MyAdhan Blog

Link: Turkey: Cell phone possibilities harnessed in language learning

Researchers from Middle Eastern Technical University (ODTÜ) have developed a new system to learn foreign languages that utilizes cell phone short messages (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS).

With this system, subscribers receive SMS and MMS messages in a foreign language of their choosing from time to time. The researchers say these messages are more effective than notes read on the Internet or taken during class. Professor Kür?at Ça??ltay from ODTÜ’s department of computers and technology education along with Professor Gölge Sefero?lu of ODTÜ’s department of foreign languages and Murat Saran of Çankaya University’s department of computer engineering spoke about the project with the Anatolia news agency.

Ça??ltay said the project, a culmination of two years of research, was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜB?TAK) and that the team had already applied for international patents for their findings and data. Ça??ltay, noting that computer and technological developments had already led to astounding changes in social life, said that one of the arenas in which these developments and changes had had the greatest impact was in the arena of education. Ça??ltay also noted that despite a rapid spread of computer technology, the number of people with personal computers in Turkey was still not very high and that despite the fact that cell phones became widespread long after personal computers, the number of cell phones in the world was five to 10 times greater than the number of personal computers at this point.

Ça??ltay noted that his group’s research focused on the possibility of tapping into the popularity and wide use of cell phones for learning purposes. “Our project harnessed the power of SMS and MMS messages. We worked with two cell phone operators. Our main focus was on designing visual texts in English. Every text message uses a variety of colors and characters. After this, we added sound to these texts. We sent these messages in SMS and MMS format to a group of 66 people. In the second stage of the project, in order to contrast these learning techniques with others available, we offered lesson notes to students containing the same content, but in three different formats. When we compared the level of success of students on exams based on these notes, we saw that students who had worked with MMS messages were 52 percent more successful than those reading their notes from the Internet and 46 percent more successful than those relying on written notes.”

Ça??ltay said that the reason for the success of students relying on cell phone-based notes had to do with the fact that the cell phone was a tool always on hand and that the students could constantly open and read their notes when they came via SMS and MMS.