Mobile-assisted language learning

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is language learning that is assisted or enhanced through the use of a handheld mobile device.

MALL is a subset of both Mobile Learning (m-learning) and computer-assisted language learning (CALL). MALL has evolved to support students’ language learning with the increased use of mobile technologies such as mobile phones (cellphones), MP3 and MP4 players, PDAs and devices such as the iPhone or iPad. With MALL, students are able to access language learning materials and to communicate with their teachers and peers at any time, anywhere.

History
1980s


 * Twarog and Pereszlenyi Pinter used telephones to provide distant language learners with feedback and assistance.

1990s


 * Instructors at Brigham Young University-Hawaii taught a distance education English course from Hawaii to Tonga via telephone and computer (Green, Collier, & Evans, 2001)

2000s


 * Dickey (2001) utilized teleconferencing to teach an English conversation course to students in South Korea.
 * Stanford University learning lab used integrated mobile phones in a Spanish learning program in 2001 (Brown, 2001).
 * Thornton and Houser (2002; 2003; 2005) developed several innovative projects using mobile phones to teach English at a Japanese university. They also developed a course management system, Poodle, to facilitate deploying language learning material to mobile phones.
 * City College Southampton developed a web based "media board" (similar to a web-board but supporting Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) as well as Short Message Service (SMS) and supplied learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) with mobile phones with inbuilt cameras and voice recording facilities (JISC, 2005).
 * University of Wisconsin–Madison, developed several foreign language courses which have used wireless handheld computers for various classroom activities (Samuels, 2003).
 * Duke University provided all incoming freshmen with free iPods equipped with voice recorders. Amongst the pilot courses utilizing the players were several language courses, which utilized both their listening and recording capabilities (Belanger, 2005).
 * United Kingdom’s Open University used voice recorders and mini-camcorders to record interviews with other students and locals and to create audiovisual tours in distance-learning German and Spanish course (Kukulska-Hulme, 2005). The Open University used mobile phones for language learning
 * A project in Ireland used MALL for Irish Language learning and assessment
 * The Le@rning Federation (TLF) used MALL for Indonesian Language learning across three states

Affordances and constraints
Enhancing language learning through MALL provides dynamics which are not available through the traditional classroom. MALL offers ubiquitous access to learning anytime, anywhere the user has reception. This enables users to brush up on language skills just before or just after a conversation in the language they are learning. Handheld delivery also affords new dynamics for collaborative learning as users can share the language learning process in small synchronous groups.

Kloper et al. (2002) claimed 5 properties of mobile devices which can produce unique educational affordances:
 * Portability-the small size and weight of mobile devices means they can be taken to different sites or moved around within a site.
 * Social interactivity-data exchange and collaboration with other learners can happen face-to-face.
 * Context sensitivity-mobile devices can both gather and respond to real or simulated data unique to the current location, environment and time.
 * Connectivity-a shared network can be created by connecting mobile devices to data collection devices, other devices or to a common network.
 * Individuality- scaffolding for difficult activities can be customized for individual learners.

The most notable constraints for earlier MALL include poor sound and display quality coupled with very limited devices and download speeds. Newer integrated PDA devices have narrowed the gap with higher access speeds, larger screens, having functions and capacities similar to laptop computers (Nah, et al. 2008). Since the PDA devices are now mostly displaced by smartphones, in particular those based on iOS and Android, it is safe to say the constraints mentioned earlier are now non-existent.