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Cite this article as Rao, P.S.(2019). The Importance of Mobile Apps in the English Language

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Article information Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116 (2019)

Article Received: 15/12/ 2018 ISSN: 2395-0595

Acceptance: 25/12/ 2018

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOBILE APPS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Lecturer in English,

English Language Centre, King Faisal University,

Al-Hasa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ___________________________________________________________________

Abstract

In the modernized and technological era, there have been tremendous changes in all

areas. As human knowledge progresses, there have been many new inventions and

these inventions lead to the progress of human beings. The tireless scientists and

researchers continue their research in their respective fields in order to attain

desired goals. In spite of their hard work, the modern world attains success in all

fields. The same progress is also observed in the field of science and technology.

The traditional and out-dated technology has been replaced by the modern and

innovative technology. Due to the advent of this new technology and internet, there

are many changes in the field of education. The traditional books and blackboard

are replaced by e-books and smart boards. Moreover, there is a behavioural change

in the learners’ learning and they mostly depend on the modern technologies in

education rather than depending on the teachers. While teaching the English

language also, the teachers introduce the latest technology into their classrooms

with the use of the available technology, they change their methods and techniques

of teaching English to EFL/ESL learners. Even some teachers welcome the learners

to use mobile phones in their EFL/ESL classrooms in order to make their learning

an easy and fun-filled environment.

Impact Factor : 5.10

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 99

Moreover, the teachers use some useful mobile apps while teaching English in their

EFL/ESL classrooms. So, the learners take this opportunity of using the mobile apps

to learn the language skills and concentrate more on their learning both inside and

out of the classroom.

This paper expounds the significance of mobile phones in education, especially in

the present EFL/ESL classrooms. This paper focuses on the studies done on the use

of mobile phones in the classrooms. Moreover, the advantages of using mobile apps

for the learners are discussed in detail. This paper also highlights some important

apps related to EFL/ESL learners. Finally, some useful tips have been given for both

EFL/ESL teachers as well as learners in order to improve the quality of their

learning.

Key words: Apps, classroom, Education , EFL/ESL, Mobile phones, Technology.

Introduction

The present digital technology has influenced the modern era with its new

innovations and discoveries where the human beings are enjoying the fruits of these

technologies that changethe way of their lives and make convenient for them to lead

a comfortable and happy life. The contemporary scientists are still endeavoring in

inventing new things to bring radical changes in almost all fields. It leads the human

beings to do their activities in a simplified and easy way while they perform some

tasks. Due to these changes in almost all the fields, human beings are now thinking

of constructing houses even in the space. These changes also reflect in the field of

technology and humans enjoy using these technologies by communicating with their

friends and relatives who are in the other regions of the world. As technology

advances, there have many changes in almost all the areas. Many countries have

advanced their studies in science and technology and machines are doing the work

of humans. Robots are replaced the manpower in some large-scale industries and

now-a-days driverless car or autonomous car or robot car technology is being

developed by BMW, Lexus and Mercedes and even Tesla’s driverless autopilot

system has been tested on UK roads. Moreover, Google is developing its automated

technology in wild across the Atlantic.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 100

The dawn of technology resulted in globalization of trade and commerce and now

the corporate and large-scale industries are capable of competing with the other

business organizations around the globe. Technology also helped many people in

getting better employment opportunities, especially, many software professionals are

settling down in their jobs all over the globe. Technology is also of great use in the

field of education where most of the students as well as the teachers depend on

online resources and the available innovations in education. With the advent of the

internet, the teachers are able to use some useful websites to retrieve information

about their topics and even some learners also browse the net in order to get their

doubts clarified.

The twenty-first century brought many radical changes in communication as well as

information technology also. As a result, most of the people are now-a-days carrying

portable devices with them like laptops, notebooks, tablets, palmtops, smart

watches, mobile phones, iPads, thumb drives, pagers, etc. wherever they go. Among

them, people use mobile phones as they are portable and useful. In this regard,

Yamaguchi (2005: 57) says, “Mobile phone is superior to a computer in portability

and some students don’t have their own computer”. Miller (2014) asserts,

“Smartphones are being adopted unprecedentedly by youth and they are potentially

the tools for future study technologies”. As people find that mobile phones are

widely used to do multi-tasking, they always prefer to use them.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 101

Mobile phones brought radical changes in the lifestyle of people. With these mobile

phones, people get things home that are available in the global market by purchasing

them online. People can communicate with others and they even can have video chat

with them though they live in different parts of the world. Technology has also

brought remarkable changes in travel and tourism fields also. The tourists who wish

to visit foreign countries book their reservations for hotels and air tickets online and

they also browse the internet to know about the places they visit. With the dawn of

technology, people can read the world-wide newspapers online and watch programs

and news channels both on television and online and update the information about

the whole world.

Fig: The Main Purposes of Using Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are widely used for several purposes in the field of education also.

They are used by educationalists, researchers, teachers and learners differently

depending on their purpose. Educationalists and researchers use them to retrieve

information about the ongoing trends in education and they even give some valuable

suggestions to the whole educational field. They do research on their fields and also

try to set new trends in education. Teachers use mobile phones to get the

information instantly in the classroom and also to visualize the learners some videos

related to the topic. Therefore, mobile devices play a vital role in education,

especially, in learning a language.

Watchvideos

Learnlessons

Surf theinternet

Sendemails anddocuments

Call friends

and family

Do online transactions

Learn languages

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 102

But, the present generation learners mostly use mobile phones for browsing the net,

sending emails and chat on social networks and they do not use them to learn a

language. So the responsibility is on the shoulders of the teachers to educate their

learners to use mobile phones to learn new vocabulary, grammatical structures and

language skills. It is a fact that a majority of the young generation uses mobile

phones for various other purposes, some of them use mobile phones to develop their

language skills.

The usage of mobile phones in learning a language has got numerous advantages,

that too, while learning English there are several benefits for the learners. According

to the study conducted by Chen, Chung & Yen (2012), “Cell phones are flexible

tools which have the potential to be exploited to cater to the needs of language

learning students”. The learners can develop their skills in building up new

vocabulary items, enhance their knowledge on grammar, improve communication

skills and develop the other language skills. The learners can watch videos related to

the lessons taught in the classrooms and they also can record the teachers’ teaching

and repeat it during their leisure time at home. The learners also go through some

online sources to understand some important topics.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

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According to the report given by market researcher, Newzoo (2018), the total

number of smartphone users in the year 2016 was 2,491 million, in 2017 it was

2,741 million and in 2018 it has reached the mark of almost 3 billion (2,995

million), with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for more than half of that number.

The report further discloses that the number of the smartphone users will be

increased to 3,257 million by the end of 2019, 3,513 million by 2020 and pass 3.8

billion by 2021. The report further says, “In addition to telephony, 2000s-era mobile

phones support a variety of other services, such as text messaging, MMS, email,

Internet access, short-range wireless communications (infrared, Bluetooth), business

applications, video games and digital photography. Mobile phones offering only

those capabilities are known as feature phones; mobile phones which offer greatly

advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones”. Hence, the above

statistics unveils how people’s dependency on smartphones increases year by year.

According to another project report which was conducted in America by the Pew

Internet and American Life Project mentions in its report, “89% of American adults

currently have a cell phone, and 47% of American adults own a smart phone.

Furthermore, more than half of all cell owners use their phones to go online,

and three-quarters of smart-phone users use location-based services, such as maps to

find their way around, or Foursquare to check in”. It reveals that there is a huge shift

in the way how Americans use and access the information from restaurant reviews

to social media. According to a survey conducted by the Bank of America (2016),

almost half of the population of America owns a smartphone and 96% of the

millennial aged between 18 and 24 years opined that smartphones are very important

for them whereas 93% of them even said that smartphones are more important than

toothbrush and deodorant. The survey also reveals that an individual American

checks his/her smartphone every 6.5 minutes. Hence, it is understood how the

smartphone technology is used all over the globe and how people are benefitted

from it.

A corporative study was held across two schools in 2012 in the England on how

students from each school use their mobile devices during their class time. The study

discloses, “Most of the students rely on their mobile phones to keep them organized.

The students frequently use their mobile phones for the features such as camera,

alarms and calendar.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 104

The camera is generally used to take pictures of the notes given by the teachers”. On

the whole, the study recommends that mobile devices are a suitable learning tool for

the classroom. In the report, it says, “there is clear evidence that many pupils feel

that they are deriving educational benefit from the use of their devices. They are

using many of the features of their devices and often finding creative ways to

employ these features in their schoolwork, both at home and at school”. Hence, there

are many benefits for the learners through these mobile phones.

Mobile devices are used in the classrooms of American education experience as

teaching tools from primary level to graduation level. In another survey conducted

by Pew Research Center found that 58% of American teachers have smartphones

whereas the national adults have an average of 48% of smart phones. It shows that

most of the American teachers have smartphones to build tech-savviness into their

lesson plans by embracing BYOD (bring-your-own-device) policies and it resulted

in leading the push for an iPad for every student. The report also says that nearly

25% of US schools had BYOD policies in place and it is sound to accept that these

numbers have increased in the last two years.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

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This report further says that mobile technology is used by 73% of the teachers either

for teaching lessons in the classrooms or by permitting the students to use it to finish

their assignments. The report also says that English teachers use these mobile

devices more than that of the mathematics teachers. According to some reports

developed around 2010 say that mobile apps are both engaging and educational for

children as they are so young at pre-school level.

In another survey conducted by PBS Kids in partnership with the US Department of

Education found that the age group of between three and seven kids’ vocabulary has

been improved up to 31% when they play the mobile app called Martha Speaks.

Abilene Christian University conducted another research and found that the kids

were highly motivated to complete their lessons on mobile devices than the leaning

they have done through traditional textbooks and workbooks. Another two entirely

different studies were conducted by Project Tomorrow and Kajeet in 2013 on both

fifth and eighth grade students on the effect of using tablets for learning both in class

and at home and they found that the students’ learning experiences improved across

the board. The reports say that 35% of students of the 8th grade opine that their

teachers’ activities or lessons seem to be more interesting when they are allowed to

use their tablets in the classroom. According to the researchers, “Across the board,

access to a tablet computer significantly changed the learning environment for the

5th grade students, both in school and at home”. This report says there are positive

changes in the learners that they have a greater access to learning resources outside

of school and the students also exceeded the expectations of their teachers in using

these devices. Furthermore, the teacher-student communication has drastically

increased and the teachers used the tablets in creative and various ways to engage

their learners in learning and there is a tremendous change in the behaviour of the

students as a result of having the devices with them. The study also reveals that the

students have never engaged the devices for any bad behaviour even though they are

using them at home. Another report on 8th grade students says that the tablet

program has been found that there is a positive impact both in and out of school. The

report says that the students increased the sophistication of their mobile learning

activities by using the tablets and the students are accessing to the learning material

at home. It also provides an opportunity for the teachers to improve their students’

productivity and createnew learning environments for them.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 106

It is understood from the above reports that the importance of technology in the

classroom is of greater use for the development of the learners’ learning skills and

the teachers have to play a vital role in the implementation of these technological

devices. As the results of these surveys indicate that the students develop their

learning skills immensely when they use their mobile phones or tablets in and

outside the classrooms, the teachers should always motivate and inspire the students

to use these mobile phones while learning English in the EFL/ESL environment.

In the modern world, technology has become an indispensable part of human lives

and the classroom is not an exception. There was merely an interaction between a

learner and a teacher in the traditional classrooms, where the teacher is responsible

for his teaching and the learners are responsible for undertaking their learning.

Whereas in this digital era, with the advent of the new technological devices where

the whole world has become a global village, there have been radical changes in the

entire global teaching-learning environment. In the same way, there have been

tremendous changes in teaching-learning philosophies and there is the old-fashioned

approaches have entirely shifted to social-based and interactional approaches for

teaching-learning environment. In this regard, Bester and Brand (2013) say, “No

technology can replace the teacher in the classroom; nevertheless, it can be used to

promote interactive teaching and learning and integrated into lessons to maximize

the learning experience”. Chinnery (2006), Gholami & Azarmi (2012), Mayisela

(2013) and Rahimi & Miri (2014) assert, “Mobile devices such as mobile phones,

iPads, audio players, tablets and personal digital assistants have been widely used in

learning contexts”. But there have been drastic changes in the daily life of human

beings with the advent of internetand all the traditional print material such as

textbooks, reference books, dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias and so on are

now available online and information about anything can be accessible anywhere

and anytime only with a single click on to the internet.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

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In the twenty-first century, mobile phones are widely used in the classrooms in order

to make the teaching-learning process more effective. The teachers as well as the

learners of EFL/ESL classrooms use mobile phones to enhance their language skills.

As most of the children use mobile phones or tablets to play games or to watch

cartoons since their childhood, the teachers of English should allow mobile phones

into their EFL/ESL classrooms so that the young learners can make use of them to

download some important apps that develop their language skills. Using these

mobile phones, the learners can connect to their peers and teachers both in and

outside the classrooms and they can communicate in their leisure time so that their

learning English will continue even out of the classroom environment. The learners

can also clarify their doubts on their own and it even sidelines the teachers and the

learners develop self-learning so that they can work on their own anytime and

anywhere during their free time. Some other advantages the learners get from these

mobile phones are that they can view videos related to the topic, record the lesson

taught by the teachers and watch them later and send messages and assignments to

their teachers and use some important apps that develop their language skills.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 108

There are many mobile apps that are useful for the learners to improve their English

language skills. Among them, British Council’s The English Clubacts as an expert

tutor and it is a useful appfor the learners to read and write English and it has 50

levels and each level is designed with stories, flashcards, games and animations.

With this app, the learners develop their English comprehension, writing and

reading skills enormously. There are many apps designed by the British Council that

develops learners’ English language skills.

These apps are user-friendly that learners can use them at home or even on their

move. LearnEnglish Grammar (UK ed.), MyWord Book 2, Learn English Audio and

Video, Learn English GREAT Videos, Johnny Grammar’s Word Challenge,

Learning Time with Timmy, LearnEnglish Kids: Phonics Stories, LearnEnglishKids:

Playtime, LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts, Premier Skills and so on to name a

few. ThroughLearnEnglish Grammar (UK ed.), learners improve their grammar as it

covers 12 topics on grammar and each topic has 20 activities. MyWordBook 2 is an

interactive flashcard app that helps the learners learn new vocabulary, whereas

LearnEnglish Audio and Video app helps the learners improve their listening skills.

By watching the videos through LearnEnglish GREAT Videos app, the learners

practise their listening skills and learn the history of the English language. Sounds

Right is an interactive pronunciation app helps the learners learn the sounds of the

English language very easily and quickly.Johnny Grammar’s Word Challenge is a

useful app which develops the learners’ grammar and vocabulary from beginning to

the advanced level. Learning Time with Timmy is an app very useful for younger

children to learn about food, colours, shapes and numbers. LearnEnglish Kids:

Phonics Stories is a story app where the learners learn phonics sounds while reading

fun stories about space spies. Here the learners get practice of phonics sounds from

these stories where each story includes a game and a dictionary.LearnEnglish Kids:

Playtime is another app that builds confidence among the learners to practise

listening skills by playing challenging games to improve both their spelling as well

as their understanding.LearnEnglish Kids: Videos is an app that helps children learn

English as the learners watch their favourite stories with audio and text narration,

whereas LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts is an app where the learners improve

their vocabulary and listening skills while listening to the podcast hosts. Premier

Skills is a vocabulary app where the learners learn more about football.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 109

As most of the learners are interested in sports, this will be very useful for the

learners to improve their sports and technical term through a series of interactive

flashcards. Another sports app that develops learners’ sports events and technical

moves is LearnEnglish Sports World. As this sports app has a wide range of sports

activities, the learners learn the definitions and spellings of several Olympic and

Paralympic terminology.

There are some other apps that develop the learners’ learning skills. Grammar Up is

another app that the learners can improve their grammar skills from different

sections of this app.English Listening and Speaking is an app that develops leaners’

vocabulary by playing word chain games. Busuu is another interactive app that helps

learners spoken English. Lingual.ly is one more app that develops learners’ language

skills through fun games. Duolingo is another useful app which gives individual

practice feedback to the learners and prepares them to get the most out or the class

instruction. Another app that helps the learners to expand their vocabulary by

learning words in an effective way is Memrise. One more app, Sentence Master Pro,

is very useful for the learners to build sentences on their own in a game

environment. To develop learners’ basic conversational skills, Babbel is an

appropriate app. In another app, Speak Well, the pronunciation of American speech

practice including voice recognition is emphasized in Speak Well app.

Real-world videos such as news, cartoons, commercials, inspiring speeches and

talks, music videos, etc. are taken in an app, FluentU.It uses a natural approach to

help the learners ease into the English culture and English language. Moreover, this

app has an added advantage as the learners learn English as it is spoken in real time.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 110

FluentU is more useful for the English language teachers not only to teach audio-

visual topics but also to teach the content with fun. Another useful app that every

learner of English must have on their phones is Google Translate because the

learners can translate the words, sentences and even short or longer paragraphs into

other languages. Speak English like an American is an app that uses different

techniques to teach the learners the most commonly used expressions and figures of

speech used in the regular conversations of the Americans. After a good practice

with this app, the learners comfortably converse with the Americans even outside

their classrooms.

Fun English is one more app with more than ten various English language learning

games are stored in it. These games help the learners learn more about vocabulary,

spelling and pronunciation.MindSnacks is another fun-filled and user-interface app

that helps the learners learn new vocabulary with fun. Unlike the other apps, Rosetta

Stone is designed with a unique immersive method where the learners can get the

meaning of a word English to English, not by translating the word into some other

languages. The exercises designed here are to help the learners learn the basic words

before they form some phrases, shorter and longer sentences.

There are many more apps that are useful for learners to improve their language

skills through English language learning environment. Learning English through

apps is another way to learning English with fun. As each of these apps isdesigned

for a variety of learners, they suit for beginners as well as advanced learners and

they can improve their language skills with an ounce of their regular practice. As

there are hundreds of apps that develop the learners’ learning skills of English, the

main responsibility lies on the shoulders of the teachers to give a list of the useful

apps that develop the learners’ language skills. Hence, the English teachers should

advise the learners to utilize these apps in a meaningful way in order to improve

their language skills both in the English language learning environment as well as

outside the classroom environment. The learners also can download some useful

mobile apps to improve their language skills. They can download some important

apps such as dictionary apps, thesaurus apps, language skills (listening, speaking,

reading and writing) practising apps so that they can acquire the language skills

within a short period of time.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 111

Moreover, these mobile apps are useful for the learners in improving the English

language skills such as LSRW and to understand the concepts instantly. Therefore,

learning English through these mobile apps makes the learner to develop

independent learning in a congenial atmosphere. As the learners have a choice of

downloading a number of apps on each skill, they will download the suitable apps

according to their levels, needs and interests. As there are many advantages of these

mobile apps, it is the responsibility of both teachers and parents to take care that the

mobile phones should not be used for some other purposes. With a regular practice

with the apps and proper use of their mobile phones to learn the English language, it

is sure that the learners can develop their language skills gradually and get good

practical knowledge about the English language skills in a learner-friendly and fun-

filled environment.

Conclusion

In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the importance of technology

and the usage of mobile phones in education, especially in the EFL/ESL classrooms.

An attempt has also been made on the studies done on the mobile phones in the

English language learning environment. Furthermore, some useful mobile apps for

the EFL/ESL learners have also been discussed. Finally, the teachers and the

learners are given some useful suggestions to make use of these apps both in and out

of the English classrooms.

Mobile technologies are very useful in the classrooms and they provide entirely a

novel experience for both the teachers and the students to make their work effective

and achieve the best results. Therefore, teachers of English should not go on simply

adding technology to make the learning environment effective and efficient. They

should plan for the creative and efficient use of these latest innovative technologies

as well as teaching techniques, methods in their classrooms in order to make the

learners more active and energetic. Technology can be used in various ways to make

teaching and learning environment more effective and powerful. So the teachers as

well as the learners should try to think differently to get some unique, creative and

innovative ideas in order to make their classroom teaching-learning environment

more productive and successful.

ELT VIBES: International E-Journal For Research in ELT

Volume 5, Number 1. 98-116. (2019)

ISSN: 2395-0595

PARUPALLI SRINIVAS RAO

Page 112

As most of the language learning tools are now available on the internet, there is

ample number of opportunities for the learners to make use of them anytime and

anywhere. The teachers can also assign some tasks to the learners related to what the

learners have learnt in the classrooms and ask them to finish those tasks outside the

classrooms. Since learning a language has a multitude of benefits such as improving

our memory, building our multitasking skills, making us smarter and more

perceptive, learning English in EFL/ESL classrooms using the useful mobile apps

will be very useful for the learners to develop their language skills even in the

absence of their teachers.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author, Parupalli Srinivas Rao, has a vast

experience of teaching English at various

levels. He has been specialized in ELT and

has authored 10 books and published several

research papers related to ELT in various

international journals. He has attended several

national and international ELT conferences

and also presented some papers in them.

He has been on the Editorial board for eight international English journals including

American Research Journal of English and Literature, Research Journal of English

(RJOE), ELT Vibes, Literary Endeavour, South Asian Academic Research Journals

(SAARJ): ACADEMICIA, Alford Council of International English and Literature

Journal (ACIELJ), Trans Asian Research Journal (TARJ) and International Journal

of English and Studies (IJOES). He has also done several projects including a

project done for the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), Government

of India and another one for King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. He has attended

several in-service training programs in ELT. He has taught English in India, the

Republic of Maldives and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 27 years. At present, he is

working as Lecturer in English at English Language Centre, King Faisal University,

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is very much interested in research activities and

preparing study material for Undergraduate and Master’s Degree courses. He is a

member of ELTAI, the prestigious organization for English language teachers.

The author did his M. A. (English) from Osmania University in 1991. He also

completed his PG Diploma in Teaching English (EFL University) and later he did B.

Ed., M. Ed. and M. Phil. from Osmania University. In 1999, he did PG Diploma in

Functional English from Andhra University. He did Cambridge CELTA in London

in the year 2008. He also completed two onsite ELT courses, namely, Pronunciation

for Language Teachers and Teaching Grammar in Context from University of

Edinburgh, UK in 2008. At present, he is pursuing his Ph. D. in ELT.