Language learning in tourism through mobile devices in higher education

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Isabel Maria Soares Pinto de
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Costa, Carlos Manuel Martins, Roberto, Maria Teresa, Moura, Adelina
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/38925
• topic: Tourism; Mobile learning; Language learning; Mobile devices

In the digital age, millions of people use mobile phones to communicate. However, these devices are also being used for educational purposes. This paper attempts to show an overview of the use of mobile devices in the process of learning English as a second language by a class of higher education Tourism students, in Portugal. The paper refers to an initial research study that explores the overt and covert uses the students give to mobile devices and their attitude towards their use in an educational setting. A survey was conducted to glean this information and we present the results which show that this technology is not used by most of the students in educational settings and that they are very aware of their teachers’ penalising attitudes towards it.After the survey was conducted, a few language learning activities were tried out within and outside the classroom and, in general, students appreciated these and wish for more such activities in the future.