Business English Vocabulary Learning With Mobile Phone: A Chinese Students' Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore whether the use of mobile technology could better enhance students' business English vocabulary learning than the employment of traditional print material. A group of sophomores (N=43) from a Chinese university in North China were randomly assigned to two groups: the experimental group (N=23), who worked on a given list of business vocabulary via SMS, and the control group (N=20), who studied the same list of vocabulary via paper print material. The results of the posttest reveal that the experimental group did significantly better than the control group. However, the results of the delayed test show that the two groups were not significantly different from each other in term of vocabulary retention rates. The study concludes that a blended use of mobile technology such as SMS and paper print material could better give rise to students' business English vocabulary learning. The limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.