MOBILE LEARNING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES
Keywords:
mobile learning (m-learning), challengesAbstract
This study aims to identify the benefits of mobile learning in the English Language from the perception of learners and teachers in the Departments of English within the Colleges of Education of three Sudanese Government Universities. It also aims to investigate the teachers' attitudes regarding using mobiles in English language learning. The case study was used and mixed methods were applied to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, a questionnaire was used to gain the participants responses. The questionnaire was conducted with 90 English language learners while nine staff members were interviewed. The Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was used to analysis the acquired data. The results of the analysis revealed the following finding: 1) Regarding the benefit of using a mobile phone for learning English language, the results confirm strongly that using a mobile phone has several benefits for learners, among them it is very effective in learning English language, second it is an assistive tool for creativity, in addition to that it enables students to learn English inside and outside the classroom, furthermore, it will make students more productive to finish their lessons, achieve their assignment and join their colleagues in sharing knowledge and experience. 1) Concerning the teachers' perceptions regarding mobile learning adoption in their teaching process, the interviews revealed that, the teachers have positive attitudes towards mobile learning adoption. 2) The teachers explored that there are various barriers hinder the use of a mobile device in learning the English language, and these barriers affect negatively on the use of a mobile device as a learning tool. This study implication' is that the mobile is assistive tool for language learning and it needs to be considered in educational field particular the curriculum design and material development.
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