Acceptance and Use of Smartphones: AR-enhanced EFL Reading Practices

Abstract

The increasing technological practices in educational settings have boosted up a wide variety of mobile tools use. One of the most recent tools is Augmented Reality (AR). As this newest technology whets many educators’ appetite in various fields, EFL learning has taken its place among the recent research related with AR enhanced practices. Although AR is a novel and promising tool for educational objectives, little is known about EFL learners' perceptions towards AR-enhanced reading practices and the effect of these practices on EFL learners’ smartphone acceptance levels in EFL learning. Herewith, the aim of this study is to investigate EFL learners’ perceptions regarding AR-enhanced reading practices and these practices' effect on EFL learners’ smartphone acceptance levels in EFL learning. A total of 32 second year vocational school students studying in the department of culinary at a state university participated in this study. This present study adopted a quasi-experimental mixed methods research design. The participants were introduced reading passages in the target language enhanced with AR technologies to increase the comprehension of these texts. Survey of Acceptance and Use of Smartphone Applications for English Language Learning was used to gather quantitative data and a semi-structured focus-group interview was conducted to understand their perceptions on using AR and acceptance of smartphones in EFL learning. The results of this study revealed that these EFL learners have positive attitudes towards using smartphones in their English reading practices and have moderate levels of smartphone acceptance in EFL learning. They found these practices motivating and helpful for understanding the reading passages. Taken together, this study will contribute to the EFL education and technology-enhanced language learning research field.