English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey

Mobile apps (applications) are currently taking over as our most frequently used tools in many situations. As teachers we need to consider whether they ought to be employed in the language classroom, allowed in tests, or referred to for homework. This paper focuses on an experiment in a German vocat...

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Main Authors: Danijela Ikonic, Thomas Hawes
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Prof Thomas Tinnefeld 2019-06-01
Series:Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Subjects:
Online Access:https://linguisticsandlanguageteaching.blogspot.com/search/label/81%20Hawes
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author Danijela Ikonic
Thomas Hawes
author_facet Danijela Ikonic
Thomas Hawes
author_sort Danijela Ikonic
collection DOAJ
description Mobile apps (applications) are currently taking over as our most frequently used tools in many situations. As teachers we need to consider whether they ought to be employed in the language classroom, allowed in tests, or referred to for homework. This paper focuses on an experiment in a German vocational school to answer these questions by gauging, firstly, students’ performance in a vocabulary test, with and without access to an app named Quizlet and, secondly, their attitudes to the use of apps for English vocabulary learning via two questionnaires. Responses to the latter showed that every single pupil in the survey uses a mobile phone daily and that a clear majority in every class except one think it would make sense to use their mobile phones to help them with school subjects, primarily because these may be enjoyably employed anywhere, anytime. They feel that apps on their mobile phones motivate better than traditional paper-based classroom materials, especially when there is a game-like element. As for the test, the general improvement in results obtained with the app suggests that it could at the very least be used more extensively in schools. In the test, curiously, the youngest pupils failed to improve their results with Quizlet, but almost every other student category did benefit considerably and there is reason to believe that it would be worth exploiting such apps for vocabulary learning, testing and perhaps for other school subjects in the future.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-0b3c81f406a6498ab5fccec7ae358e432025-01-05T13:52:48ZdeuProf Thomas TinnefeldJournal of Linguistics and Language Teaching2190-46772019-06-011012943English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical SurveyDanijela Ikonic0 Thomas Hawes1Städtische Berufschule für FertigungstechnikFremdspracheninstitut der Landeshauptstadt MünchenMobile apps (applications) are currently taking over as our most frequently used tools in many situations. As teachers we need to consider whether they ought to be employed in the language classroom, allowed in tests, or referred to for homework. This paper focuses on an experiment in a German vocational school to answer these questions by gauging, firstly, students’ performance in a vocabulary test, with and without access to an app named Quizlet and, secondly, their attitudes to the use of apps for English vocabulary learning via two questionnaires. Responses to the latter showed that every single pupil in the survey uses a mobile phone daily and that a clear majority in every class except one think it would make sense to use their mobile phones to help them with school subjects, primarily because these may be enjoyably employed anywhere, anytime. They feel that apps on their mobile phones motivate better than traditional paper-based classroom materials, especially when there is a game-like element. As for the test, the general improvement in results obtained with the app suggests that it could at the very least be used more extensively in schools. In the test, curiously, the youngest pupils failed to improve their results with Quizlet, but almost every other student category did benefit considerably and there is reason to believe that it would be worth exploiting such apps for vocabulary learning, testing and perhaps for other school subjects in the future. https://linguisticsandlanguageteaching.blogspot.com/search/label/81%20Hawesappsvocabulary learningmobileenglish
spellingShingle Danijela Ikonic
Thomas Hawes
English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey
Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
apps
vocabulary learning
mobile
english
title English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey
title_full English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey
title_fullStr English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey
title_full_unstemmed English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey
title_short English Vocabulary Apps for Classroom Use? Results of an Empirical Survey
title_sort english vocabulary apps for classroom use results of an empirical survey
topic apps
vocabulary learning
mobile
english
url https://linguisticsandlanguageteaching.blogspot.com/search/label/81%20Hawes
work_keys_str_mv AT danijelaikonic englishvocabularyappsforclassroomuseresultsofanempiricalsurvey
AT thomashawes englishvocabularyappsforclassroomuseresultsofanempiricalsurvey