Abstract

Abstract: This research investigates how students in higher education engage with mobile devices when learning languages. The research addresses the following questions: What productive language learning activities evolve on mobile devices and how are they situated in students' learning environments? How do students' learning strategies contribute to mobile language learning? The study is based on questionnaires, interviews and observations with students concerning their mobile usage. The results show that engaging in online communities for learning purposes is increasing and that the participants have a broad view of what can be included in the concept of learning. Being productive with technology is a way forward to develop mobile habits is a constructive way for language learning to take place. Keywords: Mobile Assisted Language Learning, Higher Education, Ubiquitous Learning, Language Learning, Learner-Driven Pedagogy Categories: Computer applications (Arts and Humanities). Introduction The range of areas for mobile activities is increasing as mobile technology is used as an integrated part of everyday learning [Alamri et al., 14] [White and Le Cornu, 11] the variation of how we see our online engagement ranges from that of being a visitor, i.e. using technology temporarily, to being a resident, i.e. a member of the web. Being a resident implies living a great deal of life online, part of various online communities, staying constantly connected. Science, vol. 21, no. 10 (2015), 1269 -1282 The use of mobile technology is increasing exponentially, particularly with smartphones where 8 out of 10 users of smartphones surf the Internet on their phone every day [Findahl, 14]. Together with the increased access of Wi-Fi, this also implies development of facilities for users to engage in net-based activities. This is in line with ideas that users are closely connected to development of learning activities since being productive online, they are part of both the design process as well as the refinement progression of existing technology by merely using it [Castells, 96]. Journal of Universal Computer The purpose of this research is investigating how engagement with mobile technology facilitates learning languages among students in higher education. This is based on the premise that when learners are engaged in productive activities, learning is promoted [Liu and Chen, 14]. In this study, when students are speakers of less used global languages, such as Swedish, learning to communicate in English and other foreign languages is something that has high importance. The overall aim of this research is thus to contribute to the understanding of how uses of mobile technologies are changing conditions for language learning from a learner-driven pedagogical perspective 13]. This research addresses the following questions:  What productive language learning activities evolve on mobile devices and how are they situated in students' learning environments?  How do students' learning strategies contribute to mobile language learning? Collaborative Mobile Language Learning From a sociocultural perspective, learning is a reciprocal process, situated in a social and cultural context (see [Warschauer, 05]; [Wells, 00]). Learners interact in a social and material environment where relationships and culturally constituted artifacts play important roles for thinking and learning [Vygotsky, 78]. Connecting this to practices within mobile devices, this is related to social aspects of language and contextualization of the language learning process. From this point of view, learning is a dialogic process between learners as well as with the mobile device. Developing digital literacy will make students independent learners with mobile devices [Ng, 13]. The concept of new literacies points out the multifaceted nature of literacy in modern society founded in the development of participatory cultures [Lankshear and Knobel, 11]. It is suggested by [Ng, 13] that literacy associated with learning with mobile devices is an area in need of more research. Although recent mobile technologies are increasingly built on net-based applications allowing for formation of social interaction and collaboration through wireless Internet, mobile technology has traditionally been more individualized and considered an instrument for autonomous language learning [Stockwell, 08]. A mobile device is for instance suited to play the role of a personal mentor. Learning content can be personalized and adapted to the learning context of each participant as displayed in a study by [Cabot et al., 14]. Research on language training with mobile technology has focused on affordances inherent in mobile applications for training, such as vocabulary (see [Song and Fox, 08; Stockwell, 08] . In an investigation of the application of mobile blogging, Chinese students in the UK enhanced their understanding of British culture by a context of socialising and exchanging information with students in China [Shao, 11]. Another example is a design-based study seeking to enhance English as second language students' aural skills by means of mobile practices evolving from a set of podcasts [Palalas, 11]. These two latter examples, display the power of collaboration to motivate language learning. Exploring ways that learners are engaged in language learning activities means taking a bottom-up perspective on the learning as being part of the development phase [Ros i Solé, et al., Methodology This section first presents the participants engaged in the study and the design premises. Then, the data and analytic process will be described leading to the results. Participants and Design This research scrutinizes instances where students are initiators of technology. As stated by Sharples [Sharples, The sample consisted of 55 males and 3 females, which was representative of the gender distribution in this study program. The age range was from 20 -28 years, the average being 21 years old. Concerning the students' language background, the distribution of their mother tongue was Swedish (n = 55), Arabic (n = 1), Finnish (n = 1), and Hungarian (n = 1). Also, the students had taken at least seven years of English at school, so the level of English was advanced with a level of B2 or C1 according to competent in at least the two languages Swedish and English, the majority of students also knew one or more languages. Focusing on a targeted group of computer science students in higher education means a group who is in the forefront of using technology. They are early adapters and keen to explore as well as make use of affordances in technology, in other words, what [White and Le Cornu, 11] term residents. They can likely be seen as indicators of trends in mobile development for learning. Investigating such a homogenous group also caters for a possibility to compare usage across contexts within this group. In addition, scrutinizing this type of student in higher education implies targeting students with expectations of being competent members of a specific language environment with demands of foreign language learning skills for their careers. With growing globalization and an increased number of mobile devices hosting advanced technology, trends have subsequently moved the computer into the hands of all users of small devices, such as smartphones and tablets. There are initiatives in education looking for ways of reaching out to learners even if development incentives are lagging behind existing technological practices [Dyson and Litchfield, 11]. From the different pedagogical models identified for mobile assisted language learning (MALL), ranging from packaged material to more flexible models [Kukulska-Hulme, 13], this research focuses on the latter, self-initiated models. Data and Analytic Process In order to investigate how students engage in mobile learning, the study is based on qualitative methods. As suggested by [Büscher and Urry, 09] investigating learning on the move with intermittent usage through multiple technologies, a combination of methods will catch emergent mobile activities. The study is based on questionnaires, interviews, and observations with students in order to follow mobile usage from a bottom-up perspective. The procedure started by introducing the objective of the study to the students during a lecture in the beginning of 2014. During this occasion, a consent form was also handed out to the students, informing about project goals and explaining the purpose of their answers. The names of the participants were protected at all times and they could also withdraw their participation at any point. There were a high number of respondents, 58 students out of the 60 students in total enrolled in the class. The questionnaire allowed for quantitative evidence and qualitative trends in usage. The questionnaire was designed with text fields, multiple choice statements, polar questions with subsequent text fields, inviting the participants to contribute with additional comments after each question. The questions were organized into three blocks; 1) technology and online communities used for learning, 2) production and sharing of content for learning and, 3) language learning strategies applied (see Appendix A) The introduction of the questionnaire expressed the objective of the study, i.e. investigating uses of mobile devices for learning, specifically geared at language learning. The nature of the questionnaire, designed with text fields accompanying each question, was designed to cater for reflexivity, promoting the participants to consider how technology is used. In this way, the reflections would trigger a process of further sharing procedures for learning. Since the questionnaire was anonymous, those who volunteered to be interviewed were asked to contact the researcher to appoint a time. Eight students contacted the researcher for individual interviews. The interviews were carried out two months after the questionnaire, allowing time for the students to reflect on the questions before being interviewed. Each interview, which lasted for 30-40 minutes, was conducted with the screen capturing program Camtasia, catering for online observations. Recording the interviews enabled transcription as well as providing the possibility for the students to display the application of software and websites since their screen movements were also recorded at the same time. Catching the process of interaction is suggested as one of the mobile methods for empirical research by [Büscher and Urry, 09]. The interviews were semi-structured, taking a starting point in the same questions as in the questionnaire. To capture the respondents' reflections, they were encouraged to expand on the questions, allowing for a more in-depth understanding of mobile usage areas. The researcher handling the data and analysis was not involved in teaching the students. The students could choose whether to be interviewed in Swedish or English. Only two students chose Swedish, claiming they were more comfortable speaking Swedish in an interview situation. Thus six chose English, with the motivation that carrying through an interview in English was not an issue and since they were currently taking an English course, they took the opportunity of speaking English. Results The results are based on the outcomes of the gathered data and analysis. In this section, first the implications of the mobile technology that students use are accounted for. Then, the notion of activities related to production and sharing of content is mapped out in order to shed light on how collaborative online activities are perceived. Finally, the learning strategies that are used for language learning with mobile devices that the students were engaged in will be discussed. 4