Summary of TPACK-related journal (1)

Title                            : Smartphones Promote Autonomous Learning in ESL Classrooms

Author                        : Viji Ramamuruthy and Srinivasa Rao

Year                            : -

Publisher                    : Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology

Source                        : www.eric.com

The vast development of technology has caused many changes in lots of aspects. It is included in education. The model of teaching language has changed. Formerly teacher-directed learning, communicative language teaching and silent learning were so popular to use. But in many classrooms, students nowadays often focus on their smartphones instead of paying attention to the teacher’s explanation. This kind of phenomenon then becomes a big question whether the learning process can happed in such class. By this backround, the researchers (Viji Ramamuruthy and Srinivasa Rao) conducted a research to answer these following questions; What type of learning skills are gained by using smartphones in ESL classrooms? Does smartphone use promote the autonomous learning process? To what extent do learners rely on the lecturers in addition to the usage of smartphones? What are the learning satisfactions gained by ESL learners using smartphones? The reasearhers used qualitative study which involved around 70 smartphone users in the age range around 18-26 years old. The questionaires digging information about respondents’ demography, learing skills, and learning satisfaction were distributed to the randomly selected samples. in addition, the reseacrhers used SPSS version 16 to analyse the data.

The results were found that smartphone usage was able to enhance students’ critical thinking, creative thinking, communication and collaboration skills. Moreover, the language learners felt satisfied when they could use smartphone in the learning process. Eventhough the students seemed to be aoutomous learners but the teacher’s direction were also essential.