چکیده:
As mobile learning simultaneously employs both handheld computers and mobile telephones and other devices that draw on the same set of functionalities, it throws open the door for swift connection between learners and teachers. This study examined and articulated the impact of the application of mobile devices for teaching English vocabulary items to 123 Iranian semi-illiterates (70 female, and 53 male learners, aging 35-55) who passed the transition course, namely, the fifth grade in Iran's literacy movement organization centers of five counties around Isfahan. It was intended to see if the way of presenting materials and guidelines (formal vs. informal) through cell-phone would have any significant connection with their performance. To those ends, after five weeks learning of 36 new English vocabulary items in non-formal mode of delivery, they participated in a testing phase comprised of three sub-tests. The results showed that the succinct nature of today's short message service (SMS) texts allows for a more successful application of the informal style of language in the realm of teaching English to semi-illiterate citizens. It was also found that annotated materials led into the outperformance of the semi-illiterates.According to a basic prediction made by the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM), at early stages of language acquisition, strong L2-L1 lexical links are formed. RHM predicts that these links weaken with increasing proficiency, although they do not disappear even at higher levels of language development. To test this prediction, two groups of highly proficient and two groups of elementary L2 learners were tested on noncognate stimuli with episodic recognition tasks in both forward (L1-L2) and backward (L2-L1) directions. The pattern observed for the elementary L2 learners in both directions wasconsistent with the prediction of the RHM. The results showed the existenceof strong lexical links in the backward direction at the elementary level butno such links were found in the forward direction. Contrary to the predictions of the RHM, however, L2-L1 lexical links are lost at higher levels of proficiency.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"On the whole, the three pillars of connectivity, mobility and productivity, as driving features of wireless technology (Althaus, 2011), pave the way for scaffolds to support the adult learners in the process of learning foreign language vocabulary items, as activities provided in scaffolding instruction are usually just beyond the level of what the learner can do alone (Olson & Pratt, 2000).
Research questions Systematic thinking about the effects of the processes through which learning contents are built and made accessible to learners resulted in the following questions: 1) Does presenting guideline on learning contents in informal or formal style of language through cell-phone have any significant effect on semi-illiterates' vocabulary learning?
The majority of the questions included in the questionnaire sought the background information on learners' experience with using mobile-phone, that is, ease of use, ease of learning that makes a product effective, as well as their opinions on the frequency and the timing of the learning content, namely, new English vocabulary items, and asked perception questions on their interests on m-learning; led to the devise of a course syllabus for conducting the study in a semester.
Regarding the results (Table 6) on deploying images- pictorial annotation-in learning contents, it could be inferred that to the extent that language elements (in this study, vocabulary items) are not comprehensible to the L2 learners, they could be understood in virtue of the attached pictures especially in the case of materials glossed with formal style guidelines."