Students’ perceptions of using mobile technologies in informal English learning during the COVID-19 epidemic: A study in Chinese rural secondary schools

Abstract

During the COVID-19 quarantine period, mobile technologies have been greatly promoted to be used by students to assist their learning. Although mobile learning has been well researched, studies investigating rural school students’ intentions were not enough. This study investigated rural secondary school students’ mobile technology uptake and their perceptions of using mobile technologies in informal English learning during the COVID-19 epidemic. Results suggested Chinese rural school students held positive attitudes towards mobile assisted English learning, and they most tended to use smartphones, followed by portable electronic dictionaries, tablets and laptops in informal English learning. Rural secondary school students’ behavioral intentions (BI) were significantly influenced by perceived usefulness (PU), facilitating conditions (FC) and attitude towards use (ATU) of mobile devices. Innovativeness (INNO) and perceived ease of use (PEU) did not significantly influence students’ behavioral intentions. These factors explained 83.1% of variance of students’ behavioral intentions. Based on the findings, the study offers suggestions that teachers, governments and educational policy makers take measures to pay attention to students’ mobile learning in informal English learning. 

Keywords

• rural secondary school students
• English learning
• mobile technologies
• China