An Evaluation of English Listening Mobile Applications for Grade Eleven Students of Senior High School

Abstract

This study evaluates five English listening mobile applications to be used by eleventh grade students to supplement their learning in listening. There are two objectives of this study: (1) finding out the most appropriate English listening mobile application for eleven grade students of senior high school; (2) finding out the ways to use the application for English teachers and students for practicing listening comprehension skills. This study is categorized into an evaluation research type of study. In analyzing and evaluating the five selected applications, this study employed the content analysis method. The data of this study were taken from five selected applications for learning English listening which were selected from the Google Play store. The researcher limited the selection by categorizing 50 apps into five groups: (1) listening apps for practicing only, (2) listening apps with exercises, (3) listening apps with videos, (4) listening apps with news program, and (5) listening applications with games. The representative applications from each category are English Audio Books-Librivox (app 1), English Listening Lesson (app 2), Learn English GREAT Videos (app 3), BBC News (app 4), and English Games-Listening (app 5). In analyzing the five selected applications, this study modified Kim and Kwon’s analytical framework of MALL (2012: 38-39) as the main evaluation criteria in this study. The modified analytical framework has four main categories: Target Learners, Content and Pedagogic Features, Technological Features, and Material Appropriateness. In analyzing the Content and Pedagogic Features and Technological Features, an application evaluation rubric was developed based on several sources of application evaluation rubrics and checklist. The researcher also obtained evaluation from 15 high school students of grade XI. The participants were assigned to use the representative apps for one week and then were asked to give feedback about the apps by filling in open-ended questionnaires developed by the researcher. The results of the researcher’s evaluation and the learners’ evaluation revealed that app 3 generally fulfilled the criteria of the most appropriate app by achieving 80.5% of fulfillment average score. The second position went to app 5 by having 74% and got the average appropriate criteria. App 2 was in the third place with 70.5% and deserved the average appropriate criteria of app. The fourth position was given to app 4 (68.5%), while the last position belonged to app 1 with 67% and received the least appropriate criteria.

Keywords: mobile app, learning app, listening app, mobile learning, MALL, listening skills.