Article in Ñemit ỹ RÃ Revista Multilingüe de Lengüa Sociedad y Educación · January 021 doi: 10. 47133/nemityra010210 citations reads 693 authors

ISSN 2707-1642
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
98 
 
how to reexamine and adapt their approaches by allowing students to take advantage of 
available technology in an effective way. 
Technology has been present in English language instruction since the early 1940s 
(Richards & Rodgers, 2014). Yet, these earlier uses of technology lacked “the anytime, 
anywhere” advantage provided by modern mobile phones and their apps (McQuiggan, 2015). 
Multiple applications now exist for both students and teachers on various platforms. One such 
platform is the Google Play Store, also known as Play Store, which offers a variety of free 
mobile apps for Android smartphones. These apps can facilitate the development of language 
skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom for teenagers and adults at the 
intermediate to advanced levels (Godwin-Jones, 2017). 
As technology has evolved, so has its role in the classroom. In the last ten years, 
smartphone apps have been developed to help teachers and students in the teaching and 
learning of languages. Yet, although this is the 21st century, some teachers still use 
technology from the mid-20th century. These technology tools are outdated and not relevant 
to students’ interests and needs. Such outdated tools include using worksheets, copying notes 
from the board, and listening to lectures (Pletka, 2007). Current technology offers numerous 
apps that claim to support the acquisition of English language skills. Yet, because of 
insufficient studies about the effectiveness of these apps, educators are unable to ascertain 
which apps might be best for their EFL students. To help educators recommend apps for their 
students, we reviewed apps available in Play Store designed to develop English language 
skills. Our three-fold purpose for this study is as follows: 
1)
Identify free Android apps for the teaching and learning of EFL according to the 
skill identified for a given app, 
2)
Describe selected EFL apps at the intermediate to advanced levels, and 
3)
Describe and review the twelve free Android apps that were the most widely 
downloaded and highly rated by users at the time of this study. 
Our main goal is to help EFL educators select free Android apps according to targeted 
language development skills and, by doing so, support their students in acquiring English. 
To achieve this goal, our study was guided by two research questions: 
1)
Which free Android apps offer the potential of enhancing the teaching and learning 
of English? 
2)
To what extent can twelve of these apps be useful to learners for developing skills 
in speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar? 
In addition to providing a review of existing apps, this study also provides teachers 
with the Language Skills App Review Rubric (LSARR). Though yet untested for reliability 
and validity, this author-developed rubric can be used by teachers for conducting their own 
review of other apps, both those currently available as well as those yet to be designed. A 
potential weakness of this study is how it reviews only a limited number of apps and how all 
reviewed apps are Android and available only through Play Store.