2019 Annual Conference of China English Language Education Association (CELEA2019)

543 / 2019-08-04 22:39:25

Action research on enhancing adult EFL learners’ vocabulary learning through the use of mobile technology

MALL; vocabulary learning and teaching; word app “Bai Ci Zhan” and communicative tool “Wechat”

Plenary track > 中国特色英语教育理论和教学方法创新研究

Vocabulary is the essential and the most basic aspect of language learning. Adult EFL learners lack of sufficient time in class, possessing relatively narrow vocabulary size, having an urge of promote language learning in such short time span. With regard to the reality issues, the researcher (the teacher) conducted an action research of application of the MALL-based mobile phone word learning and teaching approach (by means of word learning app “Bai Ci Zhan” and communicative tool of Wechat), with the aim to make up the shortages of in-class instruction, and take advantage of after-class time, to promote the students’ vocabulary learning. The descriptive results show the active engagement of students in this approach, and the increasingly growing word test mean scores in eight weeks show the effectiveness of this approach in word learning and teaching. The paired samples t-test demonstrated the improvement of students’ word knowledge in this semester. The current study offers a new perspective to word learning and teaching, which is embracing mobile phone in our daily instruction activity.