dc.description.abstract | The study entitled “Education 4.0: An Evaluation of Students’ Attitudes towards
Using Mobile Applications for English Language Learning”, a mixed-method research, aims
to find out what are the students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile assisted in
language learning, what factors result in the acceptance and the use of mobile
applications for English language learning, and what are the application features
responding to the students’ needs. The participants in this study were selected based on
the convenience sampling method. They were undergraduate students studying at the
tertiary level from the first-year to the fourth-year in the Faculty of Liberal Arts,
Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon, in the academic year of 2020. The
total number of participants was 131 university students.
The research instruments used for data collection was questionnaire which can be
divided into four parts as follows: Part 1 general information, Part 2 mobile applications
used for English language learning, Part 3 factors affecting the acceptance and the use of
mobile applications for English language learning, and Part 4 open-ended questions for
additional information and suggestions so as to develop the features of mobile assisted in
English language learning responding to the students’ needs. The data obtained from the
questionnaire were divided into two types. The quantitative data, such as the scores from
4-point Likert scale, were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, for example, frequency,
percentage, mean and standard deviation. In addition to the qualitative data, the
students’ written opinions were analyzed by using textual analysis, word clouds and
sentiment analysis of users’ attitudes towards the use of mobile applications for English
language learning.
Most participants in this study were female university students whose age ranged
from 18 to 22 years old. These participants filled in the four rating scale questionnaire: 4
strongly agree, 3 agree, 2 disagree and 1 strongly disagree to report their attitudes
towards the use of mobile applications for English language learning. The results of the
study showed that most participants frequently used Youtube and Facebook to develop
their vocabulary. The individual factors such as gender, age, and English language
proficiency were not correlated with the acceptance and the use of mobile application
for English language learning. The participants also reported that they strongly agreed on
the performance expectancy and the perceived usefulness with a low to moderate
correlation in each factor.
According to the descriptive analysis and textual analysis, the results reported that
these university students showed positive attitudes towards the use of mobile
applications for English language learning because it was easy, fast and could access
information quickly. One possible explanation for this was their age group. These
participants were the members of generation Z, who were born with innate digital literacy
and the advancement of technology. They were also familiar with social media. However,
one of the limitations in the study was data analysis since the results of sentimental
analysis and textual analysis might be influenced by word segmentation approach. For
the content of English, the differences between general English and English for Specific
Purposes did not result in any decisions on using the mobile application for English
language learning. | en_US |