ACADEMIA Letters The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project Emre Dinç Ehean Kim Mobile technologies continue to evolve, and people are getting more and more connected to those technologies than ever before. Learners increasingly use English learning apps to learn English (ResearchAndMarkets, 2018). According to ResearchAndMarkets’s (2018) report, the Global Digital English Language Learning Market will grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 22.38% from 2018 through 2022. Two of the reasons for the growth are: (a) English is a lingua franca of the world and (b) English language enables people to cross language barriers. Mobile devices refer to “powerful learning devices” (US Department of Education, 2017, p. 76) because of their features such as connecting learners with educators and acting as facilitators for communication and collaboration. Students are ready to use mobile devices for learning, specifically second language learning (Campos, 2017; Shuib & Yaakob, 2015). Lu (2008) researched mobile phones’ effectiveness in learning English vocabulary by sending English words to students via SMS for two weeks. Students had a positive attitude towards using mobile phones to learn English (Lu, 2008). Hayati et al. (2013) investigated the effectiveness of SMS-based learning on learning English idioms. Receiving the learning materials on mobile phones positively affected students’ enthusiasm and learning outcomes (Hayati et al., 2013). Learning idioms is harder than learning English words (Chen & Wu, 2017). Idioms are culture-bound (Bai & Qin, 2018), and idioms have unpredictable meanings (Chen & Wu, 2017). Non-native English speakers are exposed to idioms limitedly in their conversations with native speakers (Mohamadi, 2018) because native speakers tend to simplify their English speaking while conversing with second-language learners (Kovacs, 2016). Therefore, learning Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 1 English idioms enhances communication skills in daily life communication (Hidayat & Bayu, 2017). The personalization principle researched by Dr. Richard Mayer could be a framework to enhance the English learning process within mobile apps. According to the personalization principle, people learn better when words are in the conversational style (e.g., I and you) rather than formal style (e.g., he, she, and it). When learners feel that the material talks to them, they see the material as a speaking partner. So, students focus more on what the material says. Making minor changes to 12 words, changing the to your, has a large effect on students’ science learning within computer-based multimedia presentations (Mayer et al., 2004). Students learn science content better in the personalized science content provided on computer screens (Dunsworth, 2005). Notably, there is no significant relation between personalization and presentation mode (e.g., on-screen text, narration) (Dunsworth, 2005). However, Son and Goldstone (2009) found that the personalized group learned the medicine content less than the non-personalized group with the computer-based material. Yeung et al. (2009) reported no significant difference between personalized and non-personalized groups’ performances in their chemistry-based study in e-learning environments. Doolittle (2010) also revealed no personalization effect on learning historical inquiry content within computer-based material. As seen, the personalization principle does not have an effect on some subjects. In this small-scale project, the effect of the personalization principle on the acquisition of English idioms within a mobile app environment was examined with the following question: To what degree does the personalization principle affect the acquisition of English idioms in a mobile web-based app environment? Method Participants and Setting Thirty-eight international students studying at a language institute in the northeastern United States participated in the study and completed the Knowledge Questionnaire, which is the first stage of the project. Two of the thirty-eighth participants were excluded from the study as a result of the knowledge questionnaire since they were already familiar with the proposed English idioms. Thirty-six participants continued the project’s second stage, Two-week Study App. They took the general test at the end of the study. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, control (n = 18) and experimental (n = 18) groups, each of which receiving instruction on the same target idioms. Of the participants, 23 were Turkish, five were Taiwanese, two were Indian, one was German, one was Eritrean, one was Spanish, one was Tanzanian, Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 2 one was Japanese, and one was South Korean. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 30. Participants studied high frequency English idioms, designated by thirty native American-English speakers in this study (Figure 1). Figure 1 High frequency English idioms designated by native speakers Instrument The mobile app was designed and coded on code.org, a visual programming and block-based app development platform. A mobile application expert checked the developed mobile apps. Two experts reviewed the suitability of the language. The first stage of the project is Knowledge Questionnaire, a one-screen app with a user account logging feature. It consisted of 15 English idioms listed, and all users needed to create an account to log in with a nickname, age, and country. After logged in, the participants marked the idioms they already knew from the list, and then they submitted their choices. This stage aimed to find out if any participant was familiar with the idioms in the study. Since every participant knew ‘a piece of cake,’ it was removed from the study. The second stage was Two-week Study App, developed in two versions: non-personalized for the control group and personalized for the experimental group. Participants studied the English idioms with this app for two weeks. Two-week Study App has a linear sequence without back buttons, which means there were only forward buttons on each screen except for the final screen. There was a home button to take users to the home screen on the final screen. The aim of designing an app with a linear sequence was to ensure that users review all the English idioms in the app. There was a confirmation screen at the end asking users’ nicknames under the statement: “By writing my nickname into the box below, I certify that I completed studying fifteen English idioms in this mobile app environment.” All participants reached Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 3 the confirmation screen and certified that they studied the 15 English idioms in the app. The content of the two-week study app was as follows: After the opening screen (the same for both versions), participants saw the information screen (Figure 2). The differences between the two versions started here. The text had a conversational style in the personalized version. Information about the app, the process, and the goal in both versions were given here. After the information screen, participants came to Log In and New User screens, which were the same for the two versions. The personalization principle was not considered on these screens. These screens were used to collect data about the participants. Figure 2 Information screens Each idiom in the study had three screens, which were the presentation screen, sample dialogue screen, and meaning screen (Figure 3). Let me hear! and Sound were used on the presentation screens. I and you were used whenever needed in the personalized app’s dialogue screen. The meaning was presented in the personalized version as if there was a conversation between participants and the app. The third stage was taking a general test to collect data. There were eighteen multiplechoice questions with sentences or dialogues to complete with one correct answer in the test (Figure 4). Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 4 Figure 3 Sample instruction screens Data Analysis Each correct answer got 1 point, and the incorrect answer got 0 points. The minimum score was 0, and the maximum score was 18 points. Data were analyzed by using an independentsamples t-test. Result There was a statistically significant difference between two groups (t = -3.092, df = 27, p < 0.05). A comparison of mean scores reveals that participants in the personalized group obtained higher scores. The effect size was large (Cohen’s [1988] d = 1.03) and represents a substantive difference between the two groups. Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations for the general test scores. Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 5 Figure 4 Sample question screen Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations Discussion and Conclusion This project aimed to investigate the personalization principle’s effectiveness on the acquisition of English idioms in a mobile web-based app. Second-language learners whose purpose was to improve their language skills studied English idioms within a mobile app for two weeks. The personalization principle significantly affected the acquisition of English idioms within a mobile web-based app environment. The finding of this project was parallel to the findings of Mayer’s experiments and Dunsworth (2005). Still, it did not correspond to the findings of Son Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 6 and Goldstone (2009), Yeung et al. (2009), and Doolittle (2010). Yeung et al. (2009) were unable to find a significant difference between personalized and non-personalized groups because of prior knowledge level. In this project, two participants who had high prior knowledge of English idioms were excluded from the study. To the best of our knowledge, the effect of the personalization principle on the acquisition of English idioms was investigated for the first time here. The personalization principle significantly and substantially affected language acquisition, although it did not have an effect on some other subjects, such as medicine, chemistry, history. The features that distinguish this study from others were the content, which is the acquisition of English idioms, and the instruction environment, which is a mobile web-based app. A mobile app taking the personalization principle into account could likely provide the necessary support for English language acquisition. References Bai, L., & Qin, J. (2018). A study of negative language transfer in college students’ writing from cultural perspective. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 8(3), 306-313. http:/ /dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0803.05 Campos, A. A. M. (2017). Adopting smartphone applications for Second Language Acquisition: investigating readiness and acceptance of mobile learning in two higher education institutions (Dissertation). Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. https://run. unl.pt/handle/10362/21992 Chen, H., & Wu, X. (2017). A teaching experiment of Chinese college students’ English idioms comprehension. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 12(6), 22- 30. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v12i06.7096 Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Doolittle, P. (2010). The effects of segmentation and personalization on superficial and comprehensive strategy instruction in multimedia learning environments. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 19, 159-175. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/ p/32418/ Dunsworth, Q. (2005). Fostering multimedia learning of science: the role of personalization and presentation mode (Dissertation). Arizona State University, Arizona, United States. Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 7 Hayati, A., Jalilifar, A., & Mashhadi, A. (2013). Using Short Message Service (SMS) to teach English idioms to EFL students. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(1), 66- 81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01260.x Hidayat, A. R., & Bayu, Y. A. (2017). Learning idiom: A tool for mastering higher vocabulary skill for EFL students. 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Reimagining the role of technology in education: 2017 National Education Technology Plan update. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2017/01/NETP17. pdf Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 8 Yeung, A., Schmid, S., George, A. V., & King, M. M. (2009). Using the personalization hypothesis to design e-learning environments. In M. Gupta-Bhowon, S. Jhaumeer- Laulloo, H.L.K. Wah, & P. Ramasami (eds.), Chemistry Education in the ICT Age (pp. 287-300). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9732-4_25 Academia Letters, June 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Emre Dinç, dincemre1991@gmail.com Citation: Dinç, E., Kim, E. (2021). The Personalization Principle within a Language App: A Small Scale Project. Academia Letters, Article 1090. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1090. 9