Mobile Technology for Language Education

Mobile assisted language learning, or MALL, has been around the applied linguistics block for quite some time.  When I think of MALL, I see it as those punk kids - sporting a new look every day, loitering about in the hood, but contributing nothing to the society.  

This afternoon I attended a lecture given by Dr. Hayo Reinders on mobile technology and language education.  Frankly, I was rather disappointed with how MALL has progressed.  Research-wise, nothing has really changed in the past decade.  I wrote a paper with Stuart Towns about issues in MALL back in 2011, and it seems that nothing has changed.  Recurring issues include behavioristic input, pre- and post-tests (cause and effect studies), and logistical concerns.  It is strange because we have new types of mobile devices released all the time and mobile technology is improving rapidly.  One would expect educational innovations to follow suit but nothing has really happened.   This is sobering.  Has research in MALL become redundant?  

Things don't look all that bleak.  There has been a shift in focus on research objectives in MALL.  A quick glance through Google Scholar showed how MALL research (2009 to the present time) are looking at the learning experience as a social event for meaning making, the usage of mobile devices by language learners, and the efficacy of using mobile devices to learn languages (why didn't Reinders talk about this instead?).  Looking at MALL in terms of what results it garners may not be the best thing to do.  Focusing too much on the by-product, especially if it is a positive one, will make us naive, misinformed and delusional users.  I think a focus on the process, as shown in MALL research in the past five years is more fitting for educators and learners.  It is through an understanding of the process that we can fully utilize mobile devices in a language learning environment.  This is summed by Kukulska-Hulme (2009), who mentioned, "(t)he key is to move beyond a superficial understanding of mobile learning which does not give sufficient consideration to how mobility, accompanied by digital, location-aware technologies, changes learning".  

Sadly though, MALL research which focus on the process (in the past five years) are very scarce.  To add to the bitterness, I'm sure in the near future there will be more research which will laud the goodness of mobile technology.  And just like the punk kids, they may come tomorrow, or next week, with a new tattoo, a new piercing, a new hairdo, but have no real impact on the community.  

Reference:

Kukulska-Hulme, A.  (2009).  Will mobile learning change language learning? ReCALL, 21(2), pp. 157-165.  Retrieved 26 August 2013 from http://oro.open.ac.uk/16987/1/download.pdf