Abstract
Teachers all over the world strive to keep their students engaged, and research has shown that task engagement can be elevated by utilising technology to complete classroom activities. Reasons suggested for this is that technology’s alignment with students’ interests, as well as the stimulatingly transformative effect that technology can have on activities. Due to current students’ preferences, authors now encourage incorporating mobile phones into the classroom, claiming that it will improve task engagement. However, this has not been empirically proven. Therefore, this mixed method quasi experimental study examined whether two groups completing identical activities, where one group using their smartphones, would have any difference in their engagement with the given activities. The results indicated that a statistically significant difference in the initiation times and distraction between experimental and control settings. Although no significant emotional difference was observed between the groups, the students themselves indicated a significant difference in their emotional attitude towards smartphone activities as compared to paper-based ones. The smartphone group managed to engage with activities, thereby overcoming many factors which affected the control groups’ engagement levels.
Highlights
One of the primary concerns of teachers worldwide is to ensure that students are engaged during their lessons (Ahlfeldt, Mehta, & Sellnow, 2005; Harmer, 2007; Kearney, 2013; Junior, 2015)
An independent sample T-Test affirmed that the initiation times of the experimental group (n= 19, M=0.00, SD= 0.00) were significantly different from the initiation times of the control group (n= 19, M=14.21, SD=2.78); t (18) = -22.28, p < 0.001
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) language instructors are constantly seeking ways to engage their students in tasks, especially those teaching on high stakes compulsory courses with long hours such as the preparatory year under investigation in this study
Summary
One of the primary concerns of teachers worldwide is to ensure that students are engaged during their lessons (Ahlfeldt, Mehta, & Sellnow, 2005; Harmer, 2007; Kearney, 2013; Junior, 2015). For many reasons, not all contexts permit for such transformed activities, such as the high stakes intensive English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pre-university preparatory year programme (PYP) reported in this paper, where teachers are bound by a prescribed course book from which its students are examined in order to gain entrance to their desired university faculties. Deviation too far from this core text’s activities (hereafter referred to as paper-based activities), could involve potentially hazardous consequences for the students, the incorporation of technology is enticing due to the increases in student engagement reported. Acknowledging the above, an empirical study of the engagement of two groups of the referred to PYP students was undertaken, one of whom completed the paper-based EFL activities in their course book, whilst the others undertook identical activities but utilising their mobile phones. This paper reports the findings of that study, which will be preceded by outlining the theoretical basis for the research undertaken, including a definition of engagement and its measurement, followed by a review of the literature related to engagement utilising technology, and mobile technology
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