Investigating the Efficacy of Computer and Mobile Assisted Vocabulary Learning in Developing Academic Writing Skills with Saudi University Students.

Abstract

The academic register of English language has been thought of as a challenging cognitive and pedagogical endeavour for non-native university students whether their L2 educational context is domestic or international. To facilitate the acquisition of academic language, several approaches were proposed over years, chief among which are Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), and Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). Each of the two language learning approaches has been exclusively employed to teach one feature of the inseparable academic language lexico-grammar at moderate levels of efficacy, yet the joined cognitive forces of the two approaches have not been thoroughly examined in the available literature. In this study, a short intervention was designed to teach 30 Saudi university students the most frequent 40 general academic vocabulary items, several frequent academic phrases, and 1 salient academic language feature, namely hedging to improve the lexico-grammar of Saudi university students’ written production. Target vocabulary was directly derived from Oxford Phrasal Academic Lexicon (OPAL). CALL used as the main medium of instructions, in-class activities, and exercises, and MALL employed to compliment the intervention’s activities outside class, and enhance target vocabulary’s entrenchment and priming in student’s academic repertoire. Pre-/post-test results of six different variables show statistically significant correlation between the use of CALL and MALL together and Saudi university students’ academic language gains. A large effect size (d= 1.6) was observed for vocabulary-related variables, a medium effect size (d= 1.08) for grammar and structure-related variables, and a small effect size (d= .65) for academic voice-related variables.