Technology-Enhanced Education of English in Ubiquitous Context: An Overview of the Past 60 Years

Introduction

“Le bon ou la bonne enseignant(e) pense en didactique et agit en pédagogie” [The right teacher thinks in didactics, and acts in pedagogy] (Tochon, 1991, p. 126). And this is how the teaching of foreign languages has evolved, particularly in English Language Education. Teachers have gone from being the master holders of referenced academic knowledge poured into the students’ black box, to encourage their students’ good behaviors, and developing their abilities to communicate in real situations in the target language. Here are three methodologies the teachers have used over the past 60 years: the traditional methodology (Shannon & Weaver, 1963), the behaviorist approach (Skinner, 1988, 2011), and the socio-constructivist methodology (Vygotsky & Cole, 1978).

As pointed out by Ellis (2008), the acquisition of a second language has evolved significantly. This transformation in teaching and learning was made possible in part through the introduction of digital tools into classroom languages (Talan, 2021). In fact, since 1970, technology has been an integral part of teachers’ tools (Tricot & Chesné, 2020), particularly in English Language Education, under the acronym CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning). Using technology to learn English has evolved from mere technical support, for example, encouraging good student behavior through rehearsals with computer-based training programs, to a multi-modal learning tool that facilitates ubiquitous learning. Technology-enhanced education can provide different environments to perform the learning, where the learner is more involved in the task than passive (Papert, 1972). Said otherwise, technology allows “empowerment, that is the pupil’s degree of autonomy over the pace and content of his or her learning” (Davis et al., 2004, p. 13). As a result, learners are more motivated and involved in their learning, because it better meets their expectations and makes a lot of sense for them. For that reason, researchers now prefer to use the acronym TELL (Technology-Enhanced Language Learning) instead of CALL, because the concept of ubiquitous is stronger. Indeed, ubiquitous learning is defined as learning anywhere, and at any time (Hwang et al., 2008; Shih et al., 2011). Its first introduction was in 1991 by Weiser, a computer scientist and chief technology officer, widely viewed as a visionary and computer pioneer. It allows learners to benefit from appropriate instruction, ad hoc, and meaningfully (González et al., 2016), inside or outside the classroom.

There are previous studies that attempted to provide an overview of ubiquitous learning in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. However, these reviews focused on particular aspects of ubiquitous learning, and do not provide a general overview of the field. For instance, Tahir et al. (2018) conducted a literature review on interactions of learners in ubiquitous language learning contexts. Li (2021) conducted another focused only on college English as a foreign language under the ubiquitous teaching paradigm.

However, the question arises as to how this technological evolution took place in the last 60 years. This is what the authors of this chapter wanted to observe through their international contribution, trying to cover all the areas of TELL of English in a ubiquitous context. The goal is to provide a conclusive overview of the state of the art in this research field. For this purpose, the authors investigate the following research questions:

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  RQ1: How many studies per year, from which countries, and in which publication sources are published in this field?

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  RQ2: Which are the most important authors measured by (co-)publications and (co-) citations?

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  RQ3: What is the evolution of the research topics in TELL of EFL?

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  RQ4: What are the future research directions in ubiquitous teaching and learning English as a foreign language?