skip to main content
10.1145/3631991.3632022acmotherconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageswsseConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

The Utilization of Educational Apps in Teaching English Vocabulary for Elementary Students at a Vocational School

Published: 26 December 2023 Publication History

Abstract

The English teachers are always seeking for new methods to improve their English classes. If teachers wish to boost language acquisition, they must make them more engaging for students. Today, if teachers want to be successful in their proffession, they must include technology into their English classes. If it is vocabulary lessons, there are English language apps where students may compete against their friends to see who can get the highest score or match vocabulary items with words. Students will find this motivating and engaging. This study employed the Delphi method to identify which educational apps are really suitable for the teaching and learning vocabulary at a vocational school for elementary students. 21 English teachers were invited to participate in a two-round Delphi survey. The survey revealed 7 apps that are considered suitable and effective for students at this school. The findings are important for the English department at the studied context in developing the appropriate teaching strategies. It is also a reference for English teachers in general when deciding apps for their teaching.

References

[1]
Pew Research Center. (2017). Mobile fact sheet. http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/.
[2]
Statista. (2016). Percentage of households with mobile phones in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1996 to 2016. https://www.statista.com/statistics/289167/mobile-phone-penetration-in-the-uk/.
[3]
Al-Emran, M., Elsherif, H. M., & Shaalan, K. (2015). Investigating Attitudes towards the Use of Mobile Learning in Higher Education. Computers in Human Behavior. 56, 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.033
[4]
 Soleimani, E., Ismail, K., & Mustaffa, R. (2014). The Acceptance of Mobile Assisted Lan- guage Learning (MALL) among Post Graduate ESL Students in UKM. Procedia Social and and Behavioural Sciences. 118, 457-462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro. 2014.02.062
[5]
 Al-Said, K. M. (2015). Students’ Perceptions of Edmodo and Mobile Learning and Their Real Barriers towards Them. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technol- ogy. 4(2), 167-180.
[6]
Basal, A., Yilmaz, S., Tanriverdi, A., & Sari, L. (2016). Effectiveness of Mobile Applications in Vocabulary Teaching. Contemporary Educational Technology. 7(1), 47-59.
[7]
Khaoula, R. (2016). The Importance of Using Mobile Technology in Improving Students’ Vocabulary. Branch of English Language.
[8]
Chen, C. M., & Chung, C. J. (2008). Personalized mobile English vocabulary learning system based on item response theory and learning memory cycle. Computers & Education, 51, 624-645.
[9]
Huckin, T., Haynes, M., & Coady, J. (1993). Second language reading and vocabulary learning. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
[10]
Nation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
[11]
Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. New York: Newbury House.
[12]
Schmitt, N. (2010). Review article: Instructed second language vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research, 14(4), 347-349.
[13]
Chinnery, G. M. (2006). Going to the MALL: Mobile assisted language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 10(1), 9-16.
[14]
Hwang, G. J., & Chang, H. F. (2011). A formative assessment-based mobile learning approach to improving the learning attitudes and achievements of students. Computers & Education, 56, 1023- 1031.
[15]
Hwang, G. J., & Tsai, C. C. (2011). Research trends in mobile and ubiquitous learning: A review of publications in selected journals from 2001 to 2010. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(4), 65-70.
[16]
Cui, Y., & Bull, S. (2005). Context and learner modelling for the mobile foreign language learner. System, 33(2), 353-367.
[17]
G. J. Hwang, C. C. Tsai, and S. J. H. Yang, “Criteria, strategies and research issues of con- text-aware ubiquitous learning,” Educational Technology & Society, vol. 11, no. 2, Apr., pp. 81–91, 2008.
[18]
A. Kukulska-Hulme and L. Shield, “An overperception of mobile assisted language learn- ing: From content delivery to supported collaboration and interaction,” ReCALL, vol. 20, no. 3, Jan., pp. 271–289, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0958344008000335
[19]
M. Saran, G. Seferoglu, and K. Cagiltay, “Mobile language learning: Contribution of multi- media messages via mobile phones in consolidating vocabulary,” The Asia-Pacific Educa- tion Researcher, vol. 21, no. 1, Jan., pp. 181–190, 2012.
[20]
G. G. Smith, M. Li, J. Drobisz, H.-R. Park, D. Kim, and S. D. Smith, “Play games or study? Computer games in eBook to learn English vocabulary,” Computer & Education, vol. 69, Nov. pp. 274-286, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.07.015
[21]
H. Ashraf, F. G. Motlagh, and M. Salami, “The impact of online games on learning English vocabulary by Iranian (low-intermediate) EFL learners,” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 98, May, pp. 286-291, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.418
[22]
S. Deterding, D. Dixon, R. Khaled, and L. Nacke, “From game design elements to gameful- ness: Defining ‘gamification’,” In Proc. of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Con- ference: Envisioning Future Media Environments. MindTrek ’11, 2011, pp. 9-15. https://doi.org/10.1145/2181037.2181040
[23]
Y. Chen, T. Burton, V. Mihaela, and D.M. Whittinghill, “Cogent:A case study of meaningful gamification in education with virtual currency,” International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 39-45, 2015. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet. v10i1.4247
[24]
 S. Zabala-Vargas, L. García-Mora, E. Arciniegas-Hernández, and J. Reina-Medrano, “Strengthening motivation in the mathematical engineering teaching processes – A proposal from gamification and game-based learning,” International Journal of Emerging Technolo- gies in Learning, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 4-19, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i06.16163
[25]
Gordon, T. J. (2003). The Delphi method. In T. J. Gordon & J. C. Glenn (Eds.), Futures research methodology, (Version 2) [CD]. Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University.
[26]
Nielsen, C., & Thangadurai, M. (2007). Janus and the Delphi Oracle: Entering the new world of international business research. Journal of International Management, 13(2), 147-163.
[27]
Clayton, M. J. (1997). Delphi: a technique to harness expert opinion for critical decision-making tasks in education. Educational Psychology, 17(4), 373-386.
[28]
Mullen, P. M. (2003). Delphi: Myths and reality. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 17(1), 37-52.
[29]
Skulmoski, G. J., Hartman, F. T., & Krahn, J. (2007). The Delphi method for graduate research. Journal of Information Technology Education, 6, 1-21.
[30]
Wong, C. (2003). How will the e-explosion affect how we do research?Phase I: The E- DEL+I proof-of-concept exercise. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
[31]
Toohey, S. (1999). Designing courses for higher education. Buckingham: The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
[32]
Loo, R. (2002). The Delphi method: A powerful tool for strategic management. Policing, 25(4), 762-769.
[33]
Irvine, F. Exploring district nursing competencies in health promotion: The use of the Delphi technique. J. Clin. Nurs. 2005, 14, 965–975.
[34]
McKenna, H.P. The Delphi technique: A worthwhile research approach for nursing? J. Adv. Nurs. 1994, 19, 1221–1225.
[35]
Endacott, R.; Clifford, C.M.; Tripp, J.H. Can the needs of the critically ill child be identified using scenarios? Experiences of a modified Delphi study. J. Adv. Nurs. 1999, 30, 665–676.
[36]
Keeney, S.; Hasson, F.; McKenna, H. Consulting the oracle: Ten lessons from using the Delphi technique in nursing research. J. Adv. Nurs. 2006, 53, 205–212.
[37]
Franklin, K.K.; Hart, J.K. Idea Generation and Exploration: Benefits and Limitations of the Policy Delphi Research Method. Innov. High. Educ. 2006, 31, 237–246.

Index Terms

  1. The Utilization of Educational Apps in Teaching English Vocabulary for Elementary Students at a Vocational School

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Other conferences
    WSSE '23: Proceedings of the 2023 5th World Symposium on Software Engineering
    September 2023
    352 pages
    ISBN:9798400708053
    DOI:10.1145/3631991
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 26 December 2023

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. Educational apps
    2. English vocabulary
    3. Vocational school

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article
    • Research
    • Refereed limited

    Conference

    WSSE 2023

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • 0
      Total Citations
    • 30
      Total Downloads
    • Downloads (Last 12 months)30
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2
    Reflects downloads up to 26 Jan 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    HTML Format

    View this article in HTML Format.

    HTML Format

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media