Curriculum Integration of MALL in L1/L2 Pedagogy: Perspectives on Research

This study surveys work that has been done in the field of Mobile Assisted Language Learning. The researchers surveyed 70 corresponding authors of past MALL studies with formatted and open-ended questions, treating them as expert “participant-observers” of their own studies. The findings present details from the respondents about the MALL environments of the studies, the extent to which the MALL technology used in the studies has subsequently been incorporated into the curriculum, factors that positively or negatively affected such MALL integration, and insights of the respondents about the benefits of MALL. Although respondents cited a wide range of potential benefits from MALL use, most indicated that there was no actual curriculum integration resulting from their study, or that MALL was only integrated at the level of a single class meeting. This dismal level of integration suggests that researchers are using MALL for short-term tests and that researchers are exposing students to MALL to achieve academic publications, but with little intent to use it over the long term. The authors propose a framework of conditions, many or all of which must be met, in order to allow broad curriculum integration of MALL in the future.