Development and Testing of Mobile Assisted Language Learning Application to Improve Oral Clinical Case Presentation of Student Nurses

Abstract

Background: Nurses’ oral case presentation is a core clinical communication skill with distinctive linguistic qualities that require specific language training. The present paper is a user feedback analysis of a start-up Mobile Assisted Language Learning application (MALL app) developed and implemented to provide English language training to improve Oral Case Presentation (OCP) of student nurses pursuing baccalaureate degrees from a nursing college in South India. Objective: The aim was to develop and test an Android based OCP-MALL application for user acceptability and effectiveness in improving OCP performance and decreasing the perceived language difficulty. Methodology: Sixty-two student nurses from a reputed nursing college in Chennai, South India, using Android mobile phones participated in the study. All the participants were given access and instructions on the use of OCP-MALL app. A comparison of pre and post-test of perceived level of language difficulty and OCP pre and post score along with users’ acceptance were collected. Results: The users’ acceptability showed that all participants rated the clarity in reading the text with highest mean score of 8.29 and std of 1.276, simplicity in navigation – moving to next page with next highest mean score of 8.19 and std of 1.526, clarity in text application layout with a mean score of 8.14 and std of 1.497 and user friendliness of the application with a mean score of 8.13 and std of 1.393. Conclusion: This startup OCP-MALL app user satisfaction feedback proves that Indian ELT trainers can create cost-effective and need-based m-learning applications.