Facilitating English Grammar Learning by a Personalized Mobile-Assisted System With a Self-Regulated Learning Mechanism.

Xiao Wang,Tingting Zhang,Jing Chen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.624430

Abstract

This study developed a personalized mobile-assisted system with a self-regulated learning (SRL) mechanism to facilitate English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students’ learning of grammar. A quasi-experimental design, involving an experimental group (n = 278) and a control group (n = 320), was adopted to examine its effectiveness on students’ grammar learning. The experimental group, who had full access to the functions of the system (i.e., recommendations, feedback and an e-portfolio package), used the system to learn grammar, complete grammar exercise, and engage in for a semester, while the control group only use the system to submit weekly assignments. The results suggest that the experimental group obtained significantly higher scores in English grammar tests than the control group and the system benefited both genders with no significant differences. The findings provide empirical evidence in support of the effectiveness of this system in improving students’ grammar test scores, indicating its value as a supplementary tool to conventional classroom teaching of English grammar via supporting learners’ SRL development in a m-learning context. The pedagogical implications for applying this system in classrooms and beyond were discussed.

Highlights

For English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, the significance of the explicit teaching of English grammar has seldomly been questioned (Aarts et al, 2012)
ANCOVA was performed on the post-test scores with their pretest scores being controlled as covariates and a significant result returned [F(1, 595) = 91.33, p = 0.00, partial η2 = 0.13]. These results suggested that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the English grammar test scores after the intervention
The results showed that the participants who used the personalized mobile-assisted system significantly outperformed the control group in the grammar test scores, indicating greater improvements of the treatment group in the concrete grammar focus of the course than the comparison group

Summary

Introduction

For English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, the significance of the explicit teaching of English grammar has seldomly been questioned (Aarts et al, 2012). With the rapid development of wirelessly networked technologies, mobile devices have been increasingly employed in EFL instruction, including the teaching of English language grammar. Besides pushing the boundaries of time and place limitations, mobile learning provides learners with a personalized learning experience regarding their abilities, interests and preferences (Abu-Al-Aish and Love, 2013; Davison and Argyriou, 2016; Montiel et al, 2020). It affords students the choice of what, where, when and how they would like to learn (Crompton, 2013; Broadbent et al, 2020). Meta-analytic reviews of language learning studies using mobile devices showed that grammar instruction in EFL learning received little attention (Duman et al, 2015; Chen et al, 2020)

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