Implementing Mobile Learning Applications for Fostering Oral Proficiency, Accuracy, and Fluency: The Case of LingQ and Duolingo[Latin Thesis]

Tannaz Eslami

The use of mobile applications in teaching and learning English as a foreign language has received considerable attention in the recent years. While the number of mobile learning applications has increased dramatically, not many studies have examined the effectiveness of new applications to promote oral proficiency of the learners. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the possible effects of LingQ and Duolingo on EFL learners’ oral proficiency and its components, namely accuracy and fluency. In so doing, 50 Iranian female intermediate learners of one English language institute in Tehran were selected out of a pool of 120 learners based on their performance on a Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT). They were then assigned and divided through convenience sampling into two experimental groups with each group entailing 25 learners. Then a speaking test was administered as a pretest. Afterward, the participants in the first experimental group were asked to use the LingQ application and the participants in the second experimental group were asked to use the Duolingo application as treatment. Next, after 12 sessions of the treatment, both groups took another speaking test as their posttest. In addition, all the participants (in each group) willingly attended a semi-structured interview to check their perceptions about the use and usefulness of LingQ and Duolingo for promoting their oral proficiency, oral accuracy, and fluency. The results of Independent samples t-test revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups and learners in the first experimental group outperformed better than the second experimental group, in all three aspects of speaking including accuracy, fluency, and proficiency. The qualitative results, using content analysis, also evinced that learners who worked with LingQ were more satisfied than the learners who used Duolingo application for improving their oral proficiency, accuracy and fluency. The findings of the present study are beneficial for L2 teachers, learners, and materials developers in that they can consider the utility of technologies in enhancing second/foreign language oral proficiency. Accuracy, Duolingo, Fluency, Learner Perception, LingQ, MALL, Mobile Learning Application, Oral Proficiency