Mobile assisted vocabulary learning: Examining the effects on students' vocabulary enhancement

Abstract

The use of mobile phones combined with internet has become so handy in the present world of science, information and communication technologies. The mobile learning strategies have created several new ways to assist learners in the progression of learning a second language. One of the most vital challenges that learners will face during the learning of a second language is knowing the meaning of a vocabulary in order to understand the idea of the sentence. Given the importance of knowing the meaning of vocabularies / words through mobile assisted learning, this study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of using Mobile Phone to search for the meaning of vocabulary compared to the conventional way of using a printed dictionary. Therefore, 50 form 5 arts stream pupils from a public school in a state of Malaysia were selected for an experimental study. A Pre-test and Post-Test of vocabulary have been performed to find out the effectiveness of using the mobile phone technology compared to the printed dictionary. The results of the experimental study clearly show that using mobile phones enhances the pupil’s knowledge in learning and knowing the meaning of the vocabulary deeper compared to the printed dictionary. This is because the vocabulary can be found in the form of images and the pronunciation of the word can be listened and seen in the form of an audio or video. The use of mobile phones which combined with the internet, have led to an increase in the scores of the pupils and the search for the vocabulary can be done faster than the printed dictionary. In conclusion, mobile phone can be considered as a good pedagogical tool in learning English as the second language (ESL).