Özet:

Despite the many benefits attributed to mobile phones in nearly all aspects of everyday life, concern over the problematic use of these smart devices has grown. This study investigates the prevalence of problematic mobile phone use in a sample of Turkish undergraduate EFL learners. Additionally, it verifies whether this particular assessment was equally applicable to male and female students in different age groups. Problematic mobile phone use was assessed using a mobile phone addiction scale. After employing non-random convenience sampling, 267 students responded to the survey. The results showed that neither age nor gender had a significant effect on mobile phone addiction levels. Furthermore, the prevalence of problematic and at-risk mobile phone users constituted 19.8% of the study population and an overwhelming majority of the problematic mobile phone users were females, which indicated that they could potentially be considered as addicted to mobile phones. The implications of these findings for classroom practices and for the more inclusive language-learning environment are discussed.

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