The EUROCALL Review, Volume 25, No.
2, September 2017
Do you organize regular formal or informal mobile English language learning
sessions?
What do you learn most frequently by means of your mobile device(s)? Why
this?
Do you feel that thanks to the use of your mobile device(s) you devote more
time for learning the English language?
As far as learning English through your mobile device(s) is concerned, do you
consider yourself as an experienced user of such device(s)?
The gathered data were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. The analysis
started with partial transcription of the important parts of the data (Dörnyei, 2007) on a
computer word processor program Microsoft Word 2016. Then the transcribed parts of
the data were read several times in order to look for common themes and frequently
occurring information. The recurring ideas were coded and recoded, revised and
updated. The researcher used the highlighting function of the word processor program
which allows the user to highlight the text on the transcript with different colors and
comments to record any observations and thematic categories recognized in the data.
The emerged categories were reviewed, compared, modified and either merged or
abandoned. It should also be noted that the obtained data were analyzed quantitatively.
This type of analysis involved counting the number of the interviewees’ responses and
calculating percentages.
4. Findings
A thorough analysis of the data yielded the following thematic categories: usage of
mobile devices, reasons for using mobile devices, resources and tools, mobile
encounters, language practiced and study performance.
4.1. Usage of mobile devices
Table 1 shows the study participants’ mobile devices (MobDs) usage descriptions. The
table demonstrates that smartphones were the most often used mobile devices by the
students. In addition, the numerical information in the table indicates that the
participants, on average, had been using them for English language study for about
3.80 years (minimum 2, maximum 6 years). 9 (45%) and 11 (55%) of the subjects
started using their mobile devices at senior high school and university, respectively. It
should also be added that, with the exception of one student (i.e. S9), all the other
participants claimed to use their mobile devices in order to learn English much more
frequently with time. Finally, more than half of the students (55%) regarded themselves
as experienced or fairly experienced users of their MobDs for English language learning;
however, 45% claimed not to be very skilful in this area.
Table 1. The students’ mobile devices usage descriptions.
Year/ Use of MobDs
Self-assessed
Level of Student Sex Device used for language
experience
study study (approx.)
S1 female smartphone and tablet 2 years not very experienced
S2 female smartphone 5 years experienced
S3 female smartphone 5 years fairly experienced
2nd year
S4 female smartphone, rarely tablet 4 years fairly experienced
B.A.
S5 female smartphone 3 years not very experienced
S6 male smartphone 2 years experienced
S7 female smartphone and tablet 5 years fairly experienced
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