Learning on the Move: Vocabulary Study via Email and Mobile Phone SMS

Patricia Thornton thornton@kinjo-u.ac.jp Chris Houser chris@houser.cc

Kinjo Gakuin University Omori 2-1723 Moriyama-ku Nagoya 463-8521 Japan
Abstract: Vocabulary acquisition is an important element of foreign language learning.
Research on memory suggests that vocabulary can be learned most efficiently by elaboratively
rehearsing each word at spaced intervals. We propose that push media – such as short email and
text messages sent to student's mobile phones - can encourage study at regular intervals. We
developed a series of concise, informal mini lessons and sent students three each day. Students
reported that the push media and friendly writing style were enjoyable and promoted regular
study.

Introduction
Cognitive science provides educators with insights into learning, challenging us to help students learn more
efficiently. In foreign language acquisition, one challenge is memorizing a large vocabulary. Effective vocabulary
study includes practice at spaced intervals (Bjork 1979; Dempster 1996) employing elaborative rehearsal leading
to deeper mental processing (Craik & Lockhart 1972). However, Japanese university classes meet once a week,
making spaced practice difficult. Students need to be unusually self-disciplined to space their studies. Instead of
relying on discipline, we help students study outside the classroom by sending email to their mobile phones.
Vocabulary Study
Acquiring a large foreign language vocabulary daunts adult learners. They need 5,000 words to read non-
specialized English texts (Nation 1990). Applying research on learning, they should review words at spaced
intervals; their review should incorporate elaborative rehearsal in various contexts rather than simple repetitions.
Foreign language students acquire vocabulary both by intentional learning through explicit instruction (Nation
1990) and by incidental learning through reading (Nagy et al. 1987). Experts recommend combining these
methods (Wood 2001) but existing teaching materials provide inadequate exposure to many of the 5000 essential
words (Groot 2000). Thus, students need a program facilitating long-term memory storage of vocabulary.
Push Media
The educational materials normally used outside of class - texts, web pages, even homework assignments - are
pull media, in that students must willfully pick them up to use them. But imagine if students used push media -
email or SMS (mobile phone email, so-called Short Message Service) - media that prompted them to immediately
study. Push media seem ideal for the repeated exposures needed to efficiently learn foreign-language vocabulary.
Compared to students only occasionally admonished to study in intervals, students receiving spaced email
vocabulary lessons would be more likely to do so.
Although many articles advocate email in teaching foreign languages, most describe student-generated email
exchanges or written assignments submitted via email (Warschauer 1995). We found no research using email as
educational push media. But some websites offer push learning. EnglishTown.com, a web-based commercial
language school, emails English lessons containing readings, vocabulary lists, practice sentences, and review
quizzes. They also promise English lessons for WAP phones. Another site, EigoTown.com, provides daily idiom
lessons and monthly hypertext fiction. However, no research describes the effectiveness of any of these programs.
We propose facilitating learning by emailing new vocabulary in spaced intervals to mobile phones. We present
vocabulary in several contexts to encourage elaborative rehearsal. We investigate the use of SMS as a tool for
learning, specifically the learning of foreign language vocabulary.
We chose mobile phones because of their popularity in Japan. Nearly 60 million Japanese (half the population)
constantly carry mobile phones (Mobile Media 2001). In contrast, only 20% have occasional access to desktop
PCs. Ubiquitous internet-capable mobile phones can encourage structured practice outside of class.

Experiment
We introduced five words each week, sending students short mini lessons three times a day. Individual lessons
defined a single word, taught some facet of a word, gave new contexts and examples, or reviewed words previously
introduced. This variety of messages provided students with elaborative rehearsal, likely leading to deeper
processing than that provided by methods such as bilingual word lists.
In the spirit of email, and accommodating the limitations of SMS, we wrote concise lessons (under 100 words)
in an informal, friendly style. We also devoted the last lesson of each day to a story episode. We hoped that
students would anticipate our lessons as they anticipated personal messages from their friends.

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Hypotheses
In this first phase of our study, we investigated usability issues, considering these hypotheses:
H1. Push media will prompt students to study vocabulary.
H2. The story episodes, and concise, informal writing style will appeal to students.
H3. Push will be sufficient: students will be content to read their lessons without interaction (just as they've read
their texts and studied their paper vocabulary lists without interaction).
H4. Students will read our short appealing messages soon after they arrive. (If students read lessons when they
arrive, we could control their study intervals simply by controlling the time we send messages.)
Procedure
To test these hypotheses we gathered eight volunteer students of English as a foreign language (EFL) and
Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). Pre-tests determined sets of words unknown to all the volunteers. We wrote
the fifteen mini lessons required for each week of study, and then constructed a computer program that would
automatically send lessons at 9:00, 12:30, and 16:00 each day. For example, here are the second day's EFL lessons:
Hello. Hi everyone. I hope you are enjoying learning English words. Learning is
lifelong, not temporary. Today’s word is reluctant. If you’re reluctant to do
something, you’re unwilling to do it. You might do it slowly and without enthusiasm
because you’re afraid or shy about doing it. Many people are reluctant to speak to
large groups. They feel afraid or shy about talking in front of many people. How
about you? Is there something that you are reluctant to do?
Hello again. Do you remember the words we studied yesterday and this morning?
Ignorant? Temporary? Reluctant? Sometimes people who live deep in the mountains of
North America are called ignorant. Many of those people do not go to high school.
They stop going to school after 6th grade. The government hopes this is a temporary
problem. But parents are reluctant to let their children go to high school because
they need them to work.
Maggie was tall, almost as tall as Tom. (Tom was the young man’s name.) Maggie had
purple hair. Tom had never seen anyone with purple hair. He thought it was strange
but beautiful. It made him want to talk to her to ask why she had purple hair. But
Tom was very shy and he was reluctant to begin a conversation with her. He kept
hoping that she would talk to him. Finally, one day...
One student read the lessons using SMS on a mobile phone; the other students read their lessons using email on
their PCs. At the conclusion of the experiment, the students took post-tests and responded to a questionnaire.
Results
H1 was supported: 88% of our volunteers studied the lessons every day. 75% mentally reviewed.
H2 was supported: Students found the lessons "very enjoyable" and 88% desired to continue studying using this
method. Most praised the brevity and informal writing style. All enjoyed the stories most.
H3 was partially supported: 75% of the students were content to merely read their lessons. But one student
desired quizzes; another wished to ask questions.
H4 was supported only by the student reading the lessons via SMS on her mobile phone. The students reading
email on their PCs were often unable to soon read incoming lessons; many could read only once or twice a day.
Only for the student using a mobile phone were we able to evenly distribute our three lessons throughout the day.
Future Work
Our informal, bite-sized lessons were well received, but our experiments have only just begun. We plan to
• Add interaction (quizzes and hypertext).
• Compare mobile phones to PC email (for convenience, coolness, and disruption).
• Prepare even terser (100 character) micro lessons (for use on less endowed mobile phones).
• Study learning effects (finding optimal review intervals and number of words studied per week).

References
Bjork, R. A. (1979). Information-processing analysis of college teaching. Educational Psychologist, 14, 15-23.
Craik, F. & Lockhart, R.S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning
and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684.
Dempster, F.N. (1996). Distributing and managing the conditions of encoding and practice. In E.L. Bjork & R.A. Bjork
(Eds.), Memory (pp.317-344). Boston: Academic Press.
Groot, P.J.M. (2000). Computer assisted second language vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning & Technology
(4), 1, 60-81.
Mobile Media. (2001). www.mobilemediajapan.com/2001/01/11
Nagy, W.E., Anderson, R.C., & Hermann, P.A. (1987). Learning word meanings from context during normal reading.
American Educational Research Journal, 24, 237-270.
Nation, I. S. P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. New York: Newbury House.
Warschauer, M. (Ed.) (1995). Virtual Connections. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Wood, J. (2001). Can software support children's vocabulary development? Language Learning & Technology (5), 1,
166-201.

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