Kevin Mooney

Another interesting revelation from my research review this week. I discovered that students in this study generally approved of receiving their learning materials through their phones vs their laptop.   They specifically cited the text message being more convenient and helpful than email. This is an interesting discovery for me.  I traditionally associate my text messages with personal communication and my email for more formal things like school and work.  The generation of learners coming up being me (at least in this test group) obviously do not share this sentiment.

Furthermore the participants approved of the language intervention approach to vocabulary acquisition and to using their mobile phones to engage in informal study. The majority of opinions agreeing that the vocabulary intervention method could indeed be a beneficial influence on their vocabulary acquisition.

So I have been using the QDA analysis software to begin to analyze my interview transcripts.  The software is great it generate reports based on the frequency of applied tags/codes.  The most frequently applied code revolved around technology use, specifically mobile phones. Throughout the transcripts of the 8 interviews 57 passages of text were labeled with the technology parent tag, 30 of those passages were labeled with a tag noting the use of mobile-technology as an educational aid.  Here are some sample quotes from the interviews.

“It is more convenient to use a cell phone (to look-up words).”

“I use the dictionary in my phone.”

“I use the online dictionary.”

“Yeah I have those dictionaries installed to my cell phone. It is very convenient and it saves a lot of time.”

“Oh yes I use the online dictionary (…) I know some online dictionaries such as [Youdao].”

“It is more convenient to use a cell phone to look up words.”

I found it interesting that many of the participants are already using readily accessible technology to enhance and support their learning. In this case specifically to develop their vocabulary. 

I have almost finished analyzing my research interviews.  Some recurrent themes and revelations from this past weekend:

1. In each interview there was a theme of preference to mobile technology over digital. Participants reported checking their phones more frequently then their laptops.  They also read text messages as they were received vs emails which were sometimes not checked for days or in some cases not read at all.

2.  There was a high frequency of students reporting that they read English websites and online newspapers to study and improve their English.

3. There were several passages where students described self-directed learning through mobile phone apps and online resources.

The interview analysis process is quite interesting.   The QDA miner software definitely makes things much easier to organize and keep track of.

And for those who asked about the final word count for the interview transcriptions……51,480 words.  3 chiropractic adjustments.  10 L of Tim Hortons coffee and an undisclosed amount of Monster energy drink.