Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Action Research Investigation: M-learning or Mobile assisted language learning methods in vocabulary acquisition in adult ESOL learners

A short and sweet study conducted with my adult ESOL cohort, as I know how tough it is for many of my learners at the basic/entry levels to integrate openly with the local community. 
Poster Presentation 

This study was one way of empowering them and getting them to interact with the digital world more freely since research and my teaching practice has proven that technology can be easily introduced in the regular classroom with some careful planning and management. 

Smartphones are also becoming increasingly popular for their versatility and multi-functionality that provide excellent opportunities for the language teacher to apply CALL (Computer-assisted language learning) techniques, on a handheld device instead. (You could watch this space for cool ideas on MALL techniques.)  

After seeing the positive reception of learners in the study, I firmly believe that the use of mobiles will go a long way in getting the disengaged and demotivated learners or even those involved in day jobs to learn at their own pace and time anywhere.

I would like to personally applaud my cohort for their motivation and engagement levels in the classroom all through the study and thank them for their 
for their honest and constructive feedback!

Title: The efficacy of MALL (Mobile-assisted language learning) or M-Learning methods on vocabulary acquisition in multi-ethnic adult second language learners


Source: Learningfortress.com
My study* investigated the efficacy of MALL or m-learning methods on vocabulary acquisition through the use of two applications (Quizlet and Apple’s Siri) with a small cohort of 14 adult ESOL learners in a Further Education setting.


A one group quasi-experimental pretest-posttest method was carried out where learners used the apps over a period of four weeks alongside standard teaching methods. 

An improvement was noted in the descriptive statistics of Quizlet and Apple Siri, however, a more detailed statistical outcome i.e a Sign test followed by a paired two-tailed t-test showed that while Quizlet’s scores were significant, Apple Siri’s were not significant, which confirms the null hypothesis in the latter.  

The attitudes and perceptions of learners, however, was positive towards mobile learning, with 90% indicating that they would like or love to learn more words using mobiles in the future. However, they responded differently to the two apps, highlighting that variations can occur between applications and affect learner perception. Due to pronunciation interferences affecting access to the Apple Siri definition of words, its effectiveness was lower than Quizlet and the standard method.

At the end of the study, the following recommendations have been made: to encourage usage of multimodal mobile-enabled vocabulary activities such as Quizlet through incorporation in the curriculum design; to avoid  technologies that can act as barriers to access of vocabulary definitions; and to encourage teachers to try out m-learning methods like Quizlet that are easy to use and provide analytics that can help them employ blended learning methods in a rapidly changing self-directed learning environment.

This research has been presented to members of staff and management and will also feature at the PGCE Oxford Brookes Action Research Conference, 2018. Feel free to reach out to me for any further information, paper requests or research collaborations. 

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajashree/