Mobile-mediated enhancement of English articles: A close look at interlanguage development

Abstract

This study has been motivated by the assumption that integration of mobile-assisted activities would lead to the improvement in the students’ use of English articles, which is extremely difficult to master for EFL learners whose native language lacks the article system. 74 students at a university in South Korea experienced treatment including a one-hour formal instruction and six weeks of mobile-assisted textual enhancement (TE) and postexposure (PE) sessions on the English articles. The students were divided into two groups: the TE_color and TE_black groups. The TE_color group was exposed to colored enhancement of the targeted item while the TE_black group to traditional black and white enhancement. The findings suggested that the treatment was useful for the TE_black group and for those who perceived the TE session to be helpful. Additionally, the same treatment group showed a similar sequence of acquisition of English articles in terms of the use of each article while they have not necessarily improved in terms of test scores. Three pedagogical implications are suggested based on the findings of this study, and several limitations and suggestions for further study are presented.