English language mobile learning

Mobile technology continues to encompass a broader and broader area of accessibility from a single device in the palm of one’s hand. This expansion includes, but is not limited to, social network technology, texting, the Internet, virtual realities and online learning tools through the use of various devices. The review of the literature includes a summary of many of these uses of technology as it pertains to certain theoretical frameworks, such as Mastery Learning Theory and Sense of Community Theory as they relate to learning a non-native language. With the knowledge of mobile technology in relation to these learning theories, educators and learners can test these types of learning applications to aid in learning English as a Second Language. These learning tools can also be applied to other languages as desired. Knowing what tools exist can help learners to enhance and broaden their language acquisition.

Today more and more students are using mobile devices to connect to the web. Mobile learning is the ability to learn anywhere and at any time using a portable electronic device. Mobile learning is less structured than e-learning and in our opinion complements the latter perfectly.

Mobile learning is a very comfortable and superior mode than usual English lessons. Because an individual can start studying English anytime, everywhere. For example: people can study English for 10–15 minutes and it will be much more efficient and effectually than staying at boring lessons at school, university or some other evening courses.

We would like to suggest some free apps for learning English. There are hundreds of mobile phone apps available and it is possible to find free options suited to economically minded students. Her are our top free apps that students can use for extra practice or studying:

-                   Duolingo is a wonderful app that has just won the ‘Best education start-up award’. It’s designed like a game and is pretty addictive. It’s free, contains no adverts and is very effective.

-                   Two min English is free, has no adverts and contains more than two hundred two-minute video lessons on a variety of topics e. g., social English, business English, travel English, common mistakes in English, idioms and phrases.

-                   Game to learn English powowbox is a multi-level game, once downloaded it appears as English tracker. The first three levels are free. You have to spot the mistake — if you get it wrong, you receive a clear explanation. It’s fun and easy to play.

-                   Real English offers a variety of apps at different levels: Business and conversation apps at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. The apps are free, but they do contain adverts. Each app contains 20 lessons that focus on specific grammar/vocabulary areas. Each lesson is made up of five parts [1,p.5].

We think that students can be creative with mobile devices. We propose some of our ideas:

Whatsapp is a mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages. Users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.

Ideas:

-                   How about sending your students a short news article or podcast and asking them to send an audio response summarising it in their own words or giving their opinion?

-                   Students could send photos with captions to illustrate different tenses. Alternatively they could describe daily habits or routines, or create a set of instructions.

-                   Students could create a video or audio of themselves making a short business presentation or reviewing a movie/book or TV show.

Ipadio lets you record up to 60 minutes of high-quality audio. You can then add titles, descriptions, images, and geo-locate your recording before instantly uploading to your ipadio.com account or cross-post to your Twitter, Facebook or blog.

Ideas:

-                   Set a research activity, get students to interview a number of people and record and edit their interview.

-                   You could record your lesson and send it to students that were absent.

-                   Create a revision podcast and send it to your students.

-                   Students could create a short story or poem with photos and audio.

Closed Facebook groups can be a great way of communicating with your students. Students can share ideas, opinions and homework projects.

Ideas:

-                   Post quizzes and grammar tips.

-                   Get students to share book reviews.

-                   Brainstorm ideas about different topics.

-                   Have a different theme each week and get students to share songs, pictures and quotations connected to the theme.

-                   Generally create a place for students to interact with you and with each other outside of the classroom.

Mobile app development is by itself a complicated process, as it requires multiple stages of planning and execution. It gets even more complicated when publishers are targeting the current generation of children — the digital natives, the kids of the tech revolution. And, guess what — twice as complicated considering they’ve got to target also parents, as parents are the ones most likely to download educational apps [2, p.157].

And what’s the parent’s biggest challenge? How the choose the right apps for the kid. That being said, app developers have realized that an app dedicated to children has to be both educational and entertaining.

Children possess a great natural sense of wonder and curiosity, so the trick is finding the best way to nurture these traits; this is how your effort to develop a mobile educational app will pay off in the end. We would like to get you some educational apps for children.

Educational apps for children — learning at your fingertips.

Youngster app development — sometimes called kids edutainment — is a huge industry. It’s also a competitive one, as educators and parents are concerned about the amount of time children spend in front of a screen, so they choose carefully the apps kids can use, even if we’re talking about educational ones. However, the rapid growth of mobile apps with educational purposes cannot be denied.

Apple has thousands of educational apps in the app store, grouped in categories — Language Development, Mathematics, Science, History and Geography, plus many others.

Google will launch this fall Google Play for Education — aiming to making it easier for teachers to implement mobile learning in school. The platform will have apps organized by subject and grade level, also containing educator’s recommendations in order to ensure product quality. Amazon App Store also has a category dedicated to educational apps.

Growing popularity of mobile apps among students.

Will mobile devices transform education for better or for worse? It’s a hot question right now amongst both teachers and parents as this is not news: children, even preschoolers, are using apps on theirs or their parent’s smart phones and tablets.

A report published earlier this year by Grunwald Associates and the Learning First Alliance with support from AT&T, found that 45 % of U. S. parents report that they plan to buy, or already have bought, a mobile device to support their child’s learning [3, p.220].

According to the same research, the majority of parents believe mobile devices and apps offer fun, engaging ways of learning, connecting and communicating.

We dare to say there’s a great potential on using mobile devices and thus apps for learning and education, both at school and at home, as parent and educators begin to see benefits.

Tips on developing educational apps for children.

Which are the key-requirements of developing a mobile educational app that teachers, parents and students will appreciate and use? Here are some of our thoughts — the list is probably not complete, feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

-                   know your target market — understand the needs

Research is a must. Testing is a must to. If you don’t have the resources to pay market research consultants, do it yourself, at a smaller scale. Really knowing your audience goes a long way, you’ll learn greatly from the experience. Just do not skip this step.

-                   develop the best design — user-friendly and basic

Make the UI simple and user-friendly, just like adults — children will respond to intuitive design. Keep menu options and settings at minimum and use engaging graphics and colors. Children tend to be clumsy, to don’t make it hard for them to use your app.

-                   focus on high-quality content

Make your app challenging and rewarding, so the child is kept in a positive mood while learning. This also helps the kid not losing interest in the subject, keep using the app to learn and keep coming back for more.

-                   make it entertaining and interactive

Kids learn better when they are engaged, so play elements are a must, whether your app is focused on language, math, science or any other learning subject [4, p.7].

You can also focus on providing group learning experiences, by making your app likely to be used in groups. Kids learn more when others join in, so an app that promotes collaboration, playful interaction and group learning between children or between children and adults, could prove to be extremely successful.

Kids love to learn, provide a great platform for learning and you’ll make an impact on the marker.

To conclude, by supplying our students with easily accessible tools for studying ‘on the go’, we are enabling them to incorporate self-study into their busy lives, accelerating their progress and guaranteeing better results.

If a person wants to study English or some other language, he or she will take advantage of recent technological advancements and excel. In contemporary world the motivation on individual is a key factor.

In this brief article, we explored what affordances mobile technologies have and how they can be exploited in the context of English language teaching and learning. We also proposed a number of ways of using mobile phones for language learning and teacher professional development given the high penetration of mobile phones in the country. These are not easy to put into practice as there are many challenges that relate to resources and the specific socio-cultural context. Despite the challenges mobile technologies do offer opportunities to both English teachers and learners if a concerted effort is made by professional organization of learning process.

 

References:

 

1.      Beckmann, E. A. Learners on the move mobile modalities in development studies. Distance education, 31. 2010

2.      Kukuluska-Hulme, A. Will mobile learning change language learning?//ReCALL, 21(2), 157–165.

3.      Warschauer, M., & Ware, P. D. Learning change and power. Competing discourses of technology and literacy, Handbook of research on new literacies. pp. 215–240

4.      http://gsmworld.com/connectedliving/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mobileproposition foreducation1.pdf