English

Abstract

Mobile learning in higher education in Turkey is on the rise. University students use their mobile devices mostly for self-directed informal learning rather than in the formal academic context, creating challenges to acquire an accurate picture of academic use. In this study, we collected data about ownership of mobile devices among students using a diverse sample from various universities in Turkey. We also explored students' language learning practices with mobile technologies and focused on the interactions among technologies, contents, and pedagogies. The results indicate that learners need better access to academicfriendly devices such as tablets and additional support to integrate mobile technologies for language learning purposes. The findings also help shape future directions of faculty development. Instructors must integrate these innovative technologies into the curriculum with sound facilitation and assessment strategies, as well as be able to support the mobile practices of students. Digital Natives in Higher Education Related to Language Learning Mobile devices’ role in young generations’ lives are growing more and more important day by day. Today, an average university student has spent fewer than 5000 hours in his or her life to read book, yet has expended over 10,000 hours playing video games, Facebooking, Tweeting, messaging, emailing, and online gaming. These are unmovable parts of their lives now (Prensky, 2001). In this paper, the ownership and usage of mobile devices among university students in Turkey is determined in order Digital Natives in Higher Education Related to Language Learning 108 to guide future research in adopting and developing technology in language education. This research creates awareness for educators as to the characteristics of the new generation of natives. International Telecommunication Union (2013) defines “digital natives” as young people born during the age and growing up using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). While 30% of youth are natives today, the report shows that within the next five years, the native population in the developing world will double. Defining “youth” as young people aged 15 to 24, this means that 30% of the world’s youth have been active online for at least five years. However, less than a third of the world’s young people today are natives. Prensky, the first official user of the term digital native, defines natives as “native speakers” of the language of computers, video games, and the internet (2001). Furthermore, he defines “digital immigrants” as those not born into the world but who will, at some point in their lives, become fascinated by and adopt many or most aspects of the new technology. Prensky (2013) asserts that young people have invented new ways to spend their lives online. They communicate via instant messaging and chat, they share on blogs and social networking, they buy and sell through eBay, they learn through Wikipedia and YouTube, they meet in Second Life, they game online on their cellphones, etc. As educators, we must be acquainted with this online life where an increasing number of youth are involved and engaged. As immigrant educators, we should believe that this new generation of students, can learn through watching TV or listening to music and that learning can be fun. If we do not believe in these approaches to learning, it may be because we have not learnt this way previously, such as spending our formative years watching Sesame Street (Prensky, 2001). Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 109 Many students claim that they use keyboards more than pens. With children and teenagers moving towards the internet and away from television for their recreational and informational needs, the next generation of citizens is already here. According to (Pew Research Center (2012) 95% of all teens from ages 12 to 17 are online; eighty percent of those use social media regularly. Prensky states, “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (2001). Students now want to be and active learners.