Although the conclusion based on the test scores seems promising, there are some limitations to this work. Despite the fact that most students had smart phones, the participants in the vocabulary pre-test and post-test counted about 70 % of all students, and the students participating both in pre-test and post-test counted only about 50 % of all students. How to engage all the students to the learning-related use of smart phones in the classrooms is still a valuable question and deserves future exploration. Furthermore, the learning content and form of the web-based CSIEC instructional system itself should be improved to be more adapted to smart phones.