Teaching English to Iranian foreign national police via mobile

摘要

During the last 10 years, wireless technology has introduced new forms of pedagogy. Application of multimedia makes it easier for teachers to carry non-verbal elements from medium to medium, and easier to interweave different modes [1]. Parallel with the booming of tourism industry in Iran learning English as a foreign language (EFL) has been a very productive area of enquiry in the case of Iranian police force, using personal digital assistants (PDAs), this study deals with the fact that learning contents are being designed in a specific manner in order to not only promote the L2 knowledge of this society but also to make accessible all the intended elements of educational systems. To that end, 114 Iranian forces from foreign national police bureau (75 policemen, & 39 policewomen) of national police office were selected. Incorporating text, image and voice, four types of materials were designed to be delivered via PDA in 16 non-formal sessions, with an average frequency of two conversations per day (except Fridays), to see if interaction of image and text can contribute to the exchange of meaning and to identify any possible effect of learners' gender on learning EFL. In comparison with the role of learners' gender in the process of learning conversation, it was concluded that interaction between pictorial and verbal media is also the major predictors of learners' ability in developing new English conversations.