Exploring EFL Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Learning Vocabulary in a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) Environment

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the impact of technology on education has become extremely noticeable. The emergence of the concept of “mobile learning” was just the result of what technology had offered, “mobile devices”, which everyone owns today, seen as ubiquitous, ambient tools used for educational applications. The general objective of this research is to explore the perceptions of ELA students and teachers on vocabulary learning in a MALL environment at Larbi Tébessa University. The target participants of this study were 45 English third-year LMD students and ten ELA teachers during the 2019/2020 academic year. To achieve these objectives, the descriptive-analytical research method was adopted using two questionnaires administered online to ELA students and teachers. The data collected from these questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of this study indicated high perceptions of participants towards the use of mobile devices for English learning in general. Likewise, they showed general agreement on the potential of MALL as a promising approach to learning vocabulary, and they suggest effective strategies to better improve vocabulary learning in a MALL environment at university. In addition, the study offered recommendations and suggestions on how to implement MALL and remove potential barriers to implementing MALL in FTA contexts.