The Excessive Use of Smartphones by University Students and its Impact on the Teachers’ Role in the Classroom

Abstract

Nowadays, mobile devices and new technologies have developed, and the use of these tools in the EFL classroom is no longer a luxury but a mandatory one. In our study we wanted to study the excessive use of smartphones in the classroom, how this could disrupt teachers’ lessons or educational lessons, and how are teachers’ attitudes towards this excessive use, a mixed-methods study was conducted. The research tools used were a questionnaire sent to M2 English students and an interview with teachers of language and communication master in the English Department at Abd El Hamid IBin Badis University. To this end, the purpose of this research is to study the effects of excessive use of mobile phones on learners’ awareness and the role of teachers in the classroom. The results indicated that students use their smartphones excessively not as a learning tool but as a distraction, and also revealed that teachers' behaviours and attitudes were very distracting due to the excessive use of smartphones. As a result, practitioners of English as a foreign language in Algeria should be aware of this behaviour and try to adopt new methods to improve the learning process.