Investigate Multilingual Mobile Learning Applications

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate multilingual mobile learning applications by using the wireless response system (WRS) as a case study. This application is developed and internationalised into fourteen languages, to allow students and teachers from different languages to use this application, with a view towards enhancing the educational environment. Additionally, one related aim is to detect the usability of the multilingual mobile learning application in these languages, by measuring the effectiveness, efficiency, user satisfaction and comprehensibility of the WRS, through the adoption of the Fuzzy theory. Drawing on a survey of 295 participants, the results indicate significant differences between the original language of the interface (i.e., English) and certain other language interfaces, in terms of its effectiveness, efficiency, user satisfaction and comprehensibility. These variances make the usability level of the WRS in the English language interface significantly better and statistically different from the Netherlands, Dutch, French, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish languages. However, the results show that the usability level of the WRS interface in the English language is not significantly better and statistically different from the Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Malay and Polish languages. These results encourage future studies to further improve the mobile learning application in languages that demonstrated low usability values. These results will help researchers in this field to recognise the problems and weaknesses of multilingual mobile learning applications, towards improving and solving them. The significance of this thesis lies in making the WRS application available in fourteen languages, and also in measuring the usability of these fourteen languages through the application of (1) Fuzzy theory and (2) SPSS software. The use of the Fuzzy theory to measure the collected data leads to obtaining accurate and precise results, facing the vagueness and ambiguities of the user‟s language surrounding the analysis process. In other words, this theory adds a clearer and more accurate understanding of the vagueness of language‟s uncertainty, opinion and ambiguous expressions that are hidden in different users‟ backgrounds.