Experience of English Language Teachers Using Smartphones in the Class

Abstract

This study specifically attempts to investigate how English language instructors use smart phones in their classes. The major focus of investigation deals with details of the activities the English instructors created with smartphones. For this purpose, ten instructors from a school of foreign languages at a university in the southeast of Turkey who reported to have used smartphones in their classes were included in the study. To collect data, the instructors were interviewed with semi-structured questions on the details of using smartphones while teaching English as a foreign language. The interviews which were transcribed were analyzed with content analysis. Each instructor described an activity that he or she created and found the most useful one while teaching a foreign language. The interpretation of the language activities have showed that language teachers create their own activities successfully with smartphones. The instructor use smartphones in every step of the teaching a foreign language such as ice-breaking, introducing a new pronunciation topic, assisting speaking skill, revising the previous topic and practicing the language out of the classroom. The instructor have become creative into tailoring the use of smartphones for their specific needs such as changing the mood of the class with a piece of song from their phone, taking the photos of the board for revision the next day, recording the voice of the learner for a valid assessment or motiving the learners to share their video of practicing a topic from the class time. In consideration of the results of the study, some suggestions were proposed like preparing interactive teaching materials resources where the instructors can share further activities as they come along.