ULearnEnglish: An Open Ubiquitous System for Assisting in Learning English Vocabulary

Abstract

Language learners often face communication problems when they need to express themselves and do not have the ability to do so. On the other hand, continuous advances in technology are creating new opportunities to improve second language (L2) acquisition through context-aware ubiquitous learning (CAUL) technology. Since vocabulary is the foundation of all language acquisition, this article presents ULearnEnglish, an open-source system to allow ubiquitous English learning focused on incidental vocabulary acquisition. To evaluate our proposal, 15 learners used the developed system, and 10 answered a survey based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Results indicate a favorable response to the application of incidental learning techniques in combination with the learner context. ULearnEnglish achieved an acceptance rate of 78.66% for the perception of utility, 96% for the perception of ease of use, 86.5% for user context assessment, and 88% for ubiquity. Among its main contributions, this study demonstrates a possible tool for ubiquitous use in the future in language learning; additionally, further studies can use the available resources to develop the system.

Hospitality School Students’ Perception on the Use of Wordwall to Enrich Students’ Work-Ready Vocabulary Mastery

“…The results of the questionnaire on the first question found that almost all students had the same difficulty, namely, it was difficult to remember vocabulary that changed according to its use. So it is important for teachers to pay attention to gaps in learning vocabulary, and facilitate their students with incidental words from the topics studied (da Silva et al 2021). The difficulties that students experience are certainly not only from the way the teacher gives the material but also the lack of practice to increase their vocabulary.…”

A Literature Review on Intelligent Services Applied to Distance Learning

“…In addition, the studies allow teachers and educational managers to take preventive actions to minimize possible problems in the learning paths. Future work will expand this literature review through a specific focus on mobile learning [75][76][77] and ubiquitous learning [65,[78][79][80][81][82]. Both technologies allow expanding the limits of distance learning environments mainly collaborating to the infrastructure of intelligent systems.…”

Ontology-Based Reasoning for Educational Assistance in Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases

“…In this scenario, ubiquitous computing emerges as a computational model that is always present to meet the needs of the individual naturally and imperceptibly [20][21][22][23]. This approach is applied in different areas, such as education [24][25][26][27], health [28][29][30][31][32][33], well-being [34], accessibility [35,36], agriculture [37][38][39], and data privacy [40,41].…”