Raeesa Usmani

Avadhuta Patel

Surat, Gujarat, India 

Abstract

The study investigates attitude of the ESL students of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India towards incorporating multimedia technologies (here, mobile technology particularly, the usage of YouTube videos, podcasts, e-articles, online/offline dictionary, English songs and films in the regular teaching and learning process) in learning English language. The study aimed at analyzing the usability of mobile technology for the ESLlearnersin their process of learning English language besides understanding their attitude towards incorporatingmultimedia technology as a part of their ESL learning process. The study sample was consisted of 55 students who studied English as a part of their curricula in B.Sc. at the Department of Biotechnology, VNSGUniversity, Surat, Gujarat, India. A questionnaire was devised and administered as a tool to receive feedbackfrom the target learners at the end of the academic year 2019-2020 of teaching them English by integrating multimedia technology as a part of their regular classroom studies. The findings yield thatESL students make the maximum usage of multimedia technology in learning English. Further, they demonstrated positive attitude towards using and integrating mobile technology in learning English language.

Key words: multimedia friendly technology, ESL, EFL, teaching English, mobile phones

Introduction

Globalization has placed an increasing emphasis on using English as a primary medium of communication at the national as well as international levels (Barrett & Liu 2016).Over the period, English has become the most common language used for communication in academia including the professional levelsacross the world (Liu, G. Z. et al 2016). Technology has incredibly transformed the process of teaching and learning. Compared to the traditional teaching and learning techniques, technology offers user-friendly yet simple, accessible and affordable ways of simplifying the challenging process of teaching and learning, particularly for ESL learners. It also enables the learners to experience and experiment with the variety of tools to enhance their language skills and sharpen their knowledge while retaining their interest through the long process.Integration of technology has now been widely employed by ELT practitioners in the regular classroom teaching and learning process across the world to yield better and effective results (Stoddart, A. et al 2016, Lin. V. et al 2016). The significance of using ICT in augmenting macro skills such as LSRW in English has also become a well-established technique over the period (Genlott & Gronlund, 2013). In addition, academics have designed and experimented with novel tools, applications, and techniques using multimedia technology to understand and justify the significance of learning English in the simplest ways possible. For instance, a wide variety of e-learning programs has been designed to enhance the writing proficiency in English of the learners for instance My Acess (Lee,2008) and Criterion (Burstein, Chodorow & Leacock, 2004).

 Darmi and Albion (2014) carried out a review of all the significant studies that has been done on analyzing the use of mobile technology in the context of language learning process. Their study establishes that integrating mobile phones in ESL teaching and learning process in not only satisfactory for learners but also plays a key role in augmenting linguistic skills of the learners. Ally et al (2007) also carried out a review study on the research that has been done on the integration of mobile phones in teaching English. The positive results received also suggested that integrating mobile phones in teaching English has not only augmented their language proficiency but also enhanced their linguistic understanding. A study carried out by Muhammed Azad (2014) on m-learning on the students of EFL of Sulaimani University, Iraq, to determine the scope and level of the usage of mobile phones that were used by all participants to enhance their linguistic skills by using various applications from mobile phones. An outstanding result suggested that about 99% of the participants agreed to consider mobile phone as a significant tool to augment their language learning skills. It has also established the fact that mobile phones, if used in a productive manner, could turn out as a vital and handy resource to improve linguistic skills of the students.

An interesting study was conducted by Al Aamri (2011) to examine the usage of mobile phones in the process of teaching English to the students of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The study was focused on investigating the behavior, attitude and problems encountered by the students while using cell phones in the regular classroom teaching and learning. The findings suggests that the usage and integration of mobile phones in the regular classroom teaching has been found minimal and limited since it has been noticed that many teachers discourages students from using mobile phones for the academic purposes while students largely preferred to do so.

 In line with such studies carried out at the international level on the ESL learners, it has also been observed that the usage and integration of mobile phones into language classrooms has proved its demonstrated potential in enhancing the language skills. However, it should also be noted that despite the proven capabilities of accomplishing target positive results, such integration of technology into language classrooms has not yet largely been encouraged even today, particularly across the academic institutions in Surat, Gujarat, India.Therefore, the researcher has made an endeavor to address the issue by understanding and analyzing responses from the target learners in the proposed study. The researcher was a teacher to the target learners. She has taught them through the year and undertook a small-scale survey at the end of the academic session to understand and analyze their experiences of learning language using different technique. The experiment was carried out before the world was bent down by the pandemic. Keeping in view the current situation, the researcher believes that studies of this nature have become all the more of a significance that may add more variety to select for the language practitioners in online teaching process.

Objectives

The study has two main objectives. They are as mentioned below:

1. To analyze the usability of mobile technology by the ESL learners in their process of learning English language in the ESL classroom
2. To comprehend and analyses attitude of the learners towards using mobile technology as a part of their ESL learning process

Research questions

The proposed study investigates the usability of mobile technology in ESL classroom while further exploring the possibilities to comprehend and analyze the attitude of the learners towards incorporating the technology as a part of their language learning process. The research revolves around these key questions:

1. How do ESL students of VNSG University, Surat, Gujarat, India make use of mobile technology in learning English language?
2. Does the incorporation of the mobile technology affect their attitude towards learning process?
3. How do ESL students perceive the process of language learning using mobile technology?

Methodology

Research Setting and Participants

The study was conducted on students of the Department of Biotechnology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India. The study investigates attitude of ESL students of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India towards using multimedia technologies (here, mobile technology, usage of YouTube video clips, e-articles, online/offline dictionary, English songs and films in the regular teaching and learning process) in learning English in the regular classroom teaching. The study also aimed at understanding and analyzing awareness of students in incorporating mobile technologies in learning English. In addition, the study investigated the effect of gender and academic major of ESL students (Microbiology and Biotechnology major) on their attitude towards integrating mobile technology in learning English. The study sample is consisted of 55 students who studied English as a part of their curricula in B.Sc. at the Department of Biotechnology, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, Gujarat, India. A questionnaire was devised and administered by the researcher to examine attitude of the learners towards integration and usage of mobile phones in the regular classroom teaching and learning process at the end of the academic year 2019-2020.

Samples

The targeted subjects were learners pursuing B.Sc. Biotechnology and Microbiology courses in the second year (semester 4). They took up English as an elective subject as a part of their curricula at the Department of Biotechnology, VNSGU, Surat, Gujarat, India. The sample was consisted of 55students, both male and female, of two different majors, i.e. Microbiology and Biotechnology as demonstrated below. The analysis of section I of the questionnaire is presented here in Table 1:

Table 1: Distribution of sample according to Gender and Major Course and Age group

Figure 1: Gender distribution 

Figure 2: Course of the target learners

Figure 3: Age group of the learners

Instrument of the Study

The key method of inquiry used in this small-scale study is a five-point Likert-type questionnaire that was designed and administered by the researcher. The questionnaire was designed to include two major dimensions that examined the usability of mobile technology by the students and their attitude towards integrating mobile technology in learning English in their regular teaching and learning process. The questionnaire was consisted of three parts where I was designed to receive personal information of the respondents. Part II was consisted of the questions to examine usability of mobile technology in English language studies and part III intended to understand attitude and experience of the ESL learners of learning English with the help of multimedia technology (i.e. mobile technology). The students were expected to respond at the level- agree to disagree, on the scale of 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree).

Data collection

The data collected for this study was comprised of a questionnaire that was used to collect responses and understand their stance on the usability and their attitude towards mobile technology integration into regular classroom learning process. The survey was administered at the end of an academic year 2019-2020.

Analysis of the questionnaire

The questionnaire was consisted of three parts where I was designed to receive personal information of the respondents. Part II was consisted of the questions to examine usability of mobile technology in English language studies and part III intended to understand attitude and experience of the ESL learners of learning English with the help of multimedia technology (i.e. mobile technology). The students were expected to respond at the level- agree to disagree, on the scale of 1 to 5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree).

A sectionwise analysis of the questionnaire is presented below. Two main sections (part B and part C) are examined as mentioned below,

Table 4: The questionnaire (section II and section III)

Illustration

1 – Strongly disagree

2 – Disagree

3 – Neutral

4 – Agree

5 – Strongly agree

Analysis

An analysis of Section II yields the below mentioned responses, when enquired about the usability of the mobile technology in their studies.32.7% of the respondents strongly agreed when 54.5% of them agreed that they make use of online/offline dictionary to enhance their vocabulary. 60% learners agreed while 30.9% of the respondents strongly agreed that mobile phone helps them in learning new words and spellings. 27.3% of the respondents strongly agreed and 41.8% agreed that the use of audio option available in online and offline dictionary helps them in improving and correcting their pronunciation. More than half of the respondents 49.1% agreed that they make use of mobile phones to watch video, podcast, films related to their course whereas the equal percent of the learners agreed that they watch these audio-visuals with sub-titles in English. 43.6% of the learners agreed that they make use of the mobile phones to listen to the podcast, songs and audio clips related to their course in English and only 1.8 percent strongly disagreed to have ever used the technology for enhancing their language. 52.7% of the learners agree whereas 30.9% of them strongly agreed that the knowledge of English language and mobile technology has helped them in increasing their knowledge in academic major (BT/MB). 54.5% of the respondents agree when 23.6% strongly agrees that they encourage their peers to make use of mobile phone to improve their English.

Section III that aimed at comprehending and analyzing attitude of the learners with respect to incorporating technology in their ESL classroom yielded below mentioned results. 43.6% of the respondents strongly agreed when 36.4 % agreed that mobile phones are part of their studies. 40% of them agreed and 27.3% of the respondents strongly agreed that they like the usage of mobile phone in the classroom by the teacher. 45.5% agreed whereas 40% of them strongly agreed that mobile technology has helped them in understanding their academic major in better manner. 45.5% of the respondents agreed when 41.8% of them strongly agreed that watching YouTube video, podcast, films related to my course helps them to understand the subject matter better. A huge number of the respondents 60.8% agreed and 20% of them strongly agreed that Listening to podcast and audio clips related to my course helps them to understand the subject matter better. More than half of the respondents about 54.5% agreed when 36.4% strongly agreed that mobile technology helped them in learning more while increasing their knowledge. 50.9% agreed when 34.5% strongly agreed that mobile technology makes classroom learning interesting and easy. A good number about 56.4% agreed whereas 34.5% strongly agreed that mobile technology helps me in improving English language skills.

Findings and Recommendation

The findings of the study can be presented in a few elaborate points. ESL students of VNSGU, University, Surat, Gujarat have displayed greater usage of mobile technologies in learning English language during the regular classroom sessions as well as after the classes. Such outcome is certainly encouraging that calls for the up gradation of the curricula by integration of multimedia technologies for the ESL learners. Mobile technology is a latest tool that is simple, easy and user-friendly for the young generation of the day. In order to augment their linguistic skills, in particular, writing skills of the learners, it has become evident to incorporate multimedia technology in their syllabus. The experiment of the researcher of including multimedia in the regular language classroom has yielded encouraging outcomes and positive effects on the welcoming attitude of the learners since it “might be considered a good supplementary material to curriculum” (Salameh, 2017: 05). It has also been observed that neither gender nor the major (MB or BT) has affected the usage of mobile phones or their attitude towards incorporating the technology in learning the language in the ESL classroom. Learners have also demonstrated higher promising attitude towards integrating mobile phones in learning English. The findings almost go in line with the experiment of Salameh (2017) who carried out a study on the learners based in Saudi. They displayed higher positive attitude towards integrating social networking sites in learning English.It can also be said that the considerate integration of mobile technology has been actively and positively welcomed by the ESL learners across the world, whether it is India or overseas.

 In addition, certain researchers such as Mason (2006) has put emphasis on integration of social media technology, social sites to augment knowledge and enhance skills of the learning enables them to not only remain positive towards classroom learning. They have welcomed this change and have also shown interest in acquiring more information and knowledge in a simple yet effective manner through the integration of multimedia technology in the classroom that is simple, more adapt and offers more opportunities to easy and burden less learning in their own pace (Darmi & Albion 2014, 99). For instance, mobile phones have become new normal as far as learning and getting knowledge is concerned across the variety of disciplines. Hence, integration of multimedia technology may affect the process of learning in a positive manner but may also address the needs of the students. This concept calls for a detailed separate study of an added phenomenon.

 The following recommendations can be drawn from the above-mentioned findings. Teacher can take the maximum advantage of the mobile technology available today via mobile phones for almost every student based on their varied needs. The technology is easily accessible to most of the students. It can be effectively used to augment skills of the learners while making the teaching and learning process more accessible, less complicated and interesting via the handy device. The pedagogical process could make teaching more fun and less apprehensive (Rosado and Khuttum, 2013).

 Moreover, mobile phones, as a handy aid of multimedia technology offer a variety of free applications that can easily be downloaded, used and integrated in the classroom as interesting learning resources. This can play a key role in augmenting linguistics skills of the ESL learners, if used mindfully by the teacher.Overall, it has also been recommended that such studies should be encouraged across the state and nations with larger groups of ESL learners as population, in particular, considering the current international crisis of pandemic that has completely changed and revolutionized the teaching and learning process across the world. Thus, the study yielded positive attitude and encouraging results from the ESL learners in integrating mobile technology in their regular language classroom that was undertaken at the Department of Biotechnology, VNSG University, Surat, Gujarat, India.

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