CC BY
29PHILOLOGICAL SCIENCES
MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING ENGLISH AS A MEANS OF ORGANIZING THE
EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
Nurusheva T.I.,
Senior Lecturer West Kazakhstan University M. Utemisov Kazakhstan, Uralsk Baimuratova K.R.
Teacher Comprehensive school 9 Kazakhsta, Uralsk
Abstract
The article is devoted to the actual problem of the possibilities of using information and communication technologies in the process of teaching a foreign language. In the article we reveal the concept of mobile learning and consider its advantages in teaching foreign languages. In particular, a brief overview of mobile applications for teaching English and the experience of their use in the educational process is given.
Keywords: information and communication technologies; mobile learning; educational mobile applications; independent work of students.
Foreign language education is currently becoming one of the basic components in the structure of the competence model of training a future specialist. In this regard, the role of a foreign language in the training of specialists in educational organizations in which the foreign language course is communicative, pragmatic and professionally oriented is significantly increasing. Currently, the school faces the task of not only modernizing the content of training courses, but also introducing new technologies for the formation of foreign-language communicative competence of future specialists.
Based on the relevance of the issue in teaching a foreign language we can speak on the aims and tasks of the problem.
The purpose of our study is to select more effective and widespread applications for learning English in the organization of the educational process.
Our analysis of the latest research in the field of innovations in teaching foreign languages has shown that one of the relevant directions is the introduction of modern information and communication technologies into the educational process, in particular technologies related to mobile learning, which ensure the optimization of the educational process, accessibility and effectiveness of training, integration of students into the information society. This is expressed, in particular, in the gradual introduction of mobile phone applications based on various platforms into the learning process: Android, iOS, Symbian Os, Windows phone, etc.
The use of tablet computers, smart phones, mobile phones, iPads, iPhones and other technological innovations for educational purposes has led to the formation of a new direction within the framework of the (Electronic learning) concept - mobile foreign language learning (Mobile learning). Many scientists and educators are confident that the future of education with the support of information and computer technologies is connected precisely with the spread of mobile commu-
nications, the emergence of a large number of educational applications and programs, new technologies that expand the opportunities and quality of education.
Mobile learning today is a new, developing direction in education, the distinctive feature of which is the creation of a new learning environment. Due to the prevalence of mobile technologies and the constant growth of the functionality of mobile devices, UNESCO experts in the field of education suggest using their potential to improve the quality and accessibility of education, as well as building an individual learning trajectory [8].
The theory and practice of using mobile devices and mobile educational resources is actively discussed at scientific conferences and forums. Since 2002, a number of conferences and seminars have been held annually in Europe and the USA, where the use of mobile educational technologies or resources is discussed. Since 2002, the International Conference "Mlearn-con" has been held on the problems of integrating mobile technologies into training, creating and using mobile learning content [4].
The International Conference on Mobile Learning was held since 2005 and is considered to be a platform for discussing the results of research in the field of mobile learning and achievements in this field [6]. The results of the project "Mobile Technologies in Life-long Learning: best practices" are of interest.
Within the framework of this project, studies are being conducted on the impact of mobile technologies on improving access to education, regardless of social and economic status, age, gender, religious, ethnicity, and physical disabilities [6].
In general, the majority of domestic and foreign researchers, in particular J. Traxler [7], S.V. Titova [2], V.A. Kuklev [1], H. Jarvis [5], M. Fine [3] come to the conclusion that the uniqueness of mobile learning compared to traditional teaching methods and modern methods such as e-learning and blended learning lies in the fact that students are primarily not tied to a specific
time and place, having access to educational material always, at any convenient time. Thus, the fundamental difference between mobile learning and Electronic learning is in two points:
- the informal nature of training, in which the proportion of independent work of students increases, essentially controlled or supervised self-learning;
- a constant learning process, blurring the boundaries between academic classes and extracurricular time, work in the classroom and beyond.
Mobile devices are successfully used in the study of various academic disciplines, and a foreign language is no exception. The expediency of using mobile devices in the process of learning a foreign language and language learning is beyond doubt, based at least on the fact that the modern generation of students, primarily teenagers and young people, perceives mobile devices with their attractive interface, interactivity, and a customized approach to user needs as an integral part of their lives. .
In our opinion, training in the use of applications for mobile electronic devices is particularly relevant at the moment. Currently, students, with all their education in the field of digital technologies, it seems to us are not sufficiently oriented in the market of services offered. The task of the teacher is to help students choose the necessary and suitable products that can maximize the learning of the language, thereby individualizing the learning process. To date, there are mobile applications and programs focused on various aspects of teaching a foreign language. The study of scientific literature, the market of mobile applications of foreign languages, as well as the systematization of the experience of using applications for learning a foreign language showed that they can be divided into the following main groups:
1) mobile applications aimed primarily at improving a certain speech skill;
2) mobile applications designed to develop language skills, for example, lexical or grammatical;
3) universal mobile applications designed for the comprehensive development of foreign language communicative competence.
Beyond doubt, this division is very stipulative, since most of the applications are not limited to working on one of the types of speech activity or a specific skill. For example, applications in which learning to listen is the dominant goal, one way or another, combine the perception of oral speech by ear with learning to read, speak, and develop lexical skills.
From the point of view of practical application in the process of teaching a foreign language, specialized mobile applications interested us as a means of optimizing and intensifying the educational process, as well as a resource base for the development of educational materials on the discipline "English". From our point of view, the practical application of mobile applications has a huge potential, but at the same time, the integration of working with applications into the structure of practical training presents certain problems and can be used quite limited. At the same time, the introduction of interactive technologies in the learning process in order to organize and intensify the independent work of
students (mainly extracurricular) seems to us a very promising direction.
Thus, mobile applications can be used quite effectively to develop listening skills, due to the fact that modern mobile devices offer rich technical capabilities for watching videos, listening to audio fragments, recording speech fragments and videos. The developers present programs for those who want to improve their pronunciation skills, recognition of sounds by ear, correlation of the sound and visual image of the word. The most successful products include Sounds Right (British Council), as well as the Sounds: Pronunciation App (Macmillan Education). These applications include interactive phonetic tables for British and American versions of English, exercises, game tasks, tests. From the point of view of developing the skills of perception and understanding of speech by ear, BBC applications are extremely valuable, using which students can access authentic audio, video and text materials, for example, Learning English for BBC, 6 Minute British English. These applications can also be used for the development of other linguistic and linguistic-cultural competencies, since they include specialized sections dedicated to the study of vocabulary, grammar, the development of communication skills and speaking skills.
The free applications developed as part of the British Council training programs - Learn English Audio & Video, Learn English Great Videos, Learn English Elementary Podcasts - feature the best podcasts and videos designed for learning English. The applications are equipped with a number of additional functionality, such as interactive texts of audio recordings, interactive glossaries of keywords, exercises for understanding each part of the information material. They present materials of different levels of complexity that allow you to improve your listening skills, as well as replenish your vocabulary. Mobile applications Two Minute English, Real English, Puzzle English, built on teaching speech perception by ear, are also of considerable interest to English teachers and students, because they contain a huge amount of resources and tasks to work on this very popular and often insufficiently developed speech skills among students. In general, all the mentioned applications have a high motivational potential due to the wide variety of topics and forms, therefore they can be used for independent work of students.
Next, we will consider a number of applications designed for the formation and development of grammatical skills that can be used both for classroom work and for independent work of students. Among the mobile applications designed to work on the development of grammatical skills, it is necessary, first of all, to name the Learn English Grammar (British Council) application. It presents grammar exercises of four levels. The training tasks use 10 types of exercises, for example, filling in gaps, multiple choice, matching questions and answers. It should be noted that the Learn English Grammar app is in the first place in the iTunes Education category in 9 countries around the world, and is also in the top ten in more than 40 countries.
Another application of the British Council Johnny Grammar's Word Challenge is a quiz for English language learners, which will help to check not only the
general level of grammar proficiency, but also spelling and vocabulary used in everyday English. The tests are divided into categories (Words, Grammar, Spelling) within three levels of difficulty. The free application for the My Grammar Lab course published by Pearson contains mobile interactive exercises of various levels. The application gives the user the opportunity to choose topics and questions of interest to him and create their own collections of exercises and tests. This course is suitable both for independent preparation and for use as part of group classes in the English language course. Another convenient application for testing knowledge of English grammar is English Grammar Test. The application contains 60 tests, each of which is devoted to a separate grammatical topic. After completing the test, the application provides a list of correct and incorrect answers, as well as a simple and understandable explanation of the errors.
Next, we would like to focus on applications that are designed to develop lexical skills and expand the vocabulary of students. We used many of these electronic applications in classes, which are also built on a game basis, in particular, students themselves used applications for self-study of foreign languages at home.
The My Word Book application, available on the British Council website, is designed as an interactive notebook for English language learners. The vocabulary in the application is presented in the form of sets of interactive flashcards, organized both in random order and in the form of thematic groups distributed by difficulty levels. Each flashcard is provided with a definition and an example of usage from the Cambridge University Press dictionary, a translation, fields for notes, an audio sample, an image. The "Practice" category contains five types of tasks, after which the user can move a word to the list of studied vocabulary. Among other applications popular with users, designed to work on expanding vocabulary with the help of exciting activities in a playful way, we can name English with Words, Easy ten, Polyglot. English words, Memrise. These applications are distinguished by an individualized approach to the user's needs, in particular, they include such functions as the ability to create individual word lists, voiced words and usage contexts,
an individual training schedule, various types of training tasks, interactive and game components (for example, user success statistics, cards for repeating the material passed, a point reward system).
Sections for the development of lexical skills are also included in other applications that we have discussed above (Johnny Grammar's Word Challenge, Learning English for BBC, Puzzle English and many others).
In our opinion, many applications for vocabulary replenishment can be used, first of all, for independent work of students, for activation and development of lexical skills within the framework of the studied topics, for self-examination. At the same time, it should be noted that not all applications have high-quality language content, various types of tasks and do not fully use the technical capabilities that modern mobile devices are endowed with.
Accordingly we held the Experiment on the theme under investigation: "Mobile applications for learning English as a means of organizing the educational process". The experiment was held at the M. Utemisov West Kazakhstan University, at the Department of Philology, with 4th-year respondents on the discipline "Language for Academic Purposes".
During the experiment, we used up-to-date applications for learning English, and relying on previously known technologies, we put forward two experimental groups of 25 students. The experiment was carried out in two stages:
1) At the first stage, the educational characteristics of students were studied and the level of English language proficiency was revealed; a plan and methodology of experimental work, its methodological support were developed. At this stage, the main program of experimental work was implemented.
2) At the second stage, statistical processing of the data obtained during the study was carried out, the results were summarized and formalized, conclusions and recommendations for improving the process were formulated.
As a result of studying the level of possession and interest of students in the first week of using mobile applications, the following results were presented in diagram 1:
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
I Speaking 4 Writing 3 Listening 2 I Reading 1
Group 1 Group 2
Diagram 1
In summing up the results of the experiment, we found that interest in learning English through mobile
Students studied English both in class and independently during extracurricular time. We exchanged experiences and achievements on a daily basis, which contributed to a favorable result.
The conducted review allows us to conclude that today a significant number of mobile applications and programs for learning a foreign language have been developed, aimed both at the formation of various skills and abilities, and at the development of different types of speech activity. A fairly wide range and variety of existing mobile learning resources allow you to choose applications in accordance with individual needs, interests and the level of language training of the student. Almost all the mobile applications that have been described above can be used quite effectively for independent work.
As a result of the experiment, the practical application of mobile applications carries a huge potential in
applications has grown and the level of English language proficiency has improved. In diagram 2, we can see the results of using the mobile app after 2 months:
increasing the efficiency of the process of learning foreign languages and is able to significantly improve the process of foreign language training of students, open up new sides of it and turn it from a serious time-consuming process into an exciting activity. Practice shows that they have a considerable advantage over traditional teaching methods: intensification of independent activity, individualization of learning, increase of cognitive activity and motivation of learning. At the same time, the use of mobile technologies in the learning process contributes not only to the enrichment of the educational process, but also to the acquisition by students of skills and abilities, the formation and development of which on the basis of traditional learning tools seems to be quite time-consuming.
In conclusion, we would like to note that the use of mobile technologies in the educational process contributes to the improvement of the process of formation
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Speaking 4 Writing 3 Listening 2 Reading 1
Group 1 Group 2
Diagram 2
of foreign language skills and abilities of students, provides effective independent work, increases motivation and cognitive activity of students, interest in the subject, helps to intensify and individualize learning.
References
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4. International Conference on Mobile Learning. Online: http://mlearningconf.org/
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