The Effect of Using Smartphones and Social Media on Teaching Medical English Writing (A Case Study of Premedical College Students at Sudan University of Science and Technology)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of smartphones and social media on medical students’ writing as well as the impact of these smart tools on the subjects’ attitudes towards this skill. This research adopts a within-subject design with a sample composed of 36 male and female students registered in the premedical college at the Sudan University of Science and Technology during the second term of the academic year 2015-2016. During the First Phase of study, the subjects were taught the first six units of a book entitled English for Medicine using the traditional face-to-face method. During the Experimental Phase, however, the subjects were taught the next six units of the book following a Blended approach where favorite social media such as WhatsApp and other applications were used to enhance the learning and teaching process .To check the effect of the smartphone applications, the subjects were given two writing tests . The results showed that the students’ performance in writing had significantly improved after they were allowed to use their smartphones to aid their learning process. To measure the subjects’ attitudes towards writing, an Attitude Survey was used. The data generated through this survey showed that the use of smart tools side-by-side with the traditional face-to-face teaching method had positively impacted the students’ attitudes towards learning medical English writing as it had already done with their writing ability. These results suggest that smartphone applications can provide a strong support while teaching medical English writing to pre-medical students. The study ends up with some recommendations and suggestions to encourage more implementation of modern technology and smart tools to enhance and revitalize the teaching and learning of medical writing.