M-learning and the listening skill

Abstract

Education is constantly changing, so teachers must adapt and change the way of teaching making use of new technologies to face the demands of today's society. Mobile learning responds to these demands offering an opportunity to learn anywhere, anytime, allowing instant access to a number of educational tools, content and resources. This research aims to analyze how M-learning influences the improvement of the listening skill. It was based on a quantitative and qualitative approach. Furthermore, it was an experimental study with a sample of 23 students from sixth semester of "Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros" program at Universidad Técnica de Ambato. A standardized listening pre-test (B1 preliminary) taken from Cambridge was applied to know the students’ listening level. Then, they were exposed to developing listening activities using the "BBC Learning English" app during 6 synchronous and 4 asynchronous sessions for 4 weeks. The listening activities were student-centered because they had to be an active part of the development of the activities. At the end of the treatment, a post-test was applied to verify if M-learning influences the development of students’ listening skills. The results obtained from the listening tests were analyzed using the Wilcoxon's Nonparametric Two Related Samples Test. Finally, the results showed that the use of M-learning, through the use of the BBC app, improved students’ skills such as listening for gist, listening to infer information, and listening for detail.