The Impact of Cooperative Learning and Mobile Learning through Bluetooth Device on Vocabulary Learning of Iranian EFL Learners

Cooperative learning has been found to affect different aspects of language learning by many researchers (e.g., Kagan, 1995; Kagan, 1999; Kessler, 1992; McGroarty, 1993). Likewise, mobile assisted language learning (MALL) has revealed significant impacts on the improvement of different language skills and components (e.g., Comas-Quinn et al. 2009; Divitini & Chabert, 2009; Motallebzadeh & Ganjali, 2011; Zhang, Vibranovski, Krinsky, & Long., 2011). To the same end, the present experiment sought to investigate the effect of cooperative learning and mobile learning through Bluetooth on the vocabulary learning performance of female Iranian pre-intermediate learners. Initially, 90 students took part in an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) for the purposes of ensuring their homogeneity in terms of language proficiency and vocabulary. Those students whose scores on this test were beyond +1 and -1 standard deviation were excluded, leading to the selection of 60 students as subjects of this study. These subjects were divided into two groups namely, cooperative learning group and mobile learning through Bluetooth group. After the treatment, the post test of vocabulary was administered. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that both cooperative and MALL led to the improvement of the participants’ vocabulary learning performance. However, no significant difference was revealed between the effects of cooperative and mobile learning on the vocabulary learning performance.