Research Report (Smartphones Use by Overseas Students)

Student: Howie Class: AE2R Teacher: Cas & Sylvia Contents

Introduction -------------------------------------- 3
Methodology -------------------------------------- 5 Results -------------------------------------- 6
Discussion -------------------------------------- 12
Appendix -------------------------------------- 15
Reference ----------------------------------- 17

Introduction A smartphone is a mobile phone that is able to carry out many of the functions of a computer. Following the development of smartphones in the late 20th and early 21st century, smartphone ownership has spread exceptionally fast. Smartphones have become an important part of people’s lives due to their diversification of function.

Moreover, it may bring some effects to youngsters. According to Henley (2010) in Hornsby(2014), many teenagers were attached to smartphones, and they even could not imagine being disconnected from the technological world for just a small period of time.

In a study of technology, which was conducted by Hornsby (2014) through questioning 60 Australian teenagers, pointed out that 93% of them had smartphones, 32% sent or received a text during class every day and 38% of teens used social networking sites over 5 times per day. It demonstrated that although the roles of using mobile phones are enforced in classrooms, students continue to be distracted by communication devices during class time.

However, little has been found out about the habits of using smartphones by international students in Australia. The aim of this research is to compare smartphones use by overseas students in Australia.

Methodology On November 7th 2014, in order to compare smartphone use by international students in Australia, a survey was carried out among 60 students studying Academic English at Navitas English School in Sydney. The males and females, who were aged between 20 to 31, came from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam. The number of males and females was equal. The research was conducted by means of a survey, which was given to respondents to complete. The survey was composed of nine questions and all the questions were close-ended except the question about nationality. The questionnaire consisted of four sections. The first section was concerned with demographic information such as gender, age and nationality. The second question surveyed students about whether owning smartphone and its some applications. The third section focused on the frequency of students using smartphone in class, weekdays and face to face conversation. The final section gathered some information as to how the students feel when their smartphones leaving over a week. The results from the questionnaire were collated and converted into percentages. The data were compared gender. Results

Figure 1 shows male and female international students’ frequency of calling and texting in class according to gender.

According to the figure, the similarities of males and females were more than the differences. The proportion of males who communicated more than once a day was almost the same as that of males in once a day (both around 40%).

Furthermore, although the percentage of females who communicated more than once a day was up to approximately 68%, a small number of students never call and text using their smartphones.

Figure 2 compares the frequency in viewing updates on Facebook or other social networking sites per day of international students by smartphones according to