DEVELOPMENT OF A MOBILE WEB APPLICATION FOR LEARNING THAI AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

One of the technological advances of the modern age is the mobile phone, as it enables free access to a wide variety of applications (apps) and language learning tools, which help students develop their language abilities in and out of the classroom. The purpose of this study was to develop a mobile web application (mobile web app) designed specifically for learning Thai as a foreign language and to examine whether the use of the mobile web app assists Thai language learning. The participants in the study consisted of 22 international undergraduates with multi-cultural backgrounds at an international college in the northeastern region of Thailand. The research instruments used in this study were a set of questionnaires and ‘Let’s Learn Thai’ web application designed by the researcher. Participants were assigned to use the ‘Let’s Learn Thai’ web app to study the same unit they had learned in class each week, and the experiment took place over the course of 6 weeks. Data was collected through online questionnaires in order to assess students’ perceptions of their use of the web app. Based on the statistics generated through SPSS, the results showed that participants had positive attitudes toward the web app, and it was convenient and helpful for them to learn and review Thai lessons at any time. Regarding additional comments and suggestions, the participants stated that more lessons and various learning activities and exercises should be provided so that the students can get more practice.