UNLOCKING THE FUTURE: INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF SMARTPHONE USE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND LEARNING THE LANGUAGE

Abstract

Smartphone use in our daily lives is increasing day by day. The covid 19 has changed the world to be more dependent on the use of technology and use of smartphones. Young people have widely used it for academic purposes and day to day life affairs. With extensive smartphone use in the classrooms, it can be a better source of learning and addition to easily access the information required for academic progress and learning target language. The study aims to identify the impact of smartphone use on the academic performance of undergraduate students at the universities of Sindh. The study is quantitative. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 320 undergraduate students at the universities of Sindh, belonging to different departments at the universities of Sindh. SPSS Software version 22 was used to analyze the data. The findings show that using smartphones helps in academic performance, mastery of subject knowledge and target language. It is recommended that smartphones should be used in the classroom for learning activities. The use of smartphones fosters new ideas and critical thinking among students. Besides this, it has a positive impact on subject understanding and a negative impact on exam scores. The study is limited to the public sector universities of Karachi. The study will help teachers, students and researchers use smartphones for academic purposes.