O n f e r e n c e

Short paper 
Background of the Study 
The rapid development on information and communication technologies has affected 
many fields where people need more knowledge to accomplish their work. This changes 
people’s life incl
uding education. It has brought about changes in roles of individuals in 
education and the structure and implementation of education (Donmus, 2010). In 
particular, mobile technology is getting more and more popular and mobile tools, such as 
smart phone and tablet personal computers, have been played an important role in 
learning. Pecherzewska and Knot (2007) stated that mobile phones seems to be the most 
frequently used devices in the European Union. The portable devices allow learners to 
decide what to learn, where to learn, and how to learn.

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2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Caudill (2007) indicated that the 3G generation of smart phone provided learners 
multimedia relevant learning materials and different types of games to increase learners’ 
learning motivation and learning enjoyment. Learning with mobile device is 
fundamentally different from learning in classroom. The new field study, Mobile Learning, 
comes into shape (Sharples, 2000). 
Educators from different fields, including English as a Foreign Language (EFL) long 
desired to see how the mobile-learning can affect students learning. Many studies (e.g. 
Chen & Chung, 2008; Kao & Sheu, 2003; Thornton & Houser, 2005; Walton et al., 2005; 
Zurita & Nussbaum,2007) demonstrated that learning with mobile technologies is an 
effective approach; learners have more opportunities to learn and to practice through 
mobile-learning because of the larger exposure in target content (e.g. Chinery, 2006; 
McNicol, 2004; Naismith et al. 2005; Norbrook & Scott, 2003; Roschelle et al. 2005; 
Thornton & Houser, 2003, 2004, 2005).
This study explored a mobile game-based vocabulary learning program that was carefully 
designed and developed as a learning tool for learners to learn and practice. The 
following research questions guided this study: 
1.
Does the Mobile Game-
Based Vocabulary Learning program benefit students’ 
vocabulary learning? 
2.
What are the students’ perceptions of the Mobile Game
-Based Vocabulary Learning 
program? 
Method 
Participants 
One hundred and fourteen college students enrolled in an English Listening class in in 
Southern Taiwan were recruited to participate in this study. They are around eighteen to 
twenty years old. Fifty-seven students using smart phone with Android system were in 
the experimental group, and fifty-seven students were in the control group.