Letting Smartphones at Class Times: Does It Matter in Learning Process?

This research aimed to investigate the relation of learners’ addiction to smartphones and its effect on their academic success. The researcher dealt with two language learning groups of Foundation Course students (The students whose English is in the elementary level and study at the departments on a condition to be successful in English subject at the end of the academic year) who lagged behind others academically during the academic year and failed at the end of the first year of their study at Preparatory School (of a prominent university located in Erbil, Iraq). Therefore, they had to attend summer school which requires retaking a 6-week summer course in a total of 120 hours. The researcher himself gave the writing course to the two defined groups. Observing the formative and summative test results in the total achievement grade table, the researcher concluded that the idea of letting smartphones to use can pave way for fruitful results in learners’ comfort zone was a wrong perception. Without any hesitation, it hampered students’ language learning pace and there was a causal relationship between learners’ smartphone addiction at the lesson with their unsatisfactory total results.