The role of a mobile app for listening comprehension training in distance learning to sustain student motivation

In this article the importance of listening comprehension for language students is discussed and the possible benefits of using a mobile app to motivate its practice and development are considered. The Audio News Trainer (ANT) is presented as an example of this type of app that uses the news domain as the source of audio recordings. Three research questions related to the use of this app are outlined regarding the effectiveness of the news domain for motivating the practise of listening comprehension,whether social media (such as Facebook) can increase the motivation,and how the students’ exposure to the target language can be prolonged here. An experiment is undertaken that provides data (obtained by interaction with the app and from pre- and post-questionnaires) which appear,based upon initial analyses,to support both the use of ANT to motivate the prolonged practise of listening comprehension and also the potential of social media-based interaction in second language learning nowadays. © 2015,J.UCS.