USING MOBILE PHONE APPS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY: ATTITUDES, PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that explores students’ attitudes to mobile learning and their perceptions about their practice and challenges of using mobile phone applications in language learning. The participants are undergraduate students studying English at the Language Centre of Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. To collect data, a questionnaire is used on whether students use their mobile phones as educational tools in learning English inside and outside classrooms, and how they do so. The results show that mobile learning is gradually becoming popular among Omani undergraduate language learners who use a variety of apps as educational tools outside the classroom. However, the results indicate a lack of adequate support on the part of many language teachers who either do not allow the use of mobile phones in class or provide limited guidance for using mobile apps in independent language learning.