Spoken English at airport/border control customs: Designing and evaluating an interactive model for occupational English with adult second language learners on the go

This study draws on user-driven, design-based collaborative research with participants to research, create, deploy, and measure user-experiences with a mobile App-delivered English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) training prototype that supports workplace adult second language (L2) language learners in three phases. Phase I consisted of a needs assessment conducted with customs officers from three customs offices across Costa Rica as well as undergraduate students enrolled in a Customs Administration program across three Universidad de Costa Rica’s campuses to unveil the occupational English needs of Costa Rican airport and border control customs officers. In Phase II, an interactive model prototype was iteratively designed, created, tested, redesigned, improved, and retested with participant users following insights from the needs assessment. In Phase III, an evaluation was conducted to reveal how the prototype met or did not meet the participants’ needs. Data for all phases was documented in field notes, through participant observations, interviews, informal conversations (face-to-face and over the phone), artifacts, photos, and an evaluation survey. Findings revealed that customs officers’ shortcomings in occupational English have been largely influenced by their prior formal English learning experiences. Their ultimate goal for doing a good job is improving their speaking performance in English for work-related purposes. As a solution offered to the above shortcomings, a mobile App for occupational English learning was favorably received as a feasible learning tool given the customs officers’ fluctuating work schedules. A preliminary thematic design framework guided the prototype creation and eventual evaluation. Design-based guidelines also emerged from such iterative process. The evaluation showed the helpfulness of the user interface, learning tasks, and content aspects implemented in the prototype with respect to customs officers’ current practices and college students’ future career performance as custom officers. Suggestions for a future iteration of the study, including additional features such as game mechanics, are offered. The study calls for further developments to comprehensibly satisfy customs officers’ personal and workplace needs as well as for work to align the higher education Customs Administration English language curriculum to meet the career performance needs of future graduates before they enter the workforce. Future research should include 1. developing new theories specific to mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) research and practice (in contrast to other kinds of technology-assisted learning), 2. understanding the ways in which mobile technologies can enhance L2 learners’ user experience and outcomes in mobile environments for informal learning, and 3. researching how mobile technologies and gamification can assist and improve diverse language learning aspects.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Rojas Alfaro, Roberto Enrique

Contributors dc:contributor

• D'Angelo, Cynthia M
• Castillo, Nathan
• Sadler, Randall W
• Huang, Wenhao D

• Mobile assisted language learning
• English for occupational purposes
• design-based
• instructional guidelines
• airport customs English
• spoken English
• adult learners

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Roberto Rojas Alfaro

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/112972

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/112972