Multimodal Mobile-based Activities In Listening And Speaking Skills Class: Efl Students’ Evaluation Of Course Effectiveness

Abstract

Today’s students are living in a world that is extremely fast-paced, technologically driven and constantly changing. However, many schools continue to deliver a 20th century model of education. All this requires a fresh set of responses from education. In fact, it has become necessary to develop pedagogic interventions which can foster both innovation and creativity in education. Mobile-assisted Language Learning (MALL) is regarded as a new stage in the development of computer and distance learning. Mobile devices are regarded as multimodal and multimedia resources that support technology-mediated instruction through multimodal representation. This paper seeks to gauge the effectiveness of a multimodal mobile-based course integrated into a Listening and Speaking Skills module. The course aimed to make full use of the means of videos, pictures, audio files, gesture and language to mobilize students’ visual, auditory, tactile and many other senses to engage students in the teaching activities actively. To do so, a summative evaluation checklist was utilized as a research instrument. The findings revealed that the engagement in different multimodal mobile-based practices received students’ approval.