The Application Of Mobile Learning In Tertiary Non-English Majors' Autonomous English Study

Mobile learning refers to any type of learning that occurs when the learner is not at a fixed or pre-determined location or learning that takes advantage of mobile technologies. With the development of mobile computing technology and the lowering prices of mobile devices and improvement of its performance, mobile learning has currently become an increasingly heated research topic in the area of educational technology application. Researches of mobile learning both at home and abroad are attaching greater importance to the utility of mobile learning. English language learning is known to be one of the important application fields of mobile learning.Numerous positive results have been drawn on the effectiveness of mobile learning on English language learning from aspects of learning resources, implementation methods,learning contexts, auxiliary learning, and teaching management. However, few empirical studies and researches have been conducted on the non-English major college learners' recognition of mobile learning, the functional requirements and content preference of mobile learning system, whether mobile learning can meet their learning needs and how teachers think about the roles of mobile learning in college English learning.On the basis of related theories of autonomous learning, informal learning,cognitive flexibility and situated learning, two research questions have been put forward in this thesis. Firstly, how mobile devices might be used among college students on English autonomous learning? Secondly, what are the teachers and students' attitudes toward the use of mobile device for English autonomous learning?The research conducts a question-and-answer survey of college students and an in-depth interview with college teachers. The participants are 180 sophomore students of six classes majoring in three different disciplines(art, science and engineering)from Hunan University and six college English teachers in the same university. By analyzing the collected data through EXCEL, the author gets a detailed understanding of the application situation of mobile learning in autonomous English learning,students' attitudes towards mobile learning and their mobile learning experience. Then by processing the data collected through in-depth interview and sorting out related subjects in accordance with the research question, the author gets a clear picture of teachers' attitude towards mobile learning in students' autonomous English study.The findings of this results could be concluded as follows: 1) College studentshave a high holding rate of mobile device, with mobile phones being the most frequently used mobile device for autonomous learning. Students spend about 1 to 3hours a week on mobile learning with the use of mobile phone or other mobile devices,mostly for downloading learning resources. However, only about 3 percent of them have a profound understanding of mobile learning. The main internal factors which would influence mobile learning are learning objectives and the self-control, while the main external factors are the function of mobile devices and the network speed; 2)Both students and teachers hold positive attitudes towards mobile learning in autonomous English study. On one hand, most of the students are satisfied with the convenience and abundant learning resources brought about by mobile learning. On the other hand, teachers believe that mobile learning could strengthen the communication between teachers and students, raise students' interest in learning English and cultivate students' autonomous learning ability. The results of the research provide some reference for the widespread use of mobile learning in students' self-regulated learning. However, due to the fact that the sample size of this study is less than 200 participants who are from the same university and same grade,the results of the study are relatively partial and incomplete. Future studies could expand the scope of study by analyzing the differences between students from different grades and different disciplines. This will have practical implications for guiding and cultivating students' learning habits of mobile learning, improving their learning efficiency of mobile learning, and raising the overall English level of college students.