The Effect of Short Message Service (SMS) on Learning Phrasal Verbs by Iranian EFL Learners

Despite the enormous potential of mobile assisted language learning (MALL) in teaching and learning foreign languages, no serious attention has been paid to develop this phase of education at schools and universities in Iran. This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of SMS as a subset of MALL on learning phrasal verbs among university students in Iran. Also, the role of gender in learning phrasal verbs by SMS was investigated. A group of 75 students were selected from 90 students who were studying different engineering fields at Arak University of Technology. They were assigned randomly into two experimental and control groups. During the study which lasted 25 days, participants in control group received 25 phrasal verbs in a booklet and participants in experimental group received 25 phrasal verbs via SMS. The pre- and post-test scores of two groups were compared using ANCOVA. The results of data analysis showed that experimental group outperformed control group. But there was no relationship between gender and learning phrasal verbs.