<p>This paper investigates the efficiency of using mobile technology in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading classroom of 30 male students at Preparatory Year, Najran University. Specifically, the study aims to explore the role of this new integrated method in enhancing the EFL learners’ reading practices. Integrating Freebody and Luke’s (1990) four resources model of reading practices within Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), a mix-method research design was used in this study. The reading class was allowed and encouraged to implement specific mobile features and applications. A pretest was employed to construct the baseline data. During the treatment, WhatsApp group, self-reflection journals, posttest, and semi-structured interviews were used. The findings revealed that using mobile WhatsApp, online and offline dictionaries, mobile camera, online resources, and memos remarkably improved the participants’ code breaking practices and text participation practices; text using and text analyzing practices were slightly improved. Participants used the aforementioned tools and features to share images, photos of summaries and mind maps and to look up for new vocabulary, pronunciations and parts of speech. The study recommends further investigation on the effect of WhatsApp on writing practices.</p>

Traditional classrooms confine English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading to the textbook and the classroom setting, something that demotivates active reading. With the advent of mobile technology, however, such boundaries can be broken to include external reading materials where students could read and share anytime and anywhere. This paper investigates the role of mobile technology in enhancing Learner Autonomy (LA) in the EFL reading context among students in the Preparatory Year (PY) of Najran University in Saudi Arabia. A reading class of 30 students utilised mobile applications (WhatsApp and internet search engines such as Google) to access external reading materials and interact with their peers and teachers outside the classroom. Qualitative data collection underwent a number of procedures. The baseline data was constructed from the students’ portfolios, which reported the participants’ traditional reading practices and use of mobiles. Then, the participants were encouraged to use internet search engines and WhatsApp group to share their readings. Finally, five participants were interviewed. The data analysis revealed that the participants’ LA is improved through the use of selected mobile applications in terms of taking responsibility for and making decisions about reading materials and the time and place of reading. The study recommends further investigation into the role of mobile applications for generating learners’ own tasks and writing skills.

This study investigated the impact of reading learning strategies (RLS) mediated by smartphone features and applications on the learners' psychological autonomy in English as a foreign language (EFL) reading context among undergraduates in Saudi Arabia. A total of 70 male students in two intact reading classes participated in this study. A questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data from the participants prior to and after an interventional programme. The findings of the study revealed that employment of RLS mediated by smartphone features and applications promoted the learners' psychologically autonomous features of motivation, self-efficacy, agency, positive attitudes, desire to seek information, need for achievement in EFL reading context. It is recommended that a training programme on strategy use through the technology of smartphones should be highly considered in curricula design, teaching and learning methods, training programmes in order to empower learners to take charge of their own learning of EFL reading skills.

This paper investigates the role of WhatsApp, a widely used application in cell phones, in providing EFL learners with appropriate learning settings to use English language freely and effectively. To achieve the goal of the study, the researchers chose four native speakers of English and forty students from Preparatory Year, Najran University, Saudi Arabia to share a series of activities, ideas and information via a mobile application namely WhatsApp. Various methods associated with social science research were used at different stages of the study. These methods were triangulated to make the study more reliable and result-oriented. First, the postings and comments of the participants were analyzed and studied using Content Analysis. Then a questionnaire of 15 items was administered amongst the participants targeting their attitudes towards the use of MMC in English Language Education (ELE). Finally, a semi-structured interview was used with 10 participants and the native speakers. Based on the results, EFL learners enjoyed more exposure to the language via WhatsApp, where they could communicate with native speakers and interact appropriately. In addition, the questionnaire and the interviews showed positive attitudes towards using mobile in reinforcing language learning. The researchers provide recommendations and suggestions for future research .

Language learning strategies (LLS) and learner autonomy (LA) are believed to achieve a sustainable long-life learning process leading to a more reading competence (O'malley & Chamot, 1990;Oxford, 1990). LA is a pedagogical imperative inasmuch as language is largely an autonomous activity (Kumaravadivelu, 2006). This study examines the improvement of LA through the explicit use of LLS in EFL reading in a mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) environment among English as a foreign language (EFL) readers enrolled in Preparatory Year program at Najran University in Saudi Arabia. To this end, a questionnaire adapted from Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), was administered to 32 students to measure their reading strategy use mediated by smartphones in EFL reading context. The data analysis revealed moderate averages (60%) of LLS (memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies) among EFL undergraduates in EFL reading context. Consequently, these results may restrain the improvement of LA in virtual learning environments, mostly teacherless platforms, where learners need to have these strategies to help them control and manage their own language learning in almost independent learning settings, freedom in time, place, access to resources, and material choices. It is recommended that LA be improved through a strategy use instruction mediated by smartphones in EFL reading context.