VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A SURVEY ON THE REALITY OF USING SMARTPHONE IN LEARNING ENGLISH WITHIN THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG ĐIỆN THOẠI THÔNG MINH TRONG HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : PHAN THI HONG THAI Student code : 621235 Major : ENGLISH LINGUITICS Supervisor : 1. NGUYEN TAT THANG, PH. NGHIEM HONG NGAN, M.A Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A SURVEY ON THE REALITY OF USING SMARTPHONE IN LEARNING ENGLISH WITHIN THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG SỬ DỤNG ĐIỆN THOẠI THÔNG MINH TRONG HỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : PHAN THI HONG THAI Student code : 621235 Major : ENGLISH LINGUITICS Supervisor : 1. NGUYEN TAT THANG PH.
NGHIEM HONG NGAN M.A Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A SURVEY ON THE REALITY OF USING SMARTPHONE IN LEARNING ENGLISH WITHIN THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Thai Phan Thi Hong Thai Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date: …………………… i TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. i TABLE OF CONTENTS.
v LIST OF ABBREVIATION. vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. vii Part 1: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY.
6 Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME/ABROAD). Smartphones usage by college students. Using smartphones in learning English.
REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. The Concept of Mobile Learning. RESEARCH GOVERNING ORIENTATION. Research setting/context and participants selection.
Data collection and analysis. 22 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. THE CURRENT STUDENT' USE OF SMARTPHONES IN LEARNING ENGLISH. THE EFFECTIVE METHODS WHEN USING SMARTPHONES FOR LEARNING ENGLISH.
EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SMARTPHONES IN LEARNING ENGLISH. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY. RECOMMENDATIONS/SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY. 42 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the teachers of the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages at Vietnam National University of Agriculture, who have directly taught and expanded my knowledge throughout my university education.
I would like to express my gratitude to you for your patience and understanding over the last four years. Especially, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my research supervisors, Mr. Nguyen Tat Thang and Ms. Nghiem Hong Ngan.
Without their assistance and dedicated involvement in every step during my study’s process, this paper would have never been accomplished. I would also like to thank 120 third-year English students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture. They kindly assisted me with the statistical analysis in this dissertation. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement in the past years.
Every time I was ready to quit, you are always by my side and gave me the best advice, and for that I will be eternally grateful. This thesis stands as a testament to your unconditional love. My thesis would also inevitably has shortcomings due to my limited knowledge and professional qualified capacity. I look forward to hearing suggestions from teachers and everyone else to help me improve.
iv ABSTRACT Smartphones act as an effective tool to learn English in the Covid-19 pandemic where a user can: take part in online learning program, find information from many resources freely available on the Internet, use English applications etc. as well as take part in entertainment activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the reality of using smartphone in learning English. It not only evaluates the current student' use of smartphones in learning English but also suggests some effective method applied in students’ mobile phones for the purposes of learning English.
To complete this study, the researcher collected survey’s data by using Google Forms. The authors designed an online questionnaire and delivered it to students, and then student's responses were collected and analyzed in Google spreadsheet and Microsoft Excel. There are 120 representatives from five classes, who are third-year English majored students at VNUA located in Viet Nam took part in the survey. In order to increase the accuracy and objectivity of the research findings, besides using a questionnaire about the use of phones for students' English learning purposes, the face to face interviews for the subset of students also were conducted with the relevant conclusions drawn.
Main findings of the study show that: 100% of participants own a smartphone and more than 90% of all students use mobile phones to study every day. The participants pointed out smartphone is an English learning essential tool for them. In addition, participants also indicated that they often use their smartphones to learn English such as using the dictionary, taking online courses, etc. The issue of using smartphone in the process of university study as an educational tool was investigated and proposed to potentially expand a new teaching method in the education system.
v LIST OF ABBREVIATION Abbreviations Meaning 3G Third-generation technology 4G Fourth-generation technology Apps Applications BBC British Broadcasting Corporation E-book Electronic book Gbps Gigabits per second GPS Global positioning system LANs Local Area Networks LLT Language Learning & Technology LTE Long Term Evolution Mbps Megabits per second M-learning Mobile learning N, n Number OS Operating system PCs Personal Communication Services PDAs Personal digital assistants TNS Tactical Navigation System UK United Kingdom U.S United states VOA Voice of America VNUA Viet Nam National University of Agriculture Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1.2 English proficiency level .2 Daily smartphone use (hour) .2 Percentage of types of activity.2 Using smartphone to learn English .2 Daily use smartphone for study English (hour) .2 Effective English learning methods .2 English Learning Apps .2 Improve Four basic skill rate .2 Effective of learning English on smartphone. Error! Bookmark not defined.2 Advantages of learning English on smartphone .Error! Bookmark not defined. vii Part 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY Recent developments in mobile technologies have produced a new kind of device: a programmable mobile phone, the smartphone (JM.
The smart phone represents the current pinnacle of mobile phone development, coupling phone capabilities with the additional functionalities of a PDA (Lusekelo Kibona and Juma Mdimu Rugina,2015). Unlike a feature phone, smartphone can store a vast amount of information and keeps users connected through messaging services, email, video calls and social networking apps, in addition to standard text messaging and phone calls. A smartphone functions as a handheld portable PC for accessing and browsing the web. In a research, Amy Herbert (2011) said that “Smartphones act as mobile entertainment units where a user can: watch videos, listen to music, update blogs, as well as audio and video blogging.
Most importantly with a smartphone one can access web 2.0, exactly like you the web you would use on the internet.” According to the Vietnam Digital Advertising Market Report 2019 that has just been released by Adsota, Vietnam currently has 43.7 million people using smartphone devices, accounting for 44.9% of the total population of 97. These figures have propelled Vietnam into the top 15 smartphone markets in the world, together with many developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and other Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia. The number of smartphone users in Vietnam is rapidly increasing, with the launch of many other low-cost smartphones from a multitude of options. Smartphones are also playing an increasingly important role and have become inseparable parts of Vietnamese people's daily lives.
In addition to the benefits of connecting and sharing information, smartphones also participate in supporting learning and teaching in education. As indicated by 1 Google information distributed from the miniature online investigation of "Vietnamese customers 2014" led by TNS, the extent of individuals more than 16 years of age utilizing smartphones in Vietnam expanded by over 70% contrasted with 2013, relating to 14 to 24 million individuals. The 16-24 age bunch has the most noteworthy smartphone utilization charge (58%). This thing for individuals in the maturing go (understudies, understudies) is the biggest smartphone user in Vietnam.
In the context of changing education, some new forms of learning are becoming more prevalent and popular in educational and teaching practices in other countries than traditional learning methods. These include mobile learning with the ability to meet different learning needs, open learning opportunities, the ability to access more data, unlimited learning space, and develop digital skills for learners only with a smartphone. Mobile teaching methods have also been popularized at the Viet Nam National University of Agriculture. Especially in recent times, when the world in general and Vietnam in particular have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemics, this method has been applied more commonly at all educational levels.
This shows that more and more students are exposed to and study with smartphones, as well as an increasing number of electronic devices. So the question is, do students often use smartphones for their study? How do students study on their phones? These are the questions that attract not only researchers’ and teachers’ interest but also parents’ and students’. The study will look into these issues. However, due to the time and impacts of the epidemic, the study will only focus on surveying the use of smartphones in the English language study of third-year English language students at the VNUA.
Since the subject hadn’t been deeply researched before, I hope that the findings of this thesis will complete and contributes to a better understanding of the use of phones in students' study. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The research aims to investigate the reality of using smartphone in learning English within third-year English majored students at VNUA.” Objectives of the study are: - To evaluate and analyze the current student' use of smartphones in learning English. - To suggest some effective methods when using smartphones for learning English. RESEARCH QUESTIONS (IN FORM OF QUESTIONS) This study finds out answers to two research questions.
The first question is: “What is the current situation of using smartphones in learning English of third-year English majored students at VNUA?” and the second question is: “ What are some effective methods when using smartphones for learning English language?”. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The research will focus on surveying the third-year English students at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture with a total of 120 students from these classes K63ENGA, K63ENGB, K63ENGC, K63ENGD & K63ENGE. The study will be carried out in 6 weeks, at semester 2, 2020-2021. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This research would be significant to the teachers, the students as well as the English learners.
Firstly, this is the first time this research has been conducted within the third-year English majored students at VNUA. Secondly, this survey can provide additional statistics about how many time students use smartphone each day, some of the activities that take up a lot of student smartphone time. Thirdly, this survey has also collected data and reports on students' use of smartphone in learning English. Last but not least, this study can provide students in particular and those who want to learn English, in general, 3 with more information on the reality of using smartphone to study English and suggests some effective English learning methods.