The University of Da nang

The University of Foreign Language Studies

English for Specific Purposes Department

Research proposal
Topic: ESPD students and the bad effects of cell phone
use on their study

Supervisor : Nguyen Van Tuyen

Researchers : Tran Thi Thuong Thuong
Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang
Le Ton Phuc Thinh
Vo Thi Thuong Thuong
 Da Nang, October, 2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction ........................................................ 3
The problem statement.......................................... 3
A rationale for the research ................................... 3
Statement of the scope of the study...................... 4
Statement of research aim & objectives................ 4
Research question.................................................. 5
Hypothesis ........................................................... 5
2. Literature review.................................................. 5
3. Research methodology ....................................... 8
Research design...................................................... 9
Research methodology .......................................... 9
Description of population and sample................... 9
Data collection ....................................................... 10
Instrument for analysis .......................................... 12
Data analysis ........................................................ 12
Discussion of reliability and validity .................... 13
4. Conclusion............................................................. 14
5. Appendices ........................................................... 14
Reference ............................................................... 14
Questionnaires ....................................................... 17

Chapter: Introduction:
1.1 The problem statement
Nowadays, cell phone has become an indispensable mean in daily
life. Vietnam is among the countries with the ratio of mobile phone
users in the top world. Also no surprise when the age of cell phone
users is also very diverse. If older people use the phone mainly to
communicate with children and acquaintances, most young people
use mobile phones as an entertainment media for accessing social
networking sites, taking photos, recording, etc. However, the
problem using your mobile phone in ages of minors should be seen
by society seriously and responsibly. We do not deny the practical
benefits of mobile phones, but in fact the cell phone has huge
influences to our life.
1.2 A rationale for the research
There are many reasons for us to decide to carry out this research,
but the followings are main.

Especially, today, it was found that the majority of students have

very high demand of phone usage. At Da Nang University of
Foreign Language Studies (CFL), for students, cell phone seems
to be an inseperable object. They can use it like a useful tool for
their study: look up vocabulary, search information,... The cell
phone is really small, easy to use, moreover, it is more and more
modern with many smart functions. Instead of using it to learn
languages, students use it for their entertainment more. So this
research is more feasible.
Everytime, everywhere, students are attached to the cell phone
uncontrolledly. That is a reason why the cell phone causes affects
to their study attitude. Most students all have be familiar with
using the cell phone in their lessons in order to mainly surf
facebook, message, play games,…. Accordingly, they can’t pay
attention to what lecturers teach. This results to low learning
outcomes. However, in fact, this situation still happens frequently.
The students need to understand and be aware of these negative
effects.

1.3 Statement of the scope of the study

Our objects are the students of UFL. Our topic is about the effects
of using mobile phones on students’ studying because this issue is
very popular among the youth nowadays. Moreover, the problem
occurs to most of students at UFL. But then, we narrow down our
research at English for Specific Purposes Department (ESPD) due
to its easy and convenient getting information and saving time.
This research includes students of four academic year: freshmen,
sophomores, juniors and seniors, both male and female.

1.4 Statement of the research aims & objectives

We conduct the study with the topic “The bad effects of cell phone
use on students’ studying” aims to:
  Find out the students’ demand on cell phone usage.
 Help students be more aware of the backgrounds of their
habits of using mobile phones on their studying attitudes,
habits and results.
 Help them recognize that they must be more serious about
their studying.
 Find out some solutions for this problem.
1.5 Research question
This research gives some questions to make direction for the
research:
 How much time do students spend on cell phone?
 What do students often use cell phone for?
 When and where do they use cell phone?
 How does the using of cell phone affect students’ studying
while they are learning?
1.6 Hypothesis
“The students’ habits of using cell phone have bad effects on
their studying attitudes, habits and results”.

Chapter 2: Literature review:

Cell phone can negatively effect a students learning. For example,

some students use their telephone to text and play games when
they should be doing work. If a cell phone rings while a teacher is
teaching it will interrrupt the follow of the class and definitely
disturb other students. And if teachers catch a astudent using
his/her phone they need to waste time to take it away and then talk
to the student about it.

1. That’s longer than many of those students spend sleeping. In

fact, such extended cell phone use shows that the technology
could become an addiction, according to a new study. An
addiction is a type of uncontrolled and unhealthy habit. t’s
well known that people can become addicted to drugs, such
as alcohol, narcotics and the nicotine in cigarettes. What’s not
so well known: “People can be addicted to behaviors,” says
James Roberts. He’s a marketing professor at Baylor
University in Waco, Texas. Roberts also was the lead author
of the new study. It appears in the August Journal of
Behavioral Addictions.
2. In particular, Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) demonstrated
that Facebook users have a lower self-reported grade point
average (GPA ) and spend fewer hours per week studying
than nonusers. Likewise, Junco (2012a, 2012b) found a
strong, negative relationship between time spent on Facebook
and actual cumulative GPA. These negative relationships
have been found in populations across the world, including
North America, Europe, and Asia (e.g., Chen & Tzeng,
2010; Karpinski, Kirschner, Ozer, Mellott, & Ochwo,
2013).
Smartphones allow students to text, check, and interact on social
networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, check their e-mails,
play games online, and even watch TV. This is extremely
distracting for not only the student (because they are obviously not
paying attention), but can also become distracting for other
students around them. If a professor or teacher has to stop their
lecture or instruction to ask a student to turn off their phone, it is
also distracting the entire class.

3. It is the most vexing issue of the digital age for teachers and
administrators: What to do about students’ cellphones? Some
maintain that smartphones and other devices in schools are
crucial to being competitive in a global market, while others
insist that phones and tablets distract students, compromising
their learning and focus.

“You’ll get kids saying, ‘I’ll look something up for English, and
while I’m here let me quickly check my Instagram or Twitter feed.’
And then it’s, ‘Oh, I never realized this girl said that to me,’ and
now they’re distracted and not really engaged with their lesson
plan,” said Joni Siani, a Braintree psychologist and author of
“Celling Your Soul: No App for Life,” about how digital media
affect young people.
 4. Though cell phone is a useful device, a huge number of
students use it to invade both teachers and students privacy
by recording videos or taking photos. Students are curious.
Therefore, they would like to record videos or take photos to
their teachers especially when they carry out adverse
behaviors such as getting angry, saying bad words, or
sleeping inside their class. Moreover, these students alter
these videos by adding comments and post them in Facebook
or YouTube. In this case, the teachers will lose their students‘
respect and also they will be frustrated because their privacy
are invaded.

“Cell phones are a great technology,” Merlo said. “They’re useful

in a lot of situations. (But) one of the most important things is
making sure you have some cell phone free time in your day. It’s
OK to turn it off. Focus on family, homework, knowing that cell
phone message will still be there.”

Chapter 3: Research methodology:

3.1 Research design
In our research, we use both Qualitative and Quantitative methods
to make our information as well as data, documents more reliable
and valid.
3.2 Research methodology
As mentioning in research design, the research methodology for
our study are Qualitative and Quantitative methods.

Quantitative method is used to collect data supporting, relating to

our research. We collect the information from the students for our
research questions by direct interviews. Beside that, to be more
careful, we record what they said for further analysis. We also have
some forms to check their answers on paper. Additionally, we
conduct practical observations as much as possible to have genuine
outsights about students’ habit, attitude.

After gathering all the sources of information, we carry out

discussing, analyzing more carefully by using qualitative method.
Finally, the conclusion is presented based on the result of the
process.

We suppose these methods above are quite apropriate to our field

of study.

3.3 Description of population and sample

Our population in the research is the students of ESPD because it
is easy to carry out our progress and convenient to gather the
information we need. From this group of students, we choose
stratified samples for our research:
  We devide them into 4 group: freschmen, sophomores,
juniors and seniors.
 We choose 15 students from each group randomly. So
we have 60 samples totally. We only choose the number
like that because of time limitation and in order to have
fair judges on them.
 We collect their answers by quantitative methods.

3.4 Data collection

We all know the methods we use to get the data will have great
effects on our result, the research’s validity and reliability as well
as our conclusions. As mentioning in the last part, we use 3
methods to collect the information: interviews, questionnaires and
observation.

Fist of all, we give the students small interviews to get the answers
for our resarch questions to consider what they think about the bad
effects of cell phone use on their study, especially their result. We
also interview some teachers to know their view about this issue. It
make our research more prestigious. They will be the basements
for the next step.

Secondly, we form the questionnaires as an easier way of getting

information in a large range. In this kind of colleting data, we use 3
kinds of questionnaires: close-ended, open-ended and matrix ended
questions.
 Close-ended How much time do you spend a day for
using cell phone?
A. 1-3 h
B. 3-6h
C. > 6h

Open-ended Can you give solution to limit the usage of

cell phone in class?
Matrix Do you use cell phone in class or while self-
studying at home?
A. Very often
B. Often
C. Sometimes
D. Seldom
We distribute these forms for students to check their opinions in
writing form. This is a good way to avoid the students’
embarrassment on the part of repondent. Then we categorize them
into different groups to analyze and come to the conclusions.

Finally, observations help us to have direct outlooks for the

questions like what kind of cell phone they are using (smart
phones/ simple-function phones), what they re using for at the time
we are observing (chatting, texting, surfing, entertaining or
studying) etc, especially in the lessons... We can observe
everywhere we intended. It is a basic way to get some point of
views supporting us in conclusion.
3.5 Instruments for analysis
As we know, there aren’t any research finish without the assistance
of instruments. In our research we use many instruments to collect
data as well as analyze them, such as: interviews, recordings,
questionnaires, Internet, journals, Google Form, SPSS, Excel and
so are the previous reviews relating to our topic. These instruments
help us collect the data more quickly, set forms, charts, analyze
data to reach the conclusions easily. The whole process is under
our control totally. The previous reviews make us feel more
confident on the research and it is more reliable and valid to the
readers.

3.6 Data analysis

Data analysis is one of the indispensable steps of a research. The
collected data are analyzed to elucidate what is occurring and help
researcher in the next steps, especially conclusion. After using
google form to establish and design questionaires for written-form
information, we make charts, tablets, columns for figures in
diffenrent categories on Microsoft Excel software. In addition, we
also use the recordings we interviewed and experienced for
meticulous analysis. Our further discussion and comparison is
based on them. After that we compare, distinguish the similarities
as well as the differences between our hypothesis and the previous
reviews, respondents. Then we find out our research’s limitation to
have right direction for future investigations.

3.7 Discussion of Reliability and Validity

In any research, Reliability and Validity are the most important
qualities. Both of them will affect directly the result and
conclusion. If the study is not reliable and valid, it will become
poor. The contents presented in the research must be the results of
the investigations related to or around the topic. It must clarify the
hypothesis. If not, your research is unsuccessful.

In term of Reliability, we conduct our research in a specific range

and we gather all the sources of information after interviewing,
recording, distributing questionnaires, observing from students as
well as some teachers. Then we analyze, categorize, check,
compare, contrast all of the basing on real documents to have
legitimate assumption.

In term of Validity, we investigate by the methods such as

interview, questionnaire and observation. All the questions we raise
are related to our topic, our hypothesis so we get exact answers for
the problem we need in the research. From that, we come up to the
solutions to help students of ESPD to be more conscious about the
habit of cell phone use and their study.
Chapter 4: Conclusion:
The study with the topic “The bad effects of cell phone use on
students’ studying” we point out one problem is very close to
current students in general and especially students of ESPD.

From the results of the study we can see that the students need to
rebuild the study habits to be able to improve the quality of their
own learning.

We hope that our research can contribute to help the students as

well as people understand more about this issue.

Chapter 5: Appendices:
Questionnaires
1. What is your academic year?
o Freshman
o Sophomore
o Junior
o Senior
2. When have you used cell phone since?
o Primary school
o Secondary school
o High school
o University
3. How much time do you spend a day for using cell phone?
o 1-3h
o 3-6h
o >6h
o Another:
4. How do you usually use your cell phone?
o Frequently
o Sometimes
5. What do you often use yur cell phone for?
o Contact
o Entertainment
o Search information and study
o All of the above
o Another:
6. Do you use cell phone in class or when self-studying at
home?
o Very often
o Often
o Sometimes
o Seldom
7. Why do you use cell phone in class?
o Lesson is boring
o Finding information for lesson
o Other purposes
8. Do you think using cell phone in class will affect the focus of
students in learning or not?
o Yes
o No
o Another:
9. Do your lecturers allow you to use cell phone in lessons at
class?
o Yes
o No
o Another:
10. Do you suppose using cell phone in class is a bad habit?
o Yes
o No
 o Another:
11. Do you think students should take action to limit this
usage in class?
o Yes
o No
12. Can you give solution to limit if you say yes in 11th
question?

References
 Suad, R. (2013, July 19). The Effects of Using Cell phone in
School. Retrieved October 24, 2015 from
http://www.essayforum.com/writing/effects-using-cell-
phone-school-51061/
 Lepp, A., Barkley, E., Karpinski, C. (2015, February 19). The
Relationship Between Cell Phone Use and Academic
Performance in a Sample of U.S. College Students. Retrieved
October 24, 2015 from
http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/5/1/2158244015573169
 Matchan, L. (2015, June 16). School seek balance for
cellphones in class. Retrieved October 24, 2015 from
https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2015/06/15/cellp
hones-school-teaching-tool-
distraction/OzHjXyL7VVIXV1AEkeYTiJ/story.html
 Kowalshi, K. (2014, September 17). Watch out: Cell phones
can be addictive. Retrieved October 24, 2015 from
https://student.societyforscience.org/article/watch-out-cell-
phones-can-be-addictive