Implementation of Students' Experiential English Learning through Technology

This is a case study, attempting to showcase the implementation of “students’ experiential English learning through technology” for a module titled “Business English” for degree students in a tertiary institution in Hong Kong. This study primarily aims to report on the uses of technology tools covering websites, WhatsApp, social media and other applications, etc. for promoting students’ hands-on practices across various topics throughout the module, particularly when compared with traditional learning activities of in-class paper-pencil English writing and textbook case-study discussion. This study adopted experiential learning tasks for students in class, purposefully embracing the framework of “experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984; Kolb and Kolb, 2009)”. Specifically, given different core module topics including Informative and Persuasive Writing, Diversity in Business, Job Searching Process, etc., students were expected to use their smartphones in class to (i) browse and evaluate existing fund-raising projects from on-line websites (e.g. Kickstarter.com) for getting to know a persuasive message that may drive ones to be a “backer” for a project, (ii) text a teacher an informative message via WhatsApp for immediate feedback, (iii) examine authentic comments on real culture diversity cases from the public via social media such as “Instagram” or “Pinterest”, and (iv) conduct hands-on trials of personality or aptitude test applications when understanding job searching process, etc. In summary, this case study has pointed to the results that students’ experimental English learning through technology can be realised across different module topics, and it is not necessarily through the traditional paper-pencil writing tasks and textbook case studies, and the technology tools range from websites, WhatsApp, social media and applications, etc., In addition, the students’ hands-on experiential approach appears to play a role of transforming the challenge of students’ distracted use of smartphones in class into the very best use for their English learning through technology.