Free The Research was Designed To Examine And Determine The Usefulness Of Mobile Technology In Creating Authentic Student-Centered Learning Grounds. Article Review Example

English as a Foreign Language

The abstract defines EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and points out its limitations: the author says that EFL is a learning process wherein the teacher directs the process and the students' role is to simply receive knowledge. It is mentioned that to remedy this matter, a more student-centered approach is required. One such approach mentioned, and is the focus of the article is mobile technology learning, defined as a means of contextualizing language learning through involving situations in social networking, an example stated in the article was Facebook accessed through mobile phones (Al-Shehri, 2011). After a study conducted by the author, it was concluded that “ social networking media, e.g., Facebook, provide rich learner-generated and contextual out-of-class language learning opportunities that exploit the norms of the learning context”. Also the study was able to conclude that students have higher probabilities of applying what they learn and learning through real life situations (Contextualized situations). 
This section of the article was there to further emphasize the potential of the Internet as an avenue for language learning. 

The study was conducted on randomly chosen students who were required to upload multimedia materials, be it video or photo using their phones, about any problems that they could contextualize that were related to English learning. They were then required to react on each other’s threads. 
The results showed that some students, especially long time Facebook users, were more active in commenting and reacting to multimedia posted by their fellow students as compared to those who have just logged on to Facebook for the sake of the study (Al-Shehri, 2011).  
The results show that, based on student feedback and observations from those who conducted the study, mobile learning is effective in creating a learning environment that students appreciate and can learn from effectively. Aside from that, as time progressed, the students’ interactions with each other increased and even overstepped the contexts that they were supposed to be limited in leading to the assumption that this study contributed to their application of communication and language skills (Al-Shehri, 2011).  All interactions and uploading were done through mobile phones, ensuring that the study was still well within the scope of mobile learning.  
In conclusion, the author acknowledges that there are still some limitations to the methods and the research (such as network coverage, which is a physical limitation and the informality of the method) but has been successful in determining the effectiveness of mobile learning in EFL. 
The informal setup of the learning method encourages students to create their own situations wherein they are very eager to interact and learn. Having determined that such an environment offers an authentic learning field, the author suggests that careful planning and staging of this learning process would be crucial to further realizing more of its potential. 
And lastly, the fact that the students under the study used their mobile phones and social networks is what immersed them into a contextualized situation where they eagerly learn and apply what they learn. 

Reference

Al-Shehri, Saleh. (2011). Context in our pockets: Mobile phones and social networking as tools of contextualising language learning. mLearn.