An Investigation of English Mobile Learning in Junior High Schools

Abstract： Nowadays， high-performance mobile devices are continuously extended and applied in people’s life， and people can get easier access to the Internet than ever before. Mobile learning is becoming more and more popular， and especially appeals to young students greatly. The present thesis made an investigation on the current situation of mobile learning in junior high schools from one perspective-actors affecting mobile learning. A total of 150 junior high school students were involved in the study. The results indicated many factors existed influencing mobile learning among students. On the basis of these findings， the thesis put forward some practical suggestion to improve student English mobile learning efficiency.

Key words： mobile learning； mobile devices； learning efficiency

When asked what mobile learning is， different scholars have put forward various definitions. Philppak Smith （2016） defined mobile learning as a process by using mobile devices to study anywhere and anytime. Kim D. （2017） regarded mobile learning as a new type of education through PDAs， pocket PCs and mobile phones. It can be summarized that mobile learning is a kind of learning across different lands of contexts through personal electronic devices like mobile phones， Ipads， notebooks， tablets and so on. Mobile learning is characterized by mobility of the learners. They can choose when， where and how to study.

It is expected to answer the following question： What are the major factors affecting mobile learning among junior high school students？A total number of 150 junior high school students from Yulin Experimental Middle School were involved in the present research. There are six classes in Grade One. In total， 150 students （77 males and 73 females） took part in this study with their age ranging from 12 to 13.

The main instrument of the present study is a self-designed questionnaire to investigate the current situation of English mobile learning in junior high school students， student attitudes to mobile learning and major factors affecting mobile learning. It is adapted from XiongQiaoqiao’s questionnaire in 2014.The questionnaire is involves 5 independent questions.

Before the formal investigation， a pre-test has been carried out in order to make sure that the reliability and validity of the questionnaire is good enough for the survey. Ten junior high school students were randomly selected to finish the task so as to find out whether there were some problems in each item and whether they had some difficulties in understanding the questions. According to their performance， some improvements have been made， such as the readability of some items and options. Finally， the complete version of the questionnaire came into being. And the reliability and validity are suitable for the present research. The researcher participated in the whole process of the implementation of the survey in order to ensure the authenticity of the raw data.

With the help of the teachers from the Experimental Middle School and the engagement of the author， the formal questionnaire survey was carried out in this school in March， 2017. The total number of subjects is 150. At the beginning， the subjects were told that they didn’t need to write down their names on the questionnaire sheets. After finishing， all the questionnaires were taken back. But ten of them are invalid questionnaires because some students didn’t finish all the items .In all， there are 140 valid questionnaires and all these data are put into computer for the subsequent analysis.

There are many factors influencing mobile learning， such as the uncovered wireless devices， the learner’s consciousness and habits， high cost， the poor quality of mobile leaning materials and other reasons. Obviously， the main affecting factor is that mobile devices provide fewer learning materials for junior high school students to learn. Although high-technology devices provide more convenient learning resources for junior high school students， their quality is so poor that they can hardly satisfy student learning needs. There is no doubt that most students have consciousness to learn through mobile devices and they have fallen into the habit of applying highly-developed technology to assist their learning.It is easier to find that most families can afford mobile devices， so the number of students choosing high cost is at a lower level.

Some suggestions are proposed from four perspectives as follows：Mobile learning is becoming a part of people’s daily life. It is time for schools to take further action to advocate and promote mobile teaching and learning to help students to meet the needs of lifelong learning. Suggestions for teachers should integrate mobile learning into formal classroom teaching and develop their educational ideology and skill. For parents， they should guild their child to make best use of mobile learning devices.

In conclusion， mobile learning represents the future ways of learning， and it revolutionizes people’s idea of learning style， but there is no perfect learning mode. Hence， it has its own limitations. Only through the joint efforts made by schools， teachers and parents can mobile learning become more efficient.

References：

[1]Chad， Udell. Mastering Mobile Learning [M]. Beijing： Publishing House of Electronics Industry， 2017.

[2]Chen Qi & Liu Rude. Contmporary Educational Psychology [M]. Beijing： Beijing Normal University Publication， 2007.

[3]Huang Ronghuai.Mobile Learning Theory， Situation， Tendency[M]. Beijing： Science Press， 2008.

作者簡介：刘笑，1994年9月20日出生，女，汉族，籍贯三原县，现就读于西安外国语大学英语教育学院2018级学科教学英语专业，主要研究方向：中小学英语教师。