A Case Study of College Students’ EFL Learning Experiences on Mobile Phone Applications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1305.23Keywords:
mobile English learning, undergraduates, mobile phone applications, EFL, gender differencesAbstract
Mobile English learning (MEL) has become increasingly popular for its diverse advantages especially since the global COVID-19 pandemic. While a lot of studies have confirmed effectiveness of the mobile approach to learning English in a pedagogical context, there is very limited research that focuses on how students’ MEL experiences vary depending on their individual habits and behaviors out of class. This study is aimed to explore college students’ experiences of learning English as a foreign language (EFL) on mobile phone terminals. To this end, the study was conducted with a sample of 359 undergraduate students from 5 different grades by looking into their time spent after class in learning English on mobile phone applications (MPA), their practice preferences in MEL, the number of MPA used and their views on the helpfulness of EFL learning on MPA. The quantitative results derived provide a relatively comprehensive knowledge of the present situation of MEL in a higher education context. Statistically significant findings of the study are hopefully to offer insights for both policymakers and instructors in higher institutions to understand and promote MEL from more scientific and multi-dimensional perspectives.
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