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AbstractTechnology has completely changed the way of living and learning. It has almost become difficult to live without it. It has brought revolution in every field including teaching and learning process. Educators often focus on the use of technology to impart better teaching and to improve the skills of the learners. They try to infuse the skills with the help of technological devices, especially smartphone, a high-end mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone, and WhatsApp, a messenger app for smartphones that uses the internet to send messages, images, audio, and video, which have become part and parcel in one’s life. The aim of the present paper is to focus on the use of mobile, especially smartphone, to teach the English language skills. It briefly discusses the latest trend Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) that became more popular in the recent past. It further provides some of the mobile applications which are highly helpful in improving one’s own English language skills. The core of the paper is to show how WhatsApp, a social networking application, can be a boon for the modern teacher to enrich the four basic skills of his/her learners through various activities.Keywords: Smartphone, WhatsApp, MALL, Language Skills, Pedagogical agentInformation and Communications Technology has a great impact on the methodology of teaching English language over the past decade. Educators have focused increasingly on the use of technology to impart better teaching and to improve the skills of the learners. Teachers are exploring novel ways to disseminate and engage students in the learning process. In the beginning the teachers sought the assistance of audio-visual aids to create interest among the learners. With the advent of computer, particularly Internet, teachers took the aid of World Wide Web to develop the skills and creativity among the learners. Yedla remarks thus:The main aim of the technology is advancing and enhancing the classroom teaching especially to enhance group teaching to self-learning. The experience of independent learning may encourage the students to continue the learning process on their own in English language communication skills for their future purpose.1 Now, mobile devices, especially smartphones, are replacing laptops. The teachers no more depend on a computer at home or the computer lab. One of the main reasons for this is that, of all the technological devices, smartphone is closest to every learner and a supplement of internet connectivity. Today, neither teachers nor students come out without smartphones in their hands. It has almost become a part and parcel of their lives. The learners may not know how to work on a computer, but they know well how to operate a mobile. This is another reason why smartphones are attracting teachers to use them as pedagogical agents to inculcate skills among the learners. In fact, most language teachers agree to the advantages of using smartphones in teaching inside and outside the classroom for learning. They feel that a smartphone is the most powerful communication medium even richer than Internet as it can be accessed without any technical limitations. It is due to this, the heads of the educational bodies are encouraging the teachers and the learners to carry mobiles to the institutions with a view to better learning. Hence, the trend Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), “a teaching and learning methodology that uses mobile phones or other handheld devices with some form of wireless connectivity, such as phones, PDAs and tablets.”2 It can be considered an ideal solution to language learners barriers in terms of time and place. Its applications can facilitate learners in interacting with others collaboratively anytime and anywhere. Thus, the development of MALL as a new approach for education has implications on the way students and teachers in educational institutions interact.Mobile Assisted Language Learning is the most recent learning strategy that is used in the classroom. It is defined as “learning across multiple contexts, through social and contact interactions, using personal electronic devices.”3 A form of e-learning distance education, m-learners can use mobile device educational technology in many locations at their time of convenience. M-learning technologies include handheld computers, mp3 players, notebooks, mobile phones and tablets. It focuses on the mobility of the learners, interacting with portable technologies. Using mobile tools for creating learning aids and materials becomes an important part of informal learning. It is a significant tool that supports and integrates effectively in enhancing the language skills. It is more useful for doing activities outside the classroom. Such activities enable learning to be more directly connected with the real world experiments. Moreover, learning through mobile phones outside the classroom has the advantage of better exploiting learner's free time; even the students on the move can improve their learning skills. Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez, et al state that MALL assists in “linking people in real world and virtual worlds, creating learning communities between people on the move, providing expertise on demand, and supporting a lifetime of learning.”4Mobile technique for language learning is effective and easy as the mobile device is quite a popular gadget. Language learning through games generate interest and make the process simple. Mobile learning techniques involve the principle of ‘anytime anywhere’, which makes it available to the user as and when required. Mobile phones effectively utilize time and the user is not bound by time constraints. A mobile language class supports a variety of learning styles in a timely and interactive fashion. It is a paradigm shift from e-learning to m-learning. So, the influence of technology on current academics is such that in near future the whole context of learning will come under single umbrella of m-learning, especially with the help of smartphones.Smartphone permits learners to access the desired learning materials. Wi-Fi technology in mobile devices allows learners to access supplementary learning materials from the Internet. Teachers can use smartphone to communicate and send learning materials to their learners anytime. However, the main challenge is to provide students with the skills and knowledge to be informed and engaged online learners. Important in that process is presenting persuasive illustrations of learning connected to students’ lives (present and future) and to bring those experiences into the classroom. The most effective way to do that may be through the smartphone learners own. The opportunity is “to leverage those digital devices and online experiences to enable and encourage in our students’ life-long learning, learner autonomy, and critical digital literacy.”5Smartphone is more convenient as it is accessible from virtually anywhere. It is more interesting and easy way of learning the language. As everybody maintains a mobile, one may install the dictionaries and look up the meaning of a word immediately when they want to know the meaning. Apart from finding the meaning, one may also learn how to pronounce a particular word by listening to the audio available in that application. If one owns a smart phone, there are some useful mobile applications for language learning. To improve vocabulary one may download Manhattan Review Vocabulary Builder, and do the exercises available in the application and improve his/her vocabulary. One may also find idioms on various categories and learn those idioms. ‘Toontastic’ and ‘Puppet Pals’ are some apps that enable younger learners to create stories using animated characters and recorded speech. Besides the above statements, there are umpteen apps which can be downloaded to improve one’s own language. One such app that is immensely helpful in improving one’s English grammar is ‘English Grammar Test.’ The app provides thirty tests for the Intermediate and the Upper Intermediate students. One of the best features of this app is that after answering a bit in each exercise, it provides the rule in simple terminology. The following are some of the screenshots of the ‘English Grammar Test’ App:
At present, there are very few teachers who realized the importance of using WhatsApp in teaching language. They know that there are many advantages if they use it in education including teaching English. They know that through WhatsApp one can send not only text but also files as attachments.
They create groups to share educational and learning resources to carry out a broad-based discussion in many aspects. In the screenshot given, one finds a group English Fraternity created by a teacher to pass on learning materials, exercises, etc., and also to share views. One of the teachers posted the anthromorphic collective nouns. It is a well-known fact that the classrooms in the government educational institutions are not well-equipped with ICT tools like projectors, computers, etc. Due to this the teachers can take the advantage of WhatsApp as it finds a place in the smartphones of each and every learner. It is no exaggeration to say that there won’t be even a single smartphone without this application. WhatsApp is a promising tool to make language teaching learning process more interesting, effective, and enjoyable. It has proved that if the teacher adopts WhatsApp for teaching purpose then it would surely fill the gaps between teacher and students. It is believed that it would bring observable changes in students’ teaching-learning process. The use of WhatsApp should strictly be used for the purpose of learning English language. It should be aimed to encourage students in learning the content of the lessons, grammar units, and communicative abilities. The teaching and learning process should be student-oriented. At first, the teacher has to create WhatsApp group and add all the names of the students. Before s/he posts the activities, s/he must specify certain rules. S/he must instruct the students to be polite, not to make fun of anybody, not to worry much about their mistakes, avoid posting unnecessary things, and above all ‘question to learn.’ Then a series of activities featuring texts, photos, videos, audio clippings, and emojis should be shared asking the students to work on them. The students may download them whenever they wish by connecting to mobile internet data or Wi-Fi, and go through the activities and answer the posted assignments. Initially, s/he has to post the suitable and simple activities so that the learners can get accustomed to the application. Slowly, s/he may post the larger activities where the learners have the scope to put their concrete ideas and present them in their own language. This approach allows more exploration of WhatsApp in English language learning. It offers the students more opportunities to formulate their own ideas or feelings about the issues as well as to improve their basic skills in the language learning process. To cater various learning styles, the teacher has to devise various kinds of tasks and activities. All those activities should be posted only in English to immerse students in an English-speaking environment. The teacher can do the following to develop Listening Skill using WhatsApp application: a) Send an audio recording and ask the students to listen to it. Ask few questions whether they understood the content of the audio, and b) Send an English conversation video clipping and ask the students to watch and listen to the video. S/he may ask them to comment or discuss the concepts based on the video. S/he may start posing questions from simple to complex. Such listening practices will definitely increase the listening ability of the students.WhatsApp application offers features which can be used for teaching Speaking Skill. Students can hold discussion on chatroom on the WhatsApp group. The students themselves can find the topics for discussion or the teachers can give suitable topics for learning activities. The teachers can also ask the students to record their voice and post on WhatsApp group. Some of the activities that can be taken up are a) The students can record their oral reading of any of the lesson that is prescribed in their curriculum or any general story. Then they can post it in the group. b) For higher classes, the students can practice some famous quotes or lines from the literary pieces or practice a dialogue from the literary texts and record it. Such exercises will give the students scope to open their mouth and start speaking in English.The teacher can send a simple reading text, a short story, etc., in WhatsApp group to improve Reading Skills of students. Then, s/he can ask the students to read it carefully. After reading, s/he may ask them to write synonyms and antonyms of few words with a view to increasing their vocabulary. S/he may then ask the students to write briefly about the content of the text. If they fail, s/he may ask them to read the text again and comprehend it. Such exercises would definitely improve the reading skills of the students besides enriching the vocabulary. They also give them the opportunities to come up with their own insights and help them speak the language in a more imaginative way.Teachers can create a variety of writing activities and post them in WhatsApp group to help the students develop their Writing Skills. S/he can ask the students to write about their daily activity or about their visit to a place or even create a story from the surrounding objects. When the students post, the teacher can correct the sentences immediately and post the errors, highlighting wrong usage of language. S/he can also post a picture and asks them to describe it. Such exercises immensely help the student in improving their own writing skills. Philip Haines,6 a teacher and teacher-trainer, provide twenty-five engaging and useful classroom activities for language learners using WhatsApp.
WhatsApp, the most popular and widely spread application supported by Android, Windows, and iOS, is a boon for the teachers to teach English language skills. The application has almost become a regular messaging service in the private lives in a manner that users can feel comfortable working with it. Akhmad Riyanto aptly says thus:WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging application for smartphones. … It allows its users to use their internet connection to send messages to each other. It is like a chat program for mobile phones.7 It is a well-known fact that the classrooms in the government educational institutions are not well-equipped with ICT tools like projectors, computers, etc. Due to this the teachers can take the advantage of WhatsApp as it finds a place in the smartphones of each and every learner. It is no exaggeration to say that there won’t be even a single smartphone without this application.WhatsApp is a promising tool to make language teaching learning process more interesting, effective, and enjoyable. It has proved that if the teacher adopts WhatsApp for teaching purpose then it would surely fill the gaps between teacher and students. It is believed that it would bring observable changes in students’ teaching-learning process. The use of WhatsApp should strictly be used for the purpose of learning English language. It should be aimed to encourage students in learning the content of the lessons, grammar units, and communicative abilities. The teaching and learning process should be student-oriented.At first, the teacher has to create WhatsApp group and add all the names of the students. Before s/he posts the activities, s/he must specify certain rules. S/he must instruct the students to be polite, not to make fun of anybody, not to worry much about their mistakes, avoid posting unnecessary things, and above all ‘question to learn.’ Then a series of activities featuring texts, photos, videos, audio clippings, and emojis should be shared asking the students to work on them. The students may download them whenever they wish by connecting to mobile internet data or Wi-Fi, and go through the activities and answer the posted assignments.Initially, s/he has to post the suitable and simple activities so that the learners can get accustomed to the application. Slowly, s/he may post the larger activities where the learners have the scope to put their concrete ideas and present them in their own language. This approach allows more exploration of WhatsApp in English language learning. It offers the students more opportunities to formulate their own ideas or feelings about the issues as well as to improve their basic skills in the language learning process. To cater various learning styles, the teacher has to devise various kinds of tasks and activities. All those activities should be posted only in English to immerse students in an English-speaking environment. The teacher can do the following to develop Listening Skill using WhatsApp application: a) Send an audio recording and ask the students to listen to it. Ask few questions whether they understood the content of the audio, and b) Send an English conversation video clipping and ask the students to watch and listen to the video. S/he may ask them to comment or discuss the concepts based on the video. S/he may start posing questions from simple to complex. Such listening practices will definitely increase the listening ability of the students.WhatsApp application offers features which can be used for teaching Speaking Skill. Students can hold discussion on chatroom on the WhatsApp group. The students themselves can find the topics for discussion or the teachers can give suitable topics for learning activities. The teachers can also ask the students to record their voice and post on WhatsApp group. Some of the activities that can be taken up are a) The students can record their oral reading of any of the lesson that is prescribed in their curriculum or any general story. Then they can post it in the group. b) For higher classes, the students can practice some famous quotes or lines from the literary pieces or practice a dialogue from the literary texts and record it. Such exercises will give the students scope to open their mouth and start speaking in English.The teacher can send a simple reading text, a short story, etc., in WhatsApp group to improve Reading Skills of students. Then, s/he can ask the students to read it carefully. After reading, s/he may ask them to write synonyms and antonyms of few words with a view to increasing their vocabulary. S/he may then ask the students to write briefly about the content of the text. If they fail, s/he may ask them to read the text again and comprehend it. Such exercises would definitely improve the reading skills of the students besides enriching the vocabulary. They also give them the opportunities to come up with their own insights and help them speak the language in a more imaginative way. Teachers can create a variety of writing activities and post them in WhatsApp group to help the students develop their Writing Skills. S/he can ask the students to write about their daily activity or about their visit to a place or even create a story from the surrounding objects. When the students post, the teacher can correct the sentences immediately and post the errors, highlighting wrong usage of language. S/he can also post a picture and asks them to describe it. Such exercises immensely help the student in improving their own writing skills.To conclude, the advent of smartphones has brought a clear shift in teaching-learning process. Their use too is incredibly growing due to the new features and user friendly. They make the teaching-learning effective and interesting than ever before. Hence, the English teacher need to utilize the advantages of smartphones and its applications in teaching the English language skills to the students in and outside the classroom. It would not even an exaggeration to say that WhatsApp will be an essential app along with other apps. To put it in a nutshell, smartphones can become a pervasive personal pedagogical agent in the hands of a teacher who uses it effectively in the classroom to hone the English language skills of the learners.
References1. Yedla, S. MALL (Mobile Assistant Language Learning): A Paradise for English Language Learners. Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 1 (2), 2013: 92.2. Yari, Leila Khub and Mehry Haddad Narafshan. “A Study on the Impact of MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension.” International Journal of English Language Teaching, Vol.4, No.2, February 2016: 59.3. Ling, Rich. The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society. San Francisco: Elsevier, 2004. 29.4. Sharples, M, Arnedillo-Sanchez, et al. “Mobile Learning: Small devices, Big Issues.” In N. Balacheff, S. Ludvigsen, et al (Eds.), Technology Enhanced Learning: Principles and Products. Heidelberg: Springer, 2009. 242.5. Godwin-James, Robert. “Smartphones and language learning.” Language Learning & Technology, Volume 21, Issue 2, June 2017. 14. 6. Haines, Philip. “25 ideas for using WhatsApp with English language students.” Posted at Oxford University Press, English Language Teaching Global Blog, 17 May, 2016. https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2016/05/17/25-ideas-for-using-whatsapp-with-english-language-students/. Retrieved on 01-12-2017. 7. Akhmad Riyanto. “English Language Learning Using ‘WhatsApp’ Application.” Posted at Akhmad Riyan Blog on July 21, 2013. https://akhmadriyantoblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/english-language-learning-using-whatsapp-application/. Retrieved on 01-12-2017
References1. Yedla, S. MALL (Mobile Assistant Language Learning): A Paradise for English Language Learners. Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 1 (2), 2013: 92.2. Yari, Leila Khub and Mehry Haddad Narafshan. “A Study on the Impact of MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension.” International Journal of English Language Teaching, Vol.4, No.2, February 2016: 59.3. Ling, Rich. The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society. San Francisco: Elsevier, 2004. 29.4. Sharples, M, Arnedillo-Sanchez, et al. “Mobile Learning: Small devices, Big Issues.” In N. Balacheff, S. Ludvigsen, et al (Eds.), Technology Enhanced Learning: Principles and Products. Heidelberg: Springer, 2009. 242.5. Godwin-James, Robert. “Smartphones and language learning.” Language Learning & Technology, Volume 21, Issue 2, June 2017. 14. 6. Haines, Philip. “25 ideas for using WhatsApp with English language students.” Posted at Oxford University Press, English Language Teaching Global Blog, 17 May, 2016. https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2016/05/17/25-ideas-for-using-whatsapp-with-english-language-students/. Retrieved on 01-12-2017. 7. Akhmad Riyanto. “English Language Learning Using ‘WhatsApp’ Application.” Posted at Akhmad Riyan Blog on July 21, 2013. https://akhmadriyantoblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/english-language-learning-using-whatsapp-application/. Retrieved on 01-12-2017
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