Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

The study analyzed students’ attitudes toward the use of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) via a case study. The case study was SPEARA, which stands for Specific English as Academic Research Assistant, a mobile-app provided for English language learning. Respondents for this study were 131 students from Computer Science at Bina Nusantara University. Instrument for this study were questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, following the design from previous studies (Hofstede, 2010, Kearney, 2012, Viberg and Grönlund, 2013). Findings from the questionnaire showed positive accounts in the use of SPEARA (97%). Further findings showed that respondents preferred to have a personalized (96%) as well as authentic (91%) app. The semi-structured interview results revealed that respondents preferred professionalism as indication for Masculinity v.s. Femininity dimension, flexible time to use the app as proof for Indulgence v.s. Restraint dimension, as well as to use information from SPEARA as Individualism v.s. Collaboration dimension. It is implied that development of SPEARA needs to be carried out in fulfilling all cultural dimensions of the users.