Nhận thức của sinh viên năm 4 ngành sư phạm tiếng anh đại học ngoại ngữ huế về việc sử dụng các ứng dụng hỗ trợ học tiếng anh trên thiết bị di động cho việc giảng dạy từ vựng

ABSTRACT The present research aimed to investigate the perceptions of the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages in utilizing mobile-assis

HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

-

GRADUATION RESEARCH PAPER

STUDENTS AT HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN USING MOBILE-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (MALL) FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY

SUPERVISOR: DR NGUYEN VU QUYNH NHU STUDENT: NGUYEN THI AI NHI

STUDENT’S CODE: 16F7011046

CLASS: ANH SPK13B

Hue, 2020

NGUYEN THI AI NHI Hue, 2020

ABSTRACT

The present research aimed to investigate the perceptions of the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages in utilizing mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) for teaching vocabulary The purposes of this research are (1) to inform how the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages have perceived about the usage of MALL in teaching vocabulary; (2) to identify several benefits and challenges which they have faced when applying MALL into their vocabulary teaching process; (3) and to recommend some effective solutions to apply MALL effectively in teaching vocabulary This research sought to explore whether MALL can make great impacts on teaching vocabulary at a specific educational institution

or not, especially in Hue, Vietnam To carry out this study, questionnaires and interviews were used for data collection and data analysis The subject of the study are the 4th year English Pedagogy (EP) students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages The participants were asked to answer the questions in the questionnaires focusing on explaining the research questions After collecting data from the questionnaires, several participants were invited to participate in the in-depth interviews for more specific information relating to their answers in the questionnaires The result showed that the students have perceived the using of MALL in their teaching vocabulary, as well as the benefits and challenges they encountered during the process of teaching English vocabulary via MALL The findings of the study revealed that using MALL have brought remarkable benefits in

teaching vocabulary MALL applications makes significant impacts on promoting

the students’ motivations and development in the process of vocabulary acquisition The research findings contributed to pedagogically informative practices of teaching vocabulary, recommendations and implications for teaching and future research in the field

\

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Primarily I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Vu Quynh Nhu Without her guidance and assistance, this research would not have been completed Her encouragement, patient guidance and beneficial comments made my work more professional and significant

Special words of thank also go to the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages, who helped me in providing the materials, answering questionnaires, participating in the interviews actively and making constructive comments

In addition, I do appreciate for the care and encouragement from my hearted friends, who have inspired and encouraged me to complete this research Last but not least, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my family Without their encouragement and support, this research would not have been completed Their support motivated and gave me a great deal of strength during the stressful time of carrying out this research

kind-Hue NGUYEN THI AI NHI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ABSTRACT ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

THE STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES i

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIMS 4

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE 4

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN LEARNING ENGLISH 5

2.2 MOBILE-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING 7

2.3 THE EFFECTS OF MALL ON LEARNING ENGLISH IN GENERAL 7

2.4 THE EFFECTS OF APPLYING MALL ON TEACHING VOCABULARY 8

2.4.1 The benefits of using MALL in teaching vocabulary 8

2.4.2 The challenges of applying MALL into teaching vocabulary 10

2.5 RESEARCH GAP 11

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 RESEARCH SITE 14

3.2 PARTICIPANTS 14

3.3 RESEARCH METHOD 14

3.4 DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS 15

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18

4.1 STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE USE OF MALL IN TEACHING VOCABULARY 20

4.2 THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES WHEN ADOPTING MALL IN TEACHING VOCABULARY 35

4.3 SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT SOLUTIONS FOR TEACHERS TO FOSTER THE ADVANTAGES AND LIMIT THE DISADVANTAGES OF APPLYING

MALL IN TEACHING VOCABULARY 49

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS 52

5.1 CONCLUSIONS 52

5.2 PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 53

5.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 55

5.3.1 Limitations 56

5.3.2 Suggestions for further study 56

REFERENCE 58

APPENDICES 62

THE STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

This research consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction: Giving a brief introduction about rationale of the

research, the aims as well as the significance of the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review: Presenting the definition of key terms, the

review of previous research, the research gap and offering the purpose of the study

as well as the research questions

Chapter 3: Methodology: Presenting the research site, the participants of the

study Besides, presenting the specific methods and the data analysis to carry out

the research

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion: Presenting data from the questionnaires,

answers from the interviews and giving the discussion for the findings In this

chapter, two research questions will be answered from the results of the data

Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations: Summarize the research and present some implications, limitations and suggestions for further study

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

MALL : Mobile Assisted Language Learning

CALL : Computer Assisted Language Learning

HU-UFL : Hue University, University of Foreign Languages

EP : English Pedagogy

IT : Information Technology

S : Student

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: The gender of the participants taking part in the survey 18 Chart 1: The percentage of the participants’ practical experiences in teaching 19 Chart 2: The possession of mobile phones of the participants’ students 20 Chart 3: The awareness of the 4th year English Pedagogy students at HUCFL

about the definition of MALL 21

Table 2: The frequency of the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL in using MALL for

teaching vocabulary 22

Figure 1: MALL activities created for vocabulary development 24 Figure 2: The suitable time that the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL use MALL for

teaching vocabulary 26

Figure 3: Some mobiles applications have been used to teach vocabulary by the 4th

year EP students at HU-UFL 27

Chart 4: The specific part/ skill which MALL has the most useful impact when

applied to teaching 29

Figure 4: Some factors that teaching with MALL can help students improve when

learning vocabulary 30

Chart 5: Student’s opinions about the practical effect of the use of MALL on their

students’ learning improvements 31

Figure 5: The effectiveness of MALL on students’ vocabulary learning process 32 Figure 6.1: The benefits of using MALL to teach vocabulary for students 35 Figure 6.2: The benefits of using MALL to teach vocabulary for students 36 Figure 7: The advantages of utilizing MALL for teachers 38 Figure 8.1 Applying MALL to teach vocabulary helps teachers to be able to

provide timely support when many students need help at the same time, while also increasing the interaction with students with teachers during the vocabulary teaching process 40

Figure 8.2: Applying teaching methods via MALL to teach vocabulary can help

teachers create a variety of interesting and varied teaching methods 41

Table 3: MALL enables teachers to apply effectively and promptly in some special

circumstances where traditional classes cannot be organized 42

Table 4: The drawbacks of applying MALL in the process of teaching vocabulary

for students 44

Table 5: The drawbacks of applying MALL in the process of teaching vocabulary

from teachers’ aspects 45

Figure 9: Some solutions for practical problems in the process of teaching

vocabulary by using mobile devices 48

Figure 10: The techniques to apply effectively MALL applications to teach

vocabulary for students 49

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Nowadays, learning English has been recognized to bring various surprising

benefits for human beings High level of English proficiency enables English users to perform tasks well in most of fields in society Firstly, English has been the global language in many fields including finance, politics, trade and English can be used to express numerous striking global issues such as environmental problems, popular music, pandemics and so on Along with the demand for using English for promoting quality of life, many people try to learn English for better employment opportunities Thus, many countries started teaching English for their people as a compulsory subject to enhance the ability to use English effectively

In process of learning English, one of the most significant factors taken into considerations is a large number of vocabulary words Several benefits and challenges of

teaching and learning vocabulary are pointed out First of all, learning vocabulary is

regarded as a fundamental component of foreign language acquisition and becomes more beneficial for learners to solve tasks in English effectively It can be said that expanding and memorizing vocabulary plays an important role in promoting all English skills Many researchers have investigated the importance of learning and memorizing vocabulary in developing English proficiency As Nation (2001) described there was a balancing connection between vocabulary knowledge and language use This connection was demonstrated by the complementary interaction The process of using language to

communicate acquires learners to know a large number of vocabulary and conversely In

addition, Schmitt (2000) emphasized the central role of lexical knowledge in the communication ability and the approaching to learn a second language Secondly, learning and memorizing vocabulary in a foreign language is often one of the biggest challenges language learners face on their journey to fluency Many learners make their great effort to pick up new words from both oral and written communication and try to memorize these words for later production However, this does not work

completely well since developing from short-term to long-term memory requires language learners not only to memorize meanings, pronunciations, and structures of new words but also to be able to produce these words in other language situations appropriately In this case, Naeem Afxal (2019) claimed that vocabulary-learning problems regarded as one of the most difficult issues which students at all levels have to face, even at tertiary level Learners normally have difficulty in pronouncing news words, spelling new words, using new words appropriately, identifying the grammatical structure of words, guessing the meanings from the

context and others Thus, learning vocabulary requires teachers to make efforts to find alternative methodologies and sources for their students to enhance vocabulary

With the lightning speed of technological evolution, the greatest inventions of technology effect gradually on human beings’ life These inventions contribute a great deal to the development of many fields, specifically mobile phones with high capabilities used in education To support students for learning vocabulary effectively, many educational institutions put forward and carry out several essential ways including using flashcards, monologue and repetition or playing lexical games Especially, they tend to give prominence to use technological devices for stimulating the process of learning lexical words More and more teachers nowadays tend to experiment with the effects of using mobile devices or mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) on students’ learning vocabulary process Consequently, they can gain the perceptions about using MALL in teaching vocabulary and their students have opportunities to experience many different kinds

of English vocabularies Due to the tendency of using MALL in teaching vocabulary, many undergraduate students who strike to become teachers in the future constantly make their effort to use and find out more alternative ways to apply MALL in their teaching and learning including EP students in general and EP students of Hue University, University of Foreign Languages in particular

Applying MALL exists two sides that people concerned On the one hand, MALL can be a beneficial tool for teachers to make the process of learning English

vocabulary become more creative and fascinating Using MALL enables students to learn vocabulary whenever and wherever they desire to learn Since studying English do not just happen in class, students need further opportunities to promote their English proficiency, specially to enrich their vocabulary Indeed, MALL has

been suggested to improve vocabulary As Helwa (2017) indicated that thanks to

designing based on the enhanced mobility, access and flexibility by mobile technologies, MALL creates many potential opportunities for students to learn actively and appropriately to students' preferences and schedules In the process of language learning, learners are able to interact and communicate based on the available context of a mobile learning task Thus, the contribution of using MALL makes a great impact on meeting the expectation to learn in the new innovative learning approaches

On the contrary, applying MALL for teaching vocabulary also can be considered

a noticeable problem for many teachers because of its drawbacks Students can easily be disturbed if their phones suddenly ring or vibrate As a result, the learning process will be totally disrupted when the students start to pay attention to their phones Moreover, using mobile phones can potentially affect teachers’ and students’ mental health due to the impacts on social interaction and the effects of misuse Therefore, using mobile-assisted language might be the striking issues for teachers and students during the process of learning English vocabulary

Applying MALL for teaching vocabulary need to be considered meticulous research and observation to find out about the reality of using MALL in teaching vocabulary, the benefits and drawbacks that teachers might face during the time they teach vocabulary in their classes Therefore, they can have flexible reactions and thoughts about using MALL and adjust how to use MALL to teach vocabularies effectively Several requirements are proposed for teachers about their perception and skills to apply technology in learning vocabulary process It acquires teachers to have self-improvement in expanding their knowledge about using technology devices

The 4th yearEnglish Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages are those who experience a long process of training to become future English teachers Interestingly, these students are likely to be committed to their future students and their learning, particularly the ways their future students develop vocabulary effectively Given this, examining and searching for more information about applying MALL is extremely essential and useful Thus, this present research aims at examining the perceptions of 4th year English pedagogy students at Hue University of Foreign Languages in using mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) for teaching vocabulary

1.2 AIMS

Carrying out this research, the researcher aims:

(1) To investigate how the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages perceive in teaching vocabulary

(2) To identify the benefits and challenges of the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages in adopting MALL for teaching vocabulary

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE

This research concentrates on the perceptions of the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages in using MALL for teaching vocabulary In particular, the 4th year English Pedagogy at HU-UFL will

do the survey relating to what they perceive about the usage as well as the benefits and challenges of using MALL in teaching vocabulary Based on the results of this research, several useful techniques will be suggested to help the teacher students enhance their skills in teaching vocabulary for their students

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

In the 21st century, MALL has been used to facilitate teaching and learning English at different levels A number of digital devices with a lot of useful applications and positive functions have spread out at an unprecedented rate and become an integral part of approaching English This rise is deeply influencing our daily life and simultaneously creating countless demands for promoting the process

of learning new languages Thus, the study of MALL has widely attracted attention from many researchers and educators; investigation of MALL impact vocabulary development deserves further concentration

2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN LEARNING ENGLISH

With the rising number of English learners, many researchers consider several important factors in learning language and one of the significant factors need to be mentioned is developing vocabulary

A plenty of research has been carried out to emphasize the importance of expanding vocabulary during the process of learning English Researchers have reported that for a large majority of learners, the ultimate goal of studying is to be able to communicate in a new language When learning a mother tongue or any foreign language, vocabulary is the most significant component that enables verbal communication happen The process of learning lexical words acquires learners to understand alternative word meanings to apply in many contexts in order that learners can be flexible in solving the problems of language acquisition caused by various contextual variables (Yang & Dai, 2012) In the process of language learning, many factors needs to be concerned to communicative effectively such as phonetics/pronunciation and grammar Especially, vocabulary acquisition plays an essential part in boosting the development of the ability to learn language (Pan &

Xu, 2011) If learners do not wish to lean completely on non-verbal skills, mastering vocabulary is not just important, but crucial in a foreign language environment

Besides, improving vocabulary can be regarded as a direct, positive impact on the capacity to build up language proficiency as a whole Vocabulary is the main tool for the students in their attempt to use English effectively When confronted with a native English speaker, when watching a movie without subtitles or when listening to a favorite English song, when reading a text or when writing a letter to a friend, students will always need to operate with words Also, learners with a sufficient vocabulary can make full sentences exactly and express their intended ideas fluently for all kinds of English forms

Nevertheless, vocabulary learning is challenging, particularly, for the non - native speakers of English who face problems relating to the meanings of new words, spelling, pronunciation, correct use of words, guessing meaning through the context and so on The reasons for such difficulties can be multifaceted According

to Nation (2006), when learning English, students have to learn a large number of lexical items to comprehend English extracts However, it is inevitable that students cannot communicate and use all of the words which they have learnt This leads to some problems for language teachers and learners The problem faced by language teachers is how to teach this large number of vocabulary during the limited time of the class For students, they may have difficulty in memorizing all the words they have learned because of some significant reasons For example, introducing a new vocabulary may imply forgetting the old one This happens most frequently when words are taught that are very similar to the ones recently acquired Thus, these challenging factors have been mentioned as the obstacles for teachers when supplying their students a numerous vocabulary for a long time without any effective instructional methods

As a whole, the importance of learning and teaching vocabulary can be identified which acquires teachers to enhance their ability and efforts during the process of finding alternative sources for teaching vocabulary

2.2 MOBILE-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING

The term “Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL)” has been defined in many ways Firstly, George M Chinnery (2006) asserted that MALL was the use of mobile devices to support language learning Besides, Caudill (2008) also mentioned that MALL were the technology of language learning with the implication of the aforementioned mobile (portative) IT devices MALL can be known as the sub-type of mobile and computer learning of languages (CALL) Thus, MALL can be known as a subset of both mobile learning and computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in general

There are many types of MALL applications used in teaching vocabulary such

as some applications on cellphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), iPods and so

on Thanks to the contribution of mobile devices, various activities have been organized for creating many effective learning opportunities As Miangah, T.M., & Nezarat, A (2012) mentioned learning via mobile now is easy to approach by sending numerous learning materials or content to learners through mobile devices Learning language via mobile devices allows teachers and learners to create and participate in various activities by accessing internet, capturing pictures, recording videos or sending messages Hence, MALL makes a great change in the field of pedagogy through various activities and its types

2.3 THE EFFECTS OF MALL ON LEARNING ENGLISH IN GENERAL

Integrating MALL technology now becomes popular which helps boost the process of creating many new multidimensional learning opportunities for students Various advantages and positive effects of MALL are indicated for boosting the effective process of learning English

Firstly, thanks to the development of numerous educational mobile applications, mobile devices allow students to access more reference sources for their learning, expand their content knowledge and engage them in real communication because of its convenience and flexibility As Nyiri (2002) and Sharples (2007) mentioned that using mobiles allows users to take part in cooperative learning wherever they are

Thus, the interaction among various people can be motivated in different contexts Via mobile technology, learners engaging in conversation have many opportunities

to share their own understandings, compare with others’ ideas, search for the differences and comprehend the common understandings of the world

Secondly, mobile phones nowadays may dominate most students’ life and can

be considered the useful devices that fit into students’ pockets Some of the examples of where learners use mobile devices range from simply taking photos and videos to share in class or recording homework, to creating revision podcasts or animations In particular, Dos (2014) indicated that because of the importance and portability, mobile phones could be integrated like our clothes Currently, mobile phones are not only used for completely communication purposes but also regarded them as a core pedagogical activity in higher educational institutions Additionally, MALL encourages independent learning and allows students to choose which approach will suit them In fact, encouraging mobile device use has enabled students to access resources that teachers cannot provide otherwise Students can use it whenever and wherever they want, which creates a learning potential tool in both traditional classroom and outdoor informal learning environments

Overall, MALL provides many beneficial functions that offer positive features and purpose for approach English in general

2.4 THE EFFECTS OF APPLYING MALL ON TEACHING VOCABULARY 2.4.1 The benefits of using MALL in teaching vocabulary

Nowadays, there are abundant alternatives in choosing the methods to teach English skills A number of techniques have been used to help learners efficiently memorize words and to help teachers make the process of learning easier for their students One of the benefic ial techniques for teaching vocabulary effectively can

be mentioned is applying MALL in English classes

The very first benefit of using mobile devices nowadays is that mobile phones are lightweight to fit in a pocket and the various prices of mobile devices allow learners can easily buy one for the purposes of their learning and teaching As Tayebeh Mosavi Miangah and Amin Nezarat (2012) clarified that the essential role

of using mobile phones increased their popularity Besides, the need of teachers were enhancing to provide tools and software for the learners in teaching contexts Moreover, comparing with other wireless devices such as laptop computers, mobile phones are rather affordable for users to deal with certain tasks; just simply clicking

on searching for webs or Wi-Fi connection available everywhere currently Thus, mobile devices can be chosen as a beneficial tool thanks to their portability and flexibility

Secondly, mobile devices help teachers allow their students to use in the classroom or at any place in more practical ways.Teachers can use mobile devices for online classes in case of impossible class on-sites For example, many Vietnamese teachers and professional lectures using mobile devices for online teaching by streaming their lessons during the period of the epidemic disease – corona virus attacking the globe’s life According to George M Chinnery (2006), mobile technologies clearly offerred numerous practical uses in language learning

In fact, mobile technologies/ mobile phones are popular choices for improving language skills due to their reasonable cost For instance, college students tend to buy mobile phones rather than laptop or desktop because of their price and convenience Even in cases where they must be acquired, mobile technologies are typically less expensive than standard equipment, such as PCs The portability of mobile media is another benefit They can be just as easily utilized outside the classroom as they can be in it; learners can study or practice manageable chunks of information in any place on their own time, thereby taking advantage of their convenience Ultimately, what these benefits indicate is the potential use of MALL that helps explain the reason of MALL contribution to language learning

Thirdly, MALL can be a beneficial tool for teachers to add up students’ motivations when learning English, especially in building up vocabulary As Helwa (2017) clarified that the effectiveness of MALL depended partly on various activities, tasks and strategies the researcher introduced to the students In this manner, it can be suggested that in order for students to put efforts and time on

studying new vocabulary items students should be encouraged for their vocabulary development by using MALL Similarly, teachers are also advised to use MALL as one of their teaching strategies when working with students on vocabulary expansion.

In conclusion, using MALL for teaching vocabulary can be seen as the practical suggestion for helping students further progress their learning

2.4.2 The challenges of applying MALL into teaching vocabulary

While MALL application shows positive impacts on teaching English, using MALL poses numerous challenges for not only students but also teachers

The first negative impact of using mobile phones to learn vocabulary lies in teachers’ and students’ health and working effectiveness According to George M Chinnery (2006), although MALL brought numerous benefits for learners, several challenges of using MALL were pointed out Owing to the portability, some features of MALL have to be reduced such as screen sizes, audiovisual quality, virtual keyboarding and one-finger data entry, and limited power Also, Tayebeh Mosavi Miangah and Amin Nezarat (2012) mentioned the drawbacks of mobile devices when using for educational purposes is that they cause some barriers in learning because of small screens, reading difficulty, data storage and multimedia limitations

Secondly, overusing MALL can lead to some distraction for not only students but also teachers If learners completely focus on their mobile devices and use them for other negative purposes, it will affect the process of transferring knowledge and lose the interaction between teachers and students Many of the mobile phones are not designed for educational purposes, which is difficult for learners to use for the tasks given by the teachers This is partly due to the initial design of such devices, and partly due to the non-existence of such developed mobile phones

Thirdly, using MALL does not bring any absolute efficiency for every learning opportunities The ways of organizing and teaching vocabulary effectively for students depend on the lesson’s content and context As Sam Goundar (2011)

claimed that the main pedagogical issue to consider is whether using MALL could

be appropriate to some courses or not In fact, not all courses are suited to the mobile learning environment While most of theory and informative courses seem

to be appropriate for using mobile technologies to explore course content intensively, technical or practicum courses are not suggested using MALL Moreover, the learning opportunities can be enhanced by the use of quizzes to test knowledge, summary of main learning points, and interaction with other students and the tutor via telephony integration Hence, using MALL need to be considered and use appropriately depend on each situation of learning and teaching vocabulary

In short, along with the potential that MALL offers, learners and teachers also need to be thoughtful with MALL so that all mobile technologies can serve right well in accordance with pedagogical purposes

2.5 RESEARCH GAP

MALL is attracting more and more attention from a number of educators and researchers Many studies have been carried out to investigate the impacts of applying MALL in the English learning process Much of the current research investigated the role of mobile learning in the integration of English classes and modern technology The topics relating to applying mobile devices in learning foreign languages are varied such as mobile technology categories for ESL classrooms, the motivation for students using mobile devices in class and also the convenience or challenges for teachers when applying mobile devices in ESL classrooms

All previously mentioned researches have investigated many alternative issues

of MALL applications in language learning and teaching For instance, the investigation about the effects of some detailed applications on vocabulary acquisition such as the effect of SMS vocabulary instruction on university students’ academic vocabulary retention, explored categories of mobile- assisted language learning – MALL (George M Chinnery , 2006) or examined the benefits and challenges of mobile learning (Hamideh Zerehkafi, 2013), (Miangah.TM &

Nezarat A, 2012) These studies have made clear investigation about the effectiveness of MALL on developing the ability to learn English in particular and foreign languages in general

However, some studies might be carried out and investigated general problems, not completely focused on a certain target or specific issues (completely about teacher’s affairs or students’ affairs) The important point of applying MALL successfully into real ESL classroom is still absent currently Therefore, what this study initially oriented is to investigate how student teachers perceived MALL in teaching English vocabulary and how MALL operated in improving students’ content knowledge and vocabulary development

In addition, the literature review showed that most previously mentioned studies just focused on some skills such as listening (Helwa, 2017) , reading, writing or speaking… in different educational institutes outside Vietnam Furthermore, these studies concluded various significant benefits of utilizing mobile assisted language learning in teaching vocabulary in several educational environments in many countries Nevertheless, not all educational sites can be applied MALL in teaching vocabulary successfully and effectively As Sam Goundar (2011) claimed that one

of the most important considerations is that whether using MALL could be appropriate to some specific institutions or not In fact, not all courses are suited to the mobile learning environment Students from different learning backgrounds and distinctive learning styles are under different learning factors In particular, the researcher wonder whether MALL can make any great impacts on certain educational environment such as Hue University, University of Foreign Languages where the researcher is training for higher academic level Thus, this study was conducted with regards to examine how the students at HU-UFL perceived the use

of MALL in their teaching vocabulary Besides, the positive and negative impacts

of MALL would be clarified to explore whether MALL could be used as an

effective tool in a specific institution or not

Purpose of the study

Therefore, the present study, taking into account these preliminary considerations of mobile learning merits, has set an aim to explore the perceptions

of Vietnamese English Pedagogy students about the effects of mobile devices in language classrooms, in particular the 4th year English Pedagogy students at Hue University of Foreign Languages It also aims to examine which methods of MALL applications teachers have been carried out to teach English vocabulary and have created the effective learning opportunities for their future students

Questions of the study

The present study aims to answer the following questions:

1 How have the 4th year English Pedagogy students at HU-UFL perceived the use of MALL in teaching English vocabulary?

2 What are the benefits and challenges found when the 4th year English Pedagogy students at HUCFL have used MALL to teach English vocabulary?

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter shows the methods used to collect and analyze the data There are three part of the methodology: research design, research site, participants, data collection and data analysis

3.1 Research Site

The researcher decided to choose HU-UFL as the research site since she is a current undergraduate at HU-UFL and is able to recruit the participants and build trust with them for data collection Thanks to the relationship with the participants, the data collection and data analysis would be more reliable and valid, leading to the expected research value and significance

3.2 Participants

The participants of this study are 60 the 4th year EP students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages The reason of choosing these participants are that they have been learning English for approximately 12 years and have been trained

as future teachers after graduation These students have much experience in examining many methods for learning English effectively in general and learning vocabulary in particular The participants also examined and used mobile devices for a long time so they might have specific perceptions of using MALL and they have applied it in teaching vocabulary Therefore, the subjects of study are invited

to fill in the questionnaires and express their opinion in the interviews based on their perceptions and their own experience about MALL; thus, the data collected would be more reliable and helpful for this research

3.3 Research method

This research was conducted by using mix method (both quantitative and

qualitative methods) to collect data The quantitative approach was adopted to gather the statistical data that were statistically analyzed for participants’ responses

to the questionnaire The qualitative approach was used to describe and analyze the non-numeric data from the interview about how teacher students used MALL to

teach English vocabulary and the benefits and challenges that MALL application exhibited The combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches let the researcher got reliable data in terms of quality and quantity as these two approaches can supplement one another

3.4 Data collection and data analysis

3.4.1 Data collection

To find out the answers to these above-mentioned research questions, the researcher collected data through such techniques as quantitative data

(questionnaires) and qualitative data (interviews)

 Questionnaires: In this study, the questionnaires were delivered to 60 the 4th year students from English Pedagogy at HU-UFL to collect their information of students’ perceptions about using MALL for teaching English vocabulary The main part of the questionnaire included 17 items separated into three sections and these items in the questionnaires focuses on answering two research questions The first section (from item 1 to 8) concentrated on gathering data for the first research question (How have the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL perceived the use of MALL in teaching English vocabulary?) The second section (from item 9 to 14) in the survey collected data for the second research question (What are the benefits and challenges found when the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL have used MALL to teach English vocabulary?) In addition, some recommendations for apply MALL effectively to teach vocabulary by the participants’ responses from item 15 to item

17 The participants were invited to answer all the questions in the questionnaires without the researcher’s involvement The responses from the questionnaires will be stored and analyzed to provide statistic data for findings and discussion

 Interviews: The interviews were conducted after collecting data from the questionnaires in order to gain more specific answers relating to the answers that participants provided in their questionnaire Face-to-face interviews were conducted with five students from the 4th year EP at HU-UFL in order to have deep understanding of using MALL, especially in their future’s career The reason for

choosing these participants to take part in the interviews was that they have had much experience in teaching as well as using mobile assisted language learning in teaching vocabulary for their students As a result, they have had better understanding and more exact evaluation about the usage of MALL as well as its effects on teaching vocabulary The participants were asked and answered the questions directly relating to their personal ideas or experiences about applying MALL and how to use it in their own classroom The participants could answer the questions in Vietnamese so that they could express exactly what they perceived about the mentioned issues

3.4.2 Data analysis

In order to conduct the study, perceptions of the 4th year EP students at UFL in using MALL were investigated using mixed method research design Mixed method research design consists of both quantitative and qualitative data Thus, it helped to increase the reliability of the collected data

 Quantitative data analysis: As Bryman (2001) argued that quantitative research approach focuses on collecting numbers and figures and analyzing data The quantitative data were collected by asking respondents to answers the open-ended questions, multiple choices and short questions pertaining to their perceptions or experiences about the usage of MALL All information obtaining from the questionnaires were analyzed using the Excel software Based on the numbers from the Excel, the researcher simply reported the statistical frequency and percentage and the results are presented in the tables and charts Since these numbers precisely reflected the participants’ perceptions of using MALL in their lessons, as well as the problems MALL caused to students in their process of learning and teaching

 Qualitative data analysis: The collected information from the interviews were carefully analyzed to have more understandings of the phenomenon under investigation Johnson and Christensen (2012) stated that the qualitative data approach concentrated on the collection of non-numerical primary data such as words and pictures Thus, the quantitative data analysis contributes to provide more

factual and descriptive information For the qualitative data analysis, all transcripts

from the interviews were processed by using the software NVivo 2018 In order to conduct the qualitative data analysis, the researcher initially embedded all transcripts from the interviews to the NVivo; then, the researcher processed the words, phrases, and sentences which expressed the participants’ opinions and ideas that were relevant to the research questions These words/ phrases and sentences were coded and placed in the categories

To promote the research reliability, the researcher invited some friends to analyze the data separately This step served as triangulation of data in qualitative research which helped excluded subjectivity when working with the data All the collected data were stored for further analysis, resulting in deep discussion and relevant recommendation

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the data from the questionnaires and the participants’ responses were collected and presented in tables, figures and charts First, the findings are analyzed and divided into three sections Section one focuses on investigating the participants’ perceptions of MALL in teaching vocabulary Section two investigates the positive and negative effects of MALL on the participants as well as their student during the process of vocabulary acquisition Section three identifies some suggestions for applying MALL effectively in teaching vocabulary Secondly, the discussion is followed with the aim to analyze and answer the research questions based on the collected findings

 Background information relating to the participants

At the beginning of the questionnaires, three questions relating the background information of the participants were given out in order that the researcher were able

to collect the basic information, the practical experiences in teaching English as well as their students’ possession of using mobile phones The participants’ demographic information were presented as follows:

Number of the

Note: Total number of respondents: 60

Table 1: The gender of the participants taking part in the survey

Chart 1: The percentage of the participants’ practical experiences in teaching

As mentioned in the Table 1 and Chart 1, all participants who were invited to take part in the survey had their own experiences in practical teaching The participants were those who are the 4th year EP students including 90% of female and 10% male In addition, they have participated in several internship programs in Vietnam or Thailand, tutoring at home or in English centers, joining voluntary projects or community teaching

Before investigating the perceptions of the use of MALL in teaching vocabulary, an item was provided to examine whether the target students who the participants have taught owned mobile phones or not The statistics collected and presented in Chart 2

YES 100%

NO 0%

Chart 2: The possession of mobile phones of the participants’ students

It can be seen that the majority of the participants asserted their students have mobile phones to use 26.7 % of the participants showed that all students joining in their classes had mobiles phones to use Besides, 45% of the respondents claimed that most of their students had a right to use mobile phones and use for their learning The percentage of the respondents said that only some students taking part

in their classes used mobile phones that accounts for 35.5 % whereas only 3.3% of the participants said that their students did not have mobile phones to use and had to borrow their parents for studying purposes

4.1 STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE USE OF MALL IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

As mentioned in section 3.4.1, the main part of the questionnaire consists of 17 questions numbered from 1 to 17 and is separated into three parts Part one including from item 1 to item 8 focuses on examining how the 4th year EP students

at HU-UFL perceived the use of MALL in teaching vocabulary In this part, the participants responded to several given questions in the questionnaires relating to their perceptions about the definition of MALL as well as their experiences in using MALL to teach English vocabulary for their students in practice In addition, the

26.7

45 35.5

3.3

All students have mobile phones to use Most of students have mobile phones to use

Only some students have mobile phones to use No one have mobile phones to use

information collected from the interviews were added to the findings in order to make the results more specific and reliable

4.1.1 The definition of MALL

In the questionnaire, item one was given out to check the awareness of the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL about the definition of MALL, item 1 in the questionnaire was given Chart 3 shows these findings:

Chart 3: The awareness of the 4 th year English Pedagogy students at HUCFL

about the definition of MALL

Chart 3 illustrates the perceptions of the 4th year EP students at Hue University, University of Foreign Languages about the definition of MALL by choosing one of three given answers

The results collected is that 17 percent of the participants chose the definition (A) “Mobile assisted language learning is a technology of language learning supported or enhanced through the use of mobile devices” as the most accurate answer to define MALL Only 3 percent of them asserted that MALL was a subset

of learning styles using mobile devices and CALL (option B) The number of participants who claimed that the correct definition for MALL was the combination

of (A) and (B) reached 80 percent of the total participants

17%

3%

80%

THE DEFINITION OF MALL

MALL is the technology of language learning supported or enhanced through the use of mobile devices MALL is is a subset of learning styles using mobile devices and computer assisted language learning (CALL) All of these answers are correct

As can be seen from the results that the participants were aware of the definition of MALL Nevertheless, several participants might not have many opportunities in exploiting the benefits of using MALL in their teaching Thus, they were not able to understand the core essence of MALL, which caused the misunderstanding when identifying the definition of MALL

4.1.2 The experiences of the 4 th year EP students at HUCFL in using MALL to teach vocabulary

With the aims to inquire about the experiences of the 4th year EP at HU-UFL in adopting mobile assisted language learning in their teaching vocabulary Several key points were given to ask the participants relating their practice of using MALL For instance, the frequency in utilizing MALL in teaching vocabulary, several specific methods that they have used to apply MALL effectively in their class and the most suitable time period of their lesson’s process to adopt MALL efficiently In addition, they also were required to recommend several beneficial mobile applications that they often used for their teaching vocabulary, the practical results

of their applying MALL in English class and other main points

 The frequency of the 4 th year EP students at HU-UFL in adopting MALL in teaching vocabulary

No of

Note: Total number of respondents: 60

Table 2: The frequency of the 4 th year EP students at HU-UFL in using MALL for

teaching vocabulary

As Table 2 shows, most of the participants had experiences in adopting MALL

to teach vocabulary for their students A relatively great proportion of the participants ( 96.7 percent including “Often”, “Always” and “Sometimes”) expressed that they have utilized MALL as a method to teach vocabulary for their

learners in their class Apart from, only 3.4 percent (1.7 percent “Seldom” and 1.7 percent “Never”) of them confirmed they have not adopted MALL in their classroom due to several private reasons

A participant taking part in the interview stated:

S1: In spite of limited capability to apply technological knowledge, I always try to

use as many English applications in her classes as she could The reason for these efforts is that I want to inspire my students with new fascinating teaching methods and make students not feel bored when joining in my vocabulary lesson I also believe that the alteration in using new teaching methods can boost the productivity

of expanding vocabulary in my class

(Student interview, 16/5/2020) The data collected from the findings ensured that the participants have had significant awareness of the good points of using MALL for teaching vocabulary Besides, they might grasp their students’ expectation for the new learning method

As a result, they have increased the frequency of using MALL in order to meet the needs of their students in the process of vocabulary development

 MALL activities created for vocabulary development

Applying MALL acquires EP students the capability to search for and upgrade various essential and beneficial methods Therefore, item 2 was in the questionnaire aimed to investigate how the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL perceived and developed alternative methods to adopt MALL effectively in teaching vocabulary for their students The 4th year EP students described their designed activities using

MALL present in the below table:

Figure 1: MALL activities created for vocabulary development

The results collected from the questionnaires show that the 4th year EP students

at HU-UFL used numerous activities to teach vocabulary by using mobile assisted language learning

Up to 61.7 percent of the participants have applied MALL in their class by submitting several English videos or songs including new vocabulary to students in order that their students can watch or listen to these English songs/videos to grasp new vocabulary needed for their next lesson first In addition, 61.7 percent of the participants chose to ask their students to do some quizzes relating to some vocabulary which students have learned to understand vocabulary quickly and more accurately

Besides, inviting students to play mobile games or asking them to play mobile games or ask them to choose the correct word category, phonetic transcription for given vocabulary are common activities which is indicated by 50 percent and 55 percent of the participants, respectively Other useful tasks were also chosen such as requesting students to translate words and match these words in the correct blank (accounts for 35 percent) or asking students to listen to the news or

Ask students to listen to news samples, stories

on mobile phones at home and check their pronunciation, word meaning and spelling at the next lesson.

Permit students

to play mobile games to help students memorize vocabulary

Ask students to

do quiz questions to understand vocabulary

Submit English videos and songs including new words to students grasp before class at home

stories in English first for checking the pronunciation, spelling, word meanings afterward (accounts for 28.3 percent of the participants)

The findings revealed that the participants spent much time looking for many alternative activities in order to apply MALL effectively in their class They identified the lessons’ purpose and chose suitable activities to make sure that their students were able to use MALL not only inside their classes but also in several places outside the classes Additionally, the findings also identified the remarkable role of MALL in creating various learning activities These findings are consistent with Kukulska-Hulme and Jones (2011) that language learning via mobile devices provided numerous activities by the use of the usage of mobile phones Using various activities with the support of MALL boost the success of vocabulary acquisition This finding is also relatively resemble with Helwa (2017) that the effectiveness of MALL might be enhanced by various activities, tasks and strategies the researcher presented to the students

 The suitable time that the 4th year EP students at HU-UFL use MALL for teaching vocabulary

In term of demonstrating the choice of the participants when being asked about the proper period of time when they tend to utilize MALL in teaching vocabulary

for their students The gathered data were presented in the Figure 2 as follows:

Figure 2: The suitable time that the 4 th year EP students at HU-UFL use MALL for

teaching vocabulary

The results indicate that a very large proportion (83.3 percent) of the participants used MALL when teaching new vocabulary while 71.7 percent of them focused on using MALL to help students review vocabulary 30 percent of the participants decided to use MALL for assigning homework for their students in comparison with 20 percent of them used it when instructing students to do some exercises pertaining to translating new words or passages A tiny fraction (2.9 percent) of respondents said that they utilized MALL for online tests and other purposes such as using to help students entertain at stressful study time or extend the opportunity to interact with students in English

When being asked more specific about the stage and the way how to use MALL for that stage, the participants participated in the interview illustrated that they could be flexible in MALL at the beginning of the lesson so that they could check all students in class whether they learnt vocabulary at home or not Additionally, some participants pointed out that they might apply MALL for reviewing several vocabulary that they have taught to students at the consolidation stage in order to help students memorize the new words more accurately

When designing for homeworks

When assigning online tests

When instructing students to translate passages or do exercises

Others

 Some specific mobiles applications have been used to teach vocabulary by the 4 th year EP students at HU-UFL

In terms of examining several specific mobile applications used in the process of their practical vocabulary teaching, the students taking part in answering the questionnaires were asked to choose some given options and short answers This not only revealed some essential mobile applications which the participants have already used in their teaching but also checked the practicality of using mobile applications in the teaching vocabulary process of the participants joining in the survey

Figure 3: Some mobiles applications have been used to teach vocabulary by the 4 th

year EP students at HU-UFL

Findings from Figure 3 revealed that the participants decided to choose varied

applications for their teaching vocabulary The number of participants choosing online and offline dictionary to teach vocabulary makes up the highest proportion (83.3 percent of the participants) Crossword was also considered the familiar mobile applications, which is indicated by 43.3 percent of the participant Numerous newest learning English vocabulary applications were also in the

Others

selected list such as ELSA, Memrise, English Quizlet and Ejoy, which take up 35 percent, 28.3 percent, 16.7 percent and 3.3 percent of the participants respectively

In addition, other participants also mentioned some other mobile applications which they used, 11 participants (accounts for 16.7 percent) listed several ones such

as Kahoot, Otter, 4English, Shubclassroom, Zoom and some channels on Youtube Some participants joining the interview mentioned several mobile applications which are useful for teaching vocabulary

S1: I have sent various links relating to learning English vocabulary via

Messenger app on Facebook, Gmail or direct send via SMS or MMS on their mobile phones

(Student interview, 13/5/2020) S2: For transmitting the assignments or exercises, I have used some English

learning applications such as Kahoot, Elsa, Memrise, etc When using these applications for teaching vocabulary, some exercises were divided into small parts and contained attractive illustrations Thus, my students were not under much pressure from a large number of lexical words

(Student interview, 16/5/2020) Thanks to the ability to exploit technical knowledge, the participants were able

to approach many beneficial mobile applications It can be a good sign that the 4thyear EP students at HU-UFL have been familiar with the usage of MALL They have known what they can do with the support of MALL and which methods they can use for teaching vocabulary The effectiveness of several mobile applications were proved and supported by many studies (Alemi M, Sarab, M.R., & Lari, Z, 2012; Suwantarathip.O & Orawiwatnakul.W, 2015; Lu, 2018) Hence, the participants become more responsible for examining more mobile applications that are appropriate for their students’ vocabulary acquisition

 The specific skill / part which MALL has the most useful impact when applied to teaching

The question “In your opinion, which is the specific skill that MALL has the most useful impact when applied to teaching?” was asked to the students in the questionnaire to get the opinion of the participants Answers were analyzed and showed in Chart 4

Chart 4: The specific part/ skill which MALL has the most useful impact when

applied to teaching

According to the responses of the participants, MALL had the most beneficial influence on mastering vocabulary (accounts for 66 percent of the participants) Besides, MALL also influenced other skills such as Listening (27%), Speaking (3%), and Listening (2%) respectively None of the participants believed that MALL could improve their writing skill Apart from, 2 percent of the participants gave the neutral opinion that they were not able to define which skill MALL can offer the most beneficial effect

From the findings, most of the participants agreed with the main influence of MALL on vocabulary development However, several participants decided to

Vocabulary 66%

Reading 2%

Speaking 3%

Listening 27%

Writing 0%

Others

Reading Speaking Listening Writing Others

choose the impact of MALL on other skills such as listening, speaking, writing, and reading The reason why the participants identified the different impacts of using MALL on different skills is that each participants had distinct concentration on different skills and the level of their students were dissimilar As a result, many responses from the participants would be different from others

 The factors that teaching with MALL can help students improve when learning vocabulary

In the process of teaching vocabulary, a number of factors are listed to be mentioned for students to approach a deep knowledge about it For instance, teachers have the responsibility to teach their students about the way to pronounce the words accurately, clarify the speech of sound, identify the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word Besides, the way to memorize the meaning, category and phonetic transcription of the words exactly also are concerned

In terms of examining the effects of MALL on several significant vocabulary elements for supporting students in learning vocabulary, item 7 asked students to choose the relevant options they agree with The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed and presented in Figure 4