The completed version of the animated videos was piloted with 15 third-year students in English for
International Communication program to find out the areas of the created materials which require further improvement and development before carrying out with the experimental group. 2. A multiple-choice test which comprised 50 items was used to compare the students' learning achievement.
The test was examined by three experts and was also tried out for pilot testing with 15 third-year students in English for International Communication program. The results for the pilot test were then analyzed to find out their difficulty indexes. The items with an index lower than 0.20 (too difficult), or higher than 0.80 (too easy) were omitted from the actual test. Fifteen items with a difficulty index between 0.18-0.36, and 5 items with an index between 0.78-0.84 were discarded. The remaining 30 items with indices of difficulty index between 0.40-0.74 were, hence, retained in the actual test. The 30 items were again examined for test validity by the 3 experts. The result of the validity test was 0.78 which signifies that the test was valid.

Evaluation
The researchers determined both the instrument's efficiency and the students' learning achievement according to the following data collection procedures.
The study was carried out during the semester 2 of academic year 2021 in Socio-culture of English-speaking Nations course at a public university in the south of Thailand. Forty-eight second year students majoring in English for Communication program took part in this study. Before the experiment, the students were informed of the objectives of the study and other specific instructions about the tests they would be taking. They were asked to take a 30-item pretest within one hour. After that they were directed to study three categories of animated videos within four weeks. After finishing each lesson, they were required to complete 15 quizzes in order to check their understanding. After completing four weeks, they were asked to take a posttest within 1 hour and accomplish the satisfaction survey section on the use of the animated videos about the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries on Google Sites.
The data were statistically analyzed according to the research objectives. Dependent Samples T-test was run to compare the results of students' learning achievement. The Efficiency of Process (E1) and Efficiency of Product (E2) were employed to determine the efficiency of animated videos through Google Sites. Mean ( ), standard deviation (S.D.), and percentage (%) were run to analyze the data of students' satisfaction. A five-point Likert scale was also employed to range each item average as the following criteria and interpretation: 4.51-5.00 (Highest), 3.51-4.50 (High), 2.51-3.50 (Moderate), 1.51-2.50 (Low), and 1.00-1.50 (Lowest).

Results
The scores obtained by the participants from the test were statistically analyzed as reported below.  Table 1 shows the differences in the scores the students obtained from their pretests and posttests about the socioculture of native English-speaking countries. The mean score of the pretest was found at 13.81 ( = 13.81), while X X X the posttest garnered a mean score of 22.52 ( = 22.52). This revealed a statistically significant different level at .00. In other words, the students performed better in the posttest.  Table 2 demonstrates the average scores obtained by the learners in each quiz they took after studying each lesson which is 75.09 as well as their average score in the posttest which is 75.06. The average scores 75.09/75.06 indicate that the created animated videos on Google Sites of socio-culture of native English-speaking countries are efficient instructional tools as the scores meet the efficiency criterion which is 75/75.

Second-year university students' satisfaction towards using animated videos through Google Sites
As shown in Table 3, the students' overall satisfaction with the animated videos was at the highest level ( = 4.55). Eight over fifteen items achieved 'highest level' and 'Animated videos are interesting and modern' had the greatest mean score with 4.69 followed by 'Studying with animated videos on Google Sites enhances self-study skills' with = 4.65, and thirdly, 'The content covers cultural issues among English native speakers' with = 4.63. Both 'The content of the stories is not complicated' and 'Font, colors, and illustrations are appropriate and consistent with the content' were also among the 'highest level' items and had similar mean scores of 4.60. Another 'highest level' item is 'The main menu is easy to understand and access with 4.58. The remaining two items under the 'highest level' category, specifically, 'Studying with animated videos on Google Sites can increase academic achievement' and 'The proportions of the screen are appropriate and appealing' both garnered similar mean scores of 4.56. On the other hand, seven items obtained a rating of 'high' wherein 'The content of the videos imparts knowledge with clear explanations and examples' and "The quizzes in each category can measure my understanding of the content' were the two items that ranked at the top of the 'high level' category as they similarly obtained a mean score of 4.52 followed by 'Studying with animated videos on Google Sites can save time' with = 4.50. Then, both 'Studying with animated videos on Google Sites helps better understand the content' and 'Studying with animated videos on Google Sites helps me better remember the content' shared the same mean values of 4.48. The remaining two items under the 'high level' category are 'Animated videos in each category can help me understand the content' and 'The template and format of Google Sites help arouse interests' with = 4.44 and = 4.42, respectively.

Discussion
1. The post-test average value after using animated videos about the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries via Google Sites was higher than the pretest at a statistically significant different level of. 00. This is because the lessons had been created and checked for its quality through several processes. The animated videos in the lesson were well-designed with the aim of arousing the students' interest, particularly in terms of colors, images, and the content which was simplified for the learners to comprehend the materials easily. Animaker was used to create and design each animated video as this program provides new and modern features suited to the students in this generation. Apart from this, the created animated videos also allow the students to study on their own at any time and in any places before discussing in the class. The results correspond with a previous study by Khalidiyah (2015) who investigated using animated video to improve students' reading skills. The results show that the use of animated video as the media in teaching reading is more effective than using conventional method in improving student reading ability with a statistically significant different level of .00. Aside from this, Kim (2020) whose study was on Enhancing Student Achievement, Engagement, and Satisfaction Using Animated Instructional Videos found a statistically significant difference in scores from pre-test to post-test and the students in his research. The students in the study reported that they preferred the animated instructional videos over the textbook. Likewise, the results of the study by Alice, Joseph, and Judith (2019) on the effectiveness of animated video and written text resources for learning microeconomics suggested that videos are effective alternatives. Lui and Elms (2019) attempted to explore the use of a series of animated videos to teach advanced and complex course at an Australian university. They also found the satisfying results of animated videos and helped improve students' self-assessed understanding of the technical content. Similarly, Weng and Yang (2017) asserted that animation can help learners to master and understand the difficult and challenging unit. This confirmed the notion from Schnotz & Lowe (2003) that animation is a dynamic representation that can be used to make change and complex processes explicit to the learner. In other words, these findings highlight many pedagogical advantages of employing animated instructional videos in the classroom while teaching complicated content. 2. The results of the efficiency of utilizing animated videos about the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries via Google Sites revealed that the students' performance from the quizzes in each lesson and their post-test scores had an efficiency rate (E1/E2) of 75.09/75.06 which was higher than the set efficiency criterion of 75/75. This is due to the fact that the research was carried out in accordance with Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model. It is aligned with the study of the X X X X X X course description, objectives and content scope. The animated videos were then designed by focusing on its graphics, colors, images, text, and other elements suitable for the sample group. The content had also been revised according to advice of 4 experts in both technical and content areas and was in accordance to the pilot test results obtained from 15 students belonging to different English programs in order to attain quality animated videos. This finding was in accordance with Kittidharma-Opas and Tirakoat (2012) who investigated the efficiency of simulation animation on a science lesson and Korbuakaew (2016) who examined using video lessons to develop the skills to solve problems in Mathematics. They found that the level of efficiency was higher than the pre-set criterion at 80/80 (82.77/80.13 and 83.75/82.17). The result from this study, therefore, indicated that animated videos could help stimulate and reinforce the students in overcoming the complex content in the course. However, although the current study's E1/E2 results were higher than those set at 75/75, the scores were slightly different with decimal points compared to other studies. Such points may be due to a number of reasons. One of them is "Distracting Students from Learning" proposed by Rowe in 1999. He stated that extraneous details in the animations can distract students from the relevant messages. Animations or any type of "fun" learning materials could easily distract students from learning. The main source of distraction may come from the lack of context in the videos. Therefore, aesthetic design is not enough for effective educational animations. Teachers also need to be well aware of what learning objectives the videos are serving. Any elements of the videos must contribute some value to the course. 3. Upon determining the students' satisfaction towards learning with animated videos about the socio-culture of native English-speaking countries via Google Sites, the findings revealed that all students agreed that learning about the culture of English native speakers is necessary in EFL classroom. They also have a positive opinion on teaching and learning management via online platforms. With regard to the students' overall satisfaction towards animated videos, it was found that their satisfaction rate was at the highest level ( = 4.55). Considering each item, it was found that the top three possessing the highest mean score were "Animated videos are interesting and modern" which was found at the highest level ( = 4.69), followed by "Studying with animated videos on Google Sites enhances self-study skills" and "The content covers cultural issues of English native speakers" which both had the same average ( =4.63). Likewise, "Font, colors, and illustrations were appropriate and consistent with the content" and "The content story is not complicated" also had the same mean score ( = 4.60). The results supported Ismail M.E. et al's study in 2017 on the use of animation video in teaching to enhance the imagination and visualization of students in engineering drawing. The participants reported that the animated video design is attractive and its design is appropriate with an average mean score of a high level. They agreed that the video animation is able to give them a better understanding and is appropriate to be used as teaching aids. This is also in accordance with Highsmith (2021) who investigated on assessing the impact of animated video on learner satisfaction, engagement, and knowledge retention. The findings positively revealed that the students were satisfied with the design of the animated video. They also supported the use of animated video as an instructional aid.
In summary, from the main aim of creating animated videos on socio-culture of native English-speaking countries to be an interesting and modern learning materials that help simplify the complicated and difficult content of the course, it was found that the students were interested in learning with animated videos as it indicated a significant achievement both from the pretest and posttest based on the statistically significant difference of .00 level. This finding indicated that animation could effectively perform its functions for instructional purposes as proposed by Berney and Bétrancourt (2016). This result, however, interestingly implied that the students' cultural knowledge of English native speaking countries is relatively low according to the pre-test average mean which is 13.81 ( =13.81) as compared with the posttest which garnered a mean value of 22.52 ( =22.52). Thus, it pointed out that teachers should more provide their students with linguistic knowledge along with cultural knowledge of that language.

Suggestions for future research
In order to obtain other dimensions of results regarding using animated videos as a means to enhance students' knowledge, the recommendations below should be taken into account. X X X X X X