Purpose This study aims to explore the use of technology-based strategies by Yemeni undergraduate students to develop their English as a foreign language skills in informal learning settings. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods research design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 110 undergraduate students enrolled at the English Departments in two universities in Yemen. In the first phase of the study, 10 students were interviewed to obtain information about their use of technology to develop their English language skills and subsystems in informal settings. Following the analysis of the interview data, a questionnaire was built to collect quantitative data, and the second phase of the study was carried out with 100 undergraduate students. Findings The findings revealed that students developed four technology-based strategies that they used in informal settings. These strategies included using social media, being inspired by someone, accessing social networks and websites. Students reported that these strategies helped them develop their listening, speaking and reading skills, while they also reported that their vocabulary was enhanced over grammar and pronunciation. Research limitations/implications The study findings can be of benefit not only for helping to raise students’ awareness of informal learning strategies to develop their English skills outside the classroom but also for teachers to rethink the importance of integrating technology tools and digital resources in their teaching practice. The results could also guide curriculum designers to augment textbook materials by integrating technology-based informal learning strategies. Originality/value This is the first study on this topic conducted in the context of higher education in Yemen and offers unique insights into informal learning practices of Yemeni students. In addition, the findings of the study open new dimensions for rethinking the classification of language learning strategies to include those that are technology-based and mainly useful for independent informal learning.

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This study aimed to explore the impact of WhatsApp on enhancing Saudi EFL students' language skills and areas. It also investigated EFL students' attitudes, motivation, and anxiety towards learning English via WhatsApp. The sample comprised 55 male and female students studying English at the College of Arts, University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia. A closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from the sample. The results revealed that WhatsApp has a positive impact on learning English as a foreign language with a score of 3.9 as an overall mean. Students' attitudes towards using WhatsApp for learning English scored 3.4, while the impact of WhatsApp on motivating EFL students to study English scored 3.6 in total. It was also found that WhatsApp reduced students' anxiety with a score of 3.8 as the overall mean. Based on these results, the researchers suggest that WhatsApp should be activated at all stages of English language learning and teaching.

Starting the teaching profession can be considered as challenging for novice teachers 1 . Thus, this study aims to explore the linguistic difficulties that novice teachers encounter and the major defects that such teachers have in their lesson planning while demonstrating the lesson steps to their pupils. The sample of this study is nine of the fourth level students at the English department, college of education, Al-Mahra, Hadhramout university, for the academic year 2017-2018. The researcher uses qualitative research design. The data were collected using classroom observation and novice teachers' lesson plans. The study found that the majority of the Yemeni novice teachers have problems in pronunciations which if not amended will be transferred into the learners. Overuses of Arabic is also the second major problem that the novice teachers had. Moreover, time is not organized effectively during the lesson steps. No enough activities are used in each lesson, and assessment is hardly done. The study also revealed that the novice teachers have problems in preparing their lesson plans. Such problems start from the fogy teaching objectives and the warming up activities are minimized to just ask the class about the time and date of the day. Similarly, the activities are not enough to achieve the lesson objectives and finally the time of each lesson step is not set and assessment is not mentioned.

This chapter reports on the Yemeni and Saudi EFL learners' use of language learning strategies (LLSs) in technology-mediated language learning contexts. The study examines whether nationality and gender play a significant role in using LLSs on electronic platforms. The study adopted a correlative design in which 100 Yemeni and Saudi university students were recruited to respond to an online close-ended questionnaire. Drawing on Oxford's classification of learning strategies, the findings of this study showed that metacognitive and cognitive strategies were used more frequently compared to the other LLSs. Moreover, the findings of t-test showed a significant difference in the use of LLSs attributed to nationality in favor of the Saudi learners and no significant difference in the choice of LLSs attributed to gender. The study provided some suggestions for EFL learners to benefit from technology in their English language learning.