Smartphone-mediated learning: what is the teacher’s role?

The proliferation of smartphone ownership means that language learners are constantly now connected to a vast array of information and can form networks of contacts from around the globe. Educators have been quick to realise the opportunities this provides for language learning purposes, and the language-learning corner of the internet is awash with language learning applications, sites, and self-study guides.

Yet, as the data collected as part of my PhD study suggests, many learners are ambivalent at best about use of their smartphones as a language learning tool, and motivation towards and interaction with these language learning materials is far from uniformly positive. This leaves many educators facing the challenge of identifying how smartphones can best be harnessed as tools of language learning, and what their own role is in that process.

This presentation will introduce and interpret key findings from the data collected in a survey of University of Limerick MLAL students and their smartphone learning habits, covering both their interaction with language-learning materials and their interaction with second languages as part of their daily life, and suggest the impact that these data might have on how educators could incorporate smartphone usage into their own second language teaching practices.