AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LÊ THỊ MAI HƢƠNG DAV150457 | DH16AV UNDERGRADUATE THESIS USING MOBILE DEVICES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING AMONG ENGLISH MAJORS AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR HUỲNH CHÍ XUÂN HUYÊN, M. AN GIANG, MAY 2019 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis titled “Using mobile devices in English language learning among English majors at An Giang University” represents my own work and that it has not been previously submitted to any other university or institute in application for admission to degrees or other qualifications. _____________________________________________ May 2019 Lê Thị Mai Hƣơng i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Mrs. Huỳnh Chí Xuân Huyên who has always been by my side with continuous support and encouragement.
I am grateful to have her as my supervisor, without her dedicated guidance, valuable advice, and cautious corrections, my thesis would not have happened. Secondly, I want to send my gratitude to Mrs. Trần Thị Thanh Huế, Mr. Lê Đỗ Thái, Mrs.
Nguyễn Thị Nhật Minh and Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt for the inspirational lessons and conversations that encouraged me to start this thesis. I also want to say thank you to Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt, Mrs.
Nguyễn Thị Thu Dung, Mrs. Tô Nguyễn Phương Loan and all the participants of this study for helping me to collect the data for this research. Without your help and cooperation, I could have not completed my study. In addition, I want to express my appreciation to Mrs.
Nguyễn Thị Xuân Bình and Mrs. Dương Thị Diễm Phúc. Thank to their valuable and constructive feedback, I was able to improve my 1st draft and completed my thesis. Special thanks to my friend, Mai Ngọc Nhi, who had provided me the access to valuable materials, and I would like to send my gratefulness to my brother, Mr.
Phan Thanh Việt, and my friends, Lê Huỳnh Diễm Xương and Nguyễn Bửu Đăng, for their support and assistance during the completion of my research. Finally, my sincere thanks to all the people who have been helping me to this day, my family, my friends, my schoolmates, the lecturers and the staffs at An Giang University. Lê Thị Mai Hương ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the research .2 Research aims and questions .4 Significance of the research .6 Organization of the thesis. 3 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Mobile devices and their current use .2 Using mobile devices in learning – mobile learning .2 Advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning .3 The effectiveness of mobile learning .3 Using mobile devices in English learning .1 The objectives of using mobile devices in learning English.2 The practice of using mobile devices in learning English .3 Teachers’ perspective on using mobile devices in learning English .4 Parents’ perspective on using mobile devices in learning English .5 Students’ perspective on using mobile devices in learning English .4 Data collection procedures.
27 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 The usage of mobile devices in English language learning among An Giang University English majors.2 An Giang University English majors’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of mobile devices in English language learning.3 An Giang University English majors’ dependence on their mobile devices in learning English .1 Summary of the discussions.1 The usage of mobile devices in English language learning among An Giang University English majors.2 An Giang University English majors’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of mobile devices in English language learning.3 An Giang University English majors’ dependence on their mobile devices in learning English .3 Recommendations for further research. 49 iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1: Adult who report owning a smartphone .1: Categories of questionnaire second part .1: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL vocabulary skills.2: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL writing skills .3: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL reading skills .4: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL listening skills.5: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL speaking skills .6: Usage of mobile devices for academic purposes relating to EL skills .7: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL major skills .8: Mean scores and T-test of usage of mobile devices in learning EL major skills .9: Usage of mobile devices in learning ELTE major skills .10: Mean scores and T-test of usage of mobile devices in learning ELTE major skills .11: Students’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of mobile devices in ELL .12: Students’ dependence on their mobile devices in learning English .1: Adult who reporting owning a smartphone .2: Share of adult population that currently use digital devices in Vietnam as of January 2018, by device (Statisca) .1: Time in a day and purposes students spend on mobile devices .1: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL vocabulary skills .2: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL writing skills .3: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL reading skills .4: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL listening skills .5: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL speaking skills .6: Usage of mobile devices for academic purposes relating to EL skills .7: Usage of mobile devices in learning EL major skills .8: Usage of mobile devices in learning ELTE major skills .9: Students’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of mobile devices in English language learning .10: Students’ dependence on their mobile devices in learning English .44 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS An Giang University AGU English majors EMs English language learning ELL English language EL English language teacher education ELTE English as foreign language EFL Facebook FB Short message service SMS Statistical package for social studies software SPSS vii ABSTRACT As technology evolves, mobile learning has become a global trend. Previous studies of Ababneh (2017), Muhammed (2014) and Nalliveettil and Alenazi (2016) indicated that mobile learning had positive impact on students’ English language learning. This study was conducted to investigate the usage of mobile devices among English majors at An Giang University.
A questionnaire with 32 items was used to collect data from 294 English major participants at An Giang University. The data was analyzed to find out (1) the usage of mobile devices in English language learning among the English majors, (2) English majors’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of mobile devices in English language learning, (3) English majors’ dependence on their mobile devices in learning English. The findings showed that students used mobile devices to improve their English abilities and for academic purposes based on their major, and they had positive opinions about using mobile devices in English language learning. The study also revealed that students depended on mobile devices in writing English language more than speaking English language.
viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION There are six sections in this chapter: (1) rationale of the research, (2) research aims and questions, (3) research hypotheses, (4) significance of the research, (5) research limitations and (6) organization of the thesis.1 Rationale of the research Technology has been evolving rapidly in the last few decades and changing the world along the way. The ways human work, communicate, entertain, and educate are far more different now from 10 years ago. People can do these things much better and faster thanks to the invention and development of mobile devices. However, they were expensive tools that were out of the common people’s reach back then.
With the improvement of new technology, mobile devices are now more affordable for many people. In recent years, they have become indispensable to many young adults, especially students. Smart devices with internet connection help students keep in touch with families and friends, keep up with the news, do their collaboration works, work on their homework or school projects and entertain themselves, etc. However, using mobile devices in school is still an arguable topic.
Many parents, educators, and administrators consider mobile devices as a distraction but not an educational tool. Others argue that with mobile devices students can access to free visual educational programs, do mock-tests in preparation for their exams, record or capture their lectures efficiently, check their spelling or pronunciation accurately, and search for the needed information on the internet. These features have made mobile devices an important tool for students’ academic life, and English language (EL) learners are no exception. At An Giang University (AGU), many English majors (EMs) also use mobile devices in their daily life, but how these electronic tools integrate with their academic lives is still 1 unclear.
Therefore, this study looks into the usage of mobile devices in EMs’ English language learning (ELL) to have a better understanding of the issue in the context of AGU in particular.2 Research aims and questions This study aims to find out AGU EMs’ behaviors of using mobile devices in ELL, their opinions about using those devices in ELL and their dependence on mobile devices in ELL to answer the following questions: 1. How do AGU EMs use mobile devices in ELL? And are there any differences between EL majors and English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) majors in using mobile devices in their ELL? 2. What are AGU EMs’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of mobile devices in ELL? 3. To what extent do AGU EMs depend on their mobile devices in learning English? 1.3 Research hypotheses Based on the results of related studies and literature which can be found in chapter 2 - literature review and the researcher’s own experience, this study hypothesized that: 1.
Most AGU EMs use mobile devices in ELL. AGU EMs have positive attitudes toward using mobile devices in ELL. AGU EMs moderately depend on mobile devices in learning English.4 Significance of the research This study will firstly benefit the researcher an opportunity to put the educational research methods theory into practice through the process of carrying out this action research. The experience will be a useful aid for the researcher in her future academic paths.
Moreover, the results of this study can help parents, lecturers, and administrators to have a better view of students’ demeanors in using mobile 2 devices and be helpful to both teaching and learning EL. If parents, lecturers, and administrators acknowledge their students’ needs, they can guide their students to make use of mobile devices’ advantages for academic purposes. Therefore, the results of this study help students to receive practical advice to exploit mobile devices’ features in ELL and provide educators information to integrate information and communication technology both inside and outside the classroom.5 Limitations As mentioned above, this research only focuses on the usage of mobile devices in ELL, so it cannot cover all other factors affecting the students’ English abilities. This research was conducted on one university’s undergraduate EMs only.
Accordingly, the results from this study’s participants might not be applicable to AGU students in general as well as students from other universities. The information gathered from this study was solely based on the students’ self-reports through questionnaires to collect data from a vast number of participants. If the study had had the assistance of other research instruments such as interview to get a deeper view on the reasons for the participants’ responses, it would have been more relevant.6 Organization of the thesis This thesis presents five chapters. Chapter 1 is the Introduction of the thesis.
It gives an overview of the matters, the aims and questions, the hypotheses, the significance, and the limitations of the research. Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews previous researches and theoretical background related to this thesis’ matters, including the growth of mobile devices, the effectiveness, advantages and disadvantages of mobile technology and mobile learning, the practice of mobile devices in learning English, and the perspectives of teachers, parents, and students on using mobile devices in learning English. 3 Chapter 3 presents the Methodology of this study. It describes the research design of the study, characteristics of the participants, the instruments of the study, the data collection procedures and the data analysis method.