1. Mobile-Enabled Language Learning
Eco-System
Agnieszka (Aga) Palalas, Ed.D.
George Brown College
apalalas@georgebrown.ca
mLearn 2012
Helsinki
October 2012
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2. 1. Background and statement of the problem
2. Significance of the research
3. Research question
4. DBR phases and their findings
5. Outcomes of the study
6. Limitations
7. Future research
8. Conclusions
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3. 3

4.  Inadequate aural skills instruction - college ESP
students
 Purpose:
MELL educational intervention to
enhance effectiveness and appeal of ESP
◦ augment in-class learning
 flexible contextualized communicative practice
 interaction with others
 personalized to learner preferences
◦ students’ own mobile devices
◦ replicable and reusable design principles
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5.  Constructivism ⇨ Social Constructivism
⇨ SCT: Sociocultural Theory ⇨ Ecological Constructivism
(Bruner, Davis & Sumara, Dewey, Lafford, Lam & Kramsch, Lave & Wenger, Piaget, Proulx,
Vygotsky, van Lier, von Glasersfeld, Wertsch)
 Listening and language learning (Lynch, Nation & Newton, Rost)
 From SLA to MALL
◦ SLA: Second Language Acquisition (Chomsky, Krashen, Long, Swain)
◦ CALL: Computer-Assisted Language Learning (Warschauer, Davies, Levy)
◦ MALL: Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (Sharples, Kukulska-Hulme, Laurillard)
◦ MALL on listening (Kukulska-Hulme, Shield, Thornton & Houser)
◦ MALL design principles (Ally, Quinn, Rosell-Aguilar)
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6.  Evolution of practice
◦ MELLES prototype
◦ model for replication
 Evolution of theory
◦ MELLES design framework
◦ Ecological Constructivism
 DBR application for mobile language learning
environment
MELLES =Mobile-Enabled Language Learning Eco-System
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7. What are the characteristics of an
effective, pedagogically-sound learning object MELLES
for students’ mobile devices, through which adult ESP
students in a community college enhance listening
skills, while expanding their learning outside the
classroom?
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8. A systematic but flexible methodology aimed to improve
educational practices through iterative
analysis, design, development, and implementation, based
on collaboration among researchers and practitioners in
real-world settings, and leading to contextually-sensitive
design principles and theories. (Wang & Hannafin, 1999, p. 7)
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9. • Bannan, B. (2009)
• Barab, S., & Squire, K. (2004)
• Brown, A. (1992)
• Dede, C. (2004)
• Herrington, J., McKenney, S., Reeves,
T., & Oliver, R. (2007)
• Kelly, A. (2009)
• Plomp, T. (2009)
• Reeves, T. (2006)
• Van den Akker et al (2006)
• Wang, F., & Hannafin, M. J. (2005)
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10. 10

11. Findings: Emerging Themes
Critical Elements of Effective Design:
 Pedagogy
 PEDAGOGIC PROCEDURE - How
 CONTENT - What
 CONTEXT - When and Where
 ACTORS - Who
 Technology
 FUNCTIONALITY - How
 TECH SOLUTION – What
 TECH CONTEXT - When and Where
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12. Ecological Constructivism
◦ Social Constructivism + Sociocultural Theory + Ecological
Linguistics + Contextual and situated learning
 Interaction mediated by “cultural tools such as language and
technology” (Pachler, 2009, p. 5)
 Learning mediated by the context
 Active learning around real-life problems
 Goal-oriented real-life communicative activities
 Interactivity in social contexts
 Community-based communication
 Scaffolding and guidance
 Feedback from facilitators and peers
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13. Contextual mobile learning (context-aware):
learning activities relate to the location (physical, geographical
or logical) of the actor and the context (David, Yin, & Chalon, 2009)
Situated learning
◦ Authentic context & social interaction (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989;
Lave & Wenger, 1991)
◦ Access to expertise & collaboration with others (Herrington & Oliver,
1995)
“…metaphor of ecology attempts to capture the
interconnectedness of psychological, social, and
environmental process in SLA” (Lam & Kramsch, 2003, p.144)
Affordance: “ … a particular property of the environment
that is relevant … to an active, perceiving organism in that
environment” (van Lier, 2000, p. 252)
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14. 1. Language is dynamic and contextually contingent
2. Affordances are inherent in the dynamic environment
3. Learners act on linguistic affordances in the environment
4. Learning, individual or collaborative, emerges from and
through interactions – co-construing of knowledge
5. The process of collaboration enables individuals to
perceive novel affordances
6. Dynamic networks of fluidly inter-linked contexts form an
open system
7. Mobile technologies mediate interaction and connection
over the network and with environment
8. Knowing: an evolving process enabled by acting on
affordances available in the environment, in which learners
operate and collaborate across dynamic networks through
connections made possible by mobile technologies
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15. 15

16. Other speakers of
English
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17.  Design
 Prototype
 Testing
 Refinement
http://mobi-english.mobi/
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18. 18

19. 19

20. Ten Essential Pedagogic Characteristics
1/2
1. Balanced combination of individual and
collaborative (group work) tasks
2. Learner-generated linguistic artefacts (audio, video,
photos, images)
3. Game-like real-life communicative tasks
4. Expert facilitation: scaffolding, feedback, and
coordination
5. Feedback mechanism (immediate and delayed)
6. Focus on authentic listening tasks in the dynamic
real-world communicative situations
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21. Ten Essential Pedagogic Characteristics
2/2
7. Support of self-paced individual audio tasks
feeding into/preparing learners for the real-life
tasks
8. Integrate all four language skills but focus on
listening outcomes
9. Linguistic resources (task-related): relevant
vocabulary, dictionaries, pronunciation, clear task
directions and explanations, examples
10. Support of out-of-class learning with in-class (f2f)
instruction and practice (a blend of in-class and
out-of-class context)
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22. Eight Essential Technological Components
1. One-point access to all resources
2. Exchange and communication platform
3. Scalability, flexibility and adaptability of the system
4. Scalable rating scheme (from artefact to learning
structures to the whole system)
5. Multimedia (including text) - artefact authoring,
management and usage capabilities
6. Cross platform and multi-technology support
7. Integrated technology support and
tutoring/instruction
8. Personalized user progress tracking capabilities
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23.  Evolution of practice
• MELLES prototype
• model for replication
 Evolution of theory
• MELLES design framework
• Ecological Constructivism
 DBR application for mobile
language learning
Interconnected elements of the MELLES environment
learning context
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24.  The scope of DBR
• complexity of the system - breadth
• no objective measure of learning
• amount of data
• intensity
 The role of the researcher
• multifaceted
• conflicting roles
• threats to validity
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25.  In-depth examination of constituent elements
 Measuring effectiveness - tests of proficiency
 Actualization of the MELLES theory –
technology
 Role of the teacher
 Transferability of findings
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26. 26

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