Towards the Integration of Mobile Phones in the Teaching of English Language in Secondary Schools in Akure, Nigeria

Abstract

The advent of ICT comes with its attendant students’ accessibility to information. Teaching these digital age 21 st century learners requires adaptive and technological induced methods by educators. The Global Satellite Mobile (GSM) provides learners greater accessibility to the internet which makes it easier for them to learn under certain controlled situations. This paper, therefore, investigated the possibilities of using mobile technology in the teaching and learning of the English language in secondary schools. The data was obtained from a three-week field experiment involving an English teacher and purposively selected twelve Senior Secondary School II students of the Federal University of Technology, Secondary School, Akure. The participants took part in activities involving different digital formats in the teaching and learning processes. Also, the respondents were interviewed to assess their perception and attitude towards this mode of teaching English Language. The paper analyses, within the framework of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach to teaching and the Constructivist Theory of Learning, the collected data. The analysis revealed that the students and the teacher found teaching and learning very flexible and essential to their needs in this 21 st century. The paper concluded that M-learning promotes cooperative and collaborative learning through the enhancement of learners’ use of authentic English language that would make it possible for them to construct their own knowledge. The integration of M-learning in to the teaching of English in secondary schools would afford the learners the opportunity of having a method that is 21 st century compliant and availing the learners the digital age benefits.