Nowadays every aspect of humans' life, including education, is affected by technological advancements. Given this, teaching and learning have gone through various changes and are now space- and time-independent in the sense that they can happen at any time anywhere. MALL as a type of IT-based instruction has been popular in many developed countries, while in the developing countries the attitude and requirements for its implementation are not yet ready. In the present chapter, an attempt has been made to review the definition of MALL, synchronous/asynchronous learning, learners' perception of MALL, the status of MALL in developed and developing countries, and finally the challenges facing developing countries for implementing MALL in their educational systems. It also tries to give an insight into the cross-cultural differences affecting the use and implementation of MALL and admits there are further avenues to explore variables mediating the application of new technologies in different cultural settings. In the end, some solutions and recommendations for future research are offered.
TopIntroduction
The world without technology is paralyzed as it has an important role in our lives and is a determinant factor in various aspects of learning and development. Rarely can you find a person who says s/he can live easily without technology. It has an indispensable role in our daily life; it helps us in different areas such as: medicine, economy, transportation and so forth. Moreover, technology changes the nature of the existing relationships between teachers and students; its integration into the classroom can make the learning atmosphere more enjoyable and in turn can enhance the motivation of learners to learn. In addition, students can learn through different types of technology in their process of learning in the classroom.
As ubiquitous devices, nowadays mobile phones are widely used by students of different age groups for various purposes. Seldom are learners separated from these devices and the impressive point is the speed with which they can use it, even in class-time. Many L2 teachers and researchers have touched upon the potentials of taking advantage of mobile-assisted language learning (hereafter, MALL). Smart phones and MP3 players can function as highly effective language learning tools, allowing the learners to get access to materials from different sources and to get involved with those materials whenever they wish. Similarly, smart phones are considered as mini-computers as they are able to run applications and store data at a lower cost for learners. They are easily portable, designed to work with texts, images, audio, and video files in addition to many other functions.
These features foster many learning strategies believed to be influential for language acquisition including: breaking larger study activities into smaller chunks distributed over time (Chinnery, 2006), differentiation and individualization of instruction (Huizenga, Admiraal, Akkerman, & Dam, 2009), and allowing learners to study at their own pace (Cooney & Keogh, 2007). In fact, mobile devices provide students with opportunities to extend their language learning to the domains outside their immediate classrooms in novel ways which is seen by Sathe and Waltje (2008) as freeing our students from “their usual language lab assignment routine” (p. 32).
In order to give a well-grounded response to the concern that “a new generation of pupils is largely being educated with old paradigms and methods” (Huizenga et al., 2009, p. 332), various scholars have begun to examine technology-driven learning in general and mobile-learning in particular. A large body of such research demonstrates the fact that MALL can function as a supplement to the teachers’ instruction (not its substitute as misunderstood by many) and also help students learn different skills and sub-skills. All such virtues have come about by a learning process that has freed itself from the constraints of space-specificity.
In addition to that, the emergence of new technologies has a significant role to play in the globalization phenomenon and the barriers among cultures are removed owing to the newly developed digital devices. As an instance, mobile phones are one of those technology-driven devices which have been of great help in the creation of the globalized village in which borders have no place and learners from different cultures can have interactions and collaborations with peoples of other cultures and develop a sense of intercultural appreciation and at the same time learn a foreign language. Be that as it may, it is essential to note that new technologies are just catalysts of change and they are by no means providers of change by themselves (Lin & Hatano, 2003; Salamon & Perkins, 1996). The impact of technologies is mediated by teachers' and students' attitudes and beliefs toward the role they play.
Motivated by all these issues and to keep with this research trend, the present chapter tries to have a brief overview of the history and definition of MALL, its various advantages and disadvantages, the factors affecting its application, and the possible challenges that may exist in its implementation in some cultures especially in the EFL context of Iran.