Topic: Using popular mobile application software to increase learner motivation

Abstract

Immersed as they are in technology today, educators have more options to create a curriculum using the most advanced and convenient means in their classrooms. Teachers of English as a foreign language can now utilize technology-enhanced communication to connect their students to other English learners in different countries and cultures. With the widespread of instant messaging system and the increasingly easy access to hand-held devices such as cell phones and tablet computers, English learners worldwide can experience authentic cross-cultural communication for language and cultural learning. This paper argued that using popular mobile software and incorporating cross-cultural learning in an instructional design of a language learning course can increase learner motivation for cross-cultural communication, whereas the cross-cultural learning context can lead to willingness to communicate in an international context. In order to examine the willingness to communicate cross-culturally of English learners, a culturally oriented, collaborative language-learning project integrating mobile mediating technology was implemented on university students of two cultural groups. Data were collected for quantitative analysis in order to explore participants' willingness to communicate cross-culturally based on the utility of LINE and the cross-cultural learning context. Results showed that both the use of LINE and the effectiveness of crosscultural collaboration gained from the instructional design had significantly predicted these learners' future willingness to communicate in an international context.