USE OF MOBILE DEVICE LANGUAGE LEARNING APPLICATIONS BY TURKISH SPEAKING ADULTS: A SURVEY STUDY

Abstract

Foreign language education is going under constant change. Mobile technologies have gained significant momentum in foreign language education in recent years with their unique features and affordances. A large number of mobile apps have been specifically designed, created, and used for teaching foreign languages. Although these apps seem to be ubiquitous, much remains unknown with regard to their actual usage as self-directed materials. This paper reports and discusses the results of a survey study that aimed to investigate adult Turkish speaking mobile device owners’ experiences with and reasons for foreign language teaching app use/nonuse, perceived effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses of apps, and suggestions for improving language teaching apps. The survey included close-ended and open-ended questions and are analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis methods. Results showed that mobile language learning applications are perceived to have a strong potential to overcome the constraints in front of language learning such as time, space, linguistic input. Apps can personalize instruction by taking into account the needs of different students and increase the motivation of learning with features such as gamification. However, it was also observed that learners rarely used mobile technologies used to enable a more communication-based and collaborative language learning experience.