Curriculum Leadership Journal | Mobile phones and language learning - The Diigo Meta page

• 15 Sep 09
  

  L Butler

  Curriculum Leadership Journal. A study showed that students can improve language learning with prerecorded listening sections and speaking sections through a cell phone.

  • Mobile phones and language learning
  • Mobile phones may be useful in language education, as a means for students to communicate free of classroom pressures, and to help teachers in remote locations and/or working across a range of schools.
  • 14 more annotations...
  • • The Mobile Application for Language Learning (MALL) project investigated the use of mobile phones to develop secondary students' conversational use of Indonesian.
    • The trial produced improvements in students' test outcomes suggesting that there is merit in considering this technology for more broad-based use in teaching languages and other subjects.
    • Through the mobile phones, students listened to pre-recorded questions in Indonesian delivered over a computer. They gave spoken answers drawing on facts supplied in support material such as a street map and a hard copy restaurant menu. The students were required to have some prior knowledge of Indonesian, both in listening and interpreting text and culture
    • Student answers were recorded and uploaded to a website for marking and commentary
    • All the students already owned mobile phones, but for the project used separate phones containing Vodafone SIM cards that had been locked down, limiting them to the 'conversations' with the computer and interaction with their cohorts in the project.
    • Students' progress was tracked through test conversations, developed by a subject expert. Students took these tests at the beginning and end of the project. Students also provided formal feedback through mid-project and post-project questionnaires, which focused on their interaction with the technology.
    • The post-project questionnaire was completed by 91 students: 71% reported that participating in the project had improved their Indonesian listening skills, 65% indicated that their confidence in using Indonesian had increased, and 64% described the project as 'fun'.
    • All the participating students were comfortable in taking responsibility for a second mobile phone device.
    • They welcomed the fact that their conversations could be recorded and subsequently reviewed by their teachers.
    • For the students, the most negative aspect of the project was poor telephone connectivity, leading to limited access and poor reception.
    • Teachers reported a marked increase in the confidence of many of their students.
    • While technology as used in this project serves to enhance good teaching practice, it is not a substitute for good pedagogy.
    • This project sparked enthusiasm in both teachers and students by combining ubiquitous technology with teaching practice and formal learning.
    • Acquiring mobile phones for the trial was not a major difficulty, but acquiring SIM cards with the level of 'lockdown' required proved to be a significant challenge.
• 08 Sep 09
  

  Jess McCulloch

  mobilelearning mobiletechnologies languagelearning trials technology

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