The Effect of the Features of Smart Phone Vocabulary Applications on Korean College Students’ Satisfaction and Continued Use

Mobile learning technologies have been developing vigorously since the introduction of smart phones. This article explores learner’s patterns of usage of smart phone vocabulary applications. It also examines which vocabulary application features affect Korean college students’ satisfaction on m-learning and influence their continued use of mobile technology for studying English. Thirty-two college students participated in the current study. All participants owned smart phones, and downloaded one of two different applications. One week later, they were asked to complete questionnaires regarding the usage patterns of the applications, their perspectives on both the hardware features and the application features, and their satisfaction of m-learning using the application and willingness to use smart phone applications for their future English learning. As for the application features, functionality, ease of use, and portability were selected. The major findings of the current study are as follows: firstly, the students utilized the application mostly while commuting but did not use them often. Secondly, functionality had the single most significant effect on the students’ satisfaction and their continued use of the vocabulary learning application. The wanted functions indicated by the in-depth analysis of the open-ended questionnaire were the classifying functions for the memorized and the non-memorized vocabulary, more examples, audio for pronunciation, and self-control of vocabulary repetition.