The Use of Smartphones by Chinese Learners in Learning English Vocabulary

Abstract

Recently, smartphones have been widely used in language learning as they do not merely improve learners’ academic achievement, but also increase their learning engagement (Klimova & Polakova, 2020). As such, university students often have their smartphones at hand, even during their classes. Vocabulary is also the initial move of the learners’ process of English language learning. Thus, the current study aimed to examine the use of smartphones in English vocabulary learning. It also investigated the taxonomy of English vocabulary learning among Chinese EFL learners. The present study further explored Chinese EFL learners’ attitudes toward the use of smartphones in English vocabulary learning. A total of 130 Chinese EFL students who were studying in Thailand participated in this study. All of them were non-English majors. The research instruments were the five-point Likert scale online questionnaire and the interview. The findings showed that the use of smartphones in English vocabulary learning was high and Chinese participants used smartphones to acquire the form of a word the most frequently, followed by word meaning, and word use, respectively. Indeed, Chinese participants used smartphones to learn different vocabulary knowledge aspects at different rates; that is, the word form is likely to be acquired first, followed by the word meaning and, finally the word use. Through smartphone applications, receptive vocabulary knowledge often occurs before productive vocabulary knowledge. This study also showed that Chinese participants held a highly positive attitude towards smartphone applications in English vocabulary learning. Overall, these findings yielded fruitful information for pedagogical practitioners, including course designers, curriculum planners and technological innovators. Still, the current results cannot be generalizable to other contexts. Therefore, additional research may look into a more diverse group of participants and focus on only one smartphone application.

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