العربية
Author Name: Houreia Saleh A. Alshaikh
Description:
The current study aimed to investigate the effects of using a mobile social network (Twitter) on learners’ vocabulary acquisition and attitude at Credit System Schools in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study has tested the following hypotheses: (1) There are statistically significant differences between the two experimental and the control groups in vocabulary achievement test due to learners’ use of mobile social networks; (2) There are statistically significant differences between the two experimental and the control groups in attitude toward mobile learning due to learners’ use of mobile social networks. A true experimental approach was applied to verify the previously mentioned hypotheses. The study sample consisted of 83 female learners who were studying at Credit System Secondary School. This sample was randomly divided into three groups. The experimental groups were consisted of 42 learners from Al Dhahran 1st School; 29 assigned in the first experimental group, 13 assigned in the second experimental group whereas the control group was consisted of 41 learners from Al Dhahran 2nd School. To measure the dependent variables, the study instruments included: (1) an achievement test was created by the researcher to measure the vocabulary acquisition variable; (2) a scale was developed to measure the Learning attitude variable. Both instruments were used to measure the learning progress before and after applying the independent variable. Data analysis indicated that there are statistically significant differences in the achievement test scores at level (0.05) between the experimental groups and control group in favor of the two experimental groups. Moreover, the independent variable has medium influence on learners’ acquisition of new vocabulary. Furthermore, findings demonstrated that there are no statistically significant differences in the attitude scale scores at level (0.05) between the experimental groups and the control group in regard with all attitude aspects. However, Post-Hocs analysis indicated that there are statistically significant differences between the first experimental group and the control group regarding two attitude aspects (attitudes toward social effects and toward dependence and flexibility in learning) in favor of the first experimental group. Moreover, there are statistically significant differences between the second experimental group and the control group regarding only the dependence and flexibility aspect of the attitude scale in favor of the second experimental group.
Keywords: mobile learning, social networks, attitudes toward mobile learning, English vocabulary, secondary school, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Reference: Alshaikh, H. S. (2013). The Effect of Using Mobile Learning through the Social Media Network (Twitter) on Learners Vocabulary Acquisition and Attitudes toward Learning. Kingdom of Bahrain: Arabian Gulf University.