THE MEDIATION OF MOBILE APPLICATION IN BOOSTING THE VOCABULARY LEARNING OF UPPER-INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

IN THE MODERN WORLD, MOBILE PHONES AS NEW INFORMATION SOURCES AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES HAVE PROVIDED UNIQUE WAYS TO HELP LEARNERS IN THE PROCESS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING. GIVEN THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY, THIS STUDY THUS INVESTIGATED THE EFFECT OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS ON EFL LEARNERS' VOCABULARY LEARNING. ALSO, THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR VOCABULARY LEARNING WERE INQUIRED ABOUT. TO THIS END, ONE HUNDRED UPPER-INTERMEDIATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN THIS STUDY. ADMINISTERING A PRETEST, THE NEXT PHASE WHICH WAS MOBILE APPLICATION EXPERIMENT STARTED. DURING THE EXPERIMENT WHICH LASTED FOR FOUR WEEKS, THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP WERE EXPECTED TO USE 504 VOCABULARY ITEMS SOFTWARE INSTALLED ON THEIR MOBILE PHONES TO DO ALL VOCABULARY LEARNING ACTIVITIES. MEANWHILE, THE CONTROL GROUP WORKED WITH THE 504 VOCABULARY BOOK, PRINTED-VERSION. AT THE END OF THE EXPERIMENT, THEY WERE GIVEN A VOCABULARY TEST TO SEE WHETHER MOBILE APPLICATION BOOSTED THE VOCABULARY LEARNING OF UPPER-INTERMEDIATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. FOLLOWING THE POSTTEST, 15 STUDENTS WERE INTERVIEWED TO EXPRESS THEIR VIEWS REGARDING MERITS AND DEMERITS OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS THEN, THEIR PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST SCORES WERE COMPARED USING AN INDEPENDENT T-TEST. RESULTS OF T-TESTS RUN REVEALED THAT THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP STUDENTS SIGNIFICANTLY OUTPERFORMED THE CONTROL GROUP IN TERMS OF VOCABULARY LEARNING. ALSO, PARTICIPANTS EXPRESSED THAT EFFICIENCY, PORTABILITY AND CONVENIENCE ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND, ON THE OTHER HAND, SMALL SCREEN SIZE, LIMITED BATTERY LIFE AND LIMITED MEMORY SIZE ARE THE DISADVANTAGES OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS. THE FINDING OF THE STUDY UNDERSCORED THE VITAL ROLE OF MOBILE PHONES IN VOCABULARY LEARNING. ALSO, THIS STUDY HAS SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR SYLLABUS DESIGNERS, LANGUAGE TEACHERS AND EFL STUDENTS TO GET HELP FROM TECHNOLOGY IN VOCABULARY LEARNING.