THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MOBILE ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (MALL) ON ESL LISTENING SKILL

Abstract

The use of mobile technology in learning and teaching English has been on the rise all over the world over the past few decades and hence, has received considerable attention and importance from the academics in recent years. As a result, a number of experimental studies have so far been carried out about the use and effectiveness of mobile phones in the teaching/learning process. However, there have been only a small number of studies on the topic of mobile-assisted listening comprehension. This study basically aims to explore whether Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) is effective in teaching/learning listening to the students of university-level English language programs and could better enhance students’ listening ability. It also endeavors to assess why some MALL strategies/techniques are more effective than the others. For review purpose, the study exclusively used the secondary data available on the broader topic- the use and efficacy of mobile phones in teaching/learning listening skill. The results of this research indicated that the MALL is meaningfully efficacious in teaching/learning ESL/EFL listening skill and using appropriate strategies could positively contribute to bringing about better learning. Besides outlining a brief overview of MALL, the study also attempts to recommend some practical and useful stratagems that ESL/EFL educators can use while designing MALL listening tasks/activities.