Whats app?

Negotiating the good, bad, and ugly of apps for (English and other) language learning.
Heather Lotherington, PhD
Professor, Multilingual education,York University
CSSE, June 1, 2016
Abstract

While schools attempt to merge new technologies and digital literacies in curricular instruction, the social permeation of mobile digital devices, uptake of social media, and utilization of apps is far more evident in social practice. Mobile digital technologies enabling
novel learning designs hold much promise for both classroom (Mahruf et al, 2010; McCombs et al, 2006), and self-access learning (KukulskaHulme, 2009). However, a 2014 survey of Canadian teachers use of educational technologies (Mindsharelearning, 2014),
confirms that the use of mobile devices in the classroom lags behind their ubiquity in social spheres.

The ubiquitous appa third party computer program designed for mobile devices, and available at minimal or no cost to the useris less than a decade old. In 2007, Apple produced a game-changing smart phone, which was a powerful portable computer capable
of wireless Internet connection (Sanford, 2015), and enabling the user to communicate interactively in context. This presentation draws data from two studies on mobile language learning apps to disentangle the growing profusion of apps for language learning,
examine the theory and pedagogy behind popular language teaching apps and consider how the aordances of mobile technologies might be imaginatively utilized for eective teaching and learning.

What is mobile
learning?

Mobile versus portable device

(Reinders & Pegrum, 2015)

Mobile learning (Guo, 2014; Sharples,

2009)

Reinders (2015, p. 1 quoting Ruben Puentedura, 2012): A mobile app is open and used whether moving or not; a portable app is not accessed in the same continuous way.

Mobile learning is part of mobile lifestyle. (Guo, 2014). Mobile learning combines learners experience of multiple mobility: in physical space, tech, conceptual space, social space, and dispersed over time (Sharples, 2009).

What is an app?

The mobile application or app is a

third party program designed for
mobile digital devices.

Apps are a $multibillion industry

less than a decade old (Louis, 2013)

Educational apps range from

interactive reference tools (e.g., 3D
atlas $.99), to self-access learning
(e.g., learn Papiamentu ($84.99) to
social learning (e.g., elementary
breakdancing $9.99; to how to fold
napkins $5.49)

Models of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL)

App-only approach (Reinders & Pegrum, 2015)/ contentoriented learning (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009)

accessing an online language course

Design-oriented learning (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009)

using the affordances of mobile technologies to

customize language learning activities

busuu

My research is stimulated by the ways I see content-based language text apps appearing like mushrooms. Who is behind these apps? What is the place of the language professional in app design? My worries are many: given the huge waves of immigrants traversing
the globe, app-based language learning is convenient and cheapbut what do you get for what you pay?

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL, alternatively mobile learning) opens novel access to situated communication, invites innovative pedagogical designs (Mahruf et al, 2010; McCombs et al, 2006), and is well suited to self-access learning (KukulskaHulme,
2009). However the use of mobile devices in the language classroom lags behind their ubiquity in social spheres (Lotherington, 2015).

Mobile learning designs stretch across both formal and informal learning oering the potential for individualized learning that is situated, authentic, spontaneous, and informal (KukulskaHulme, 2008; 2009). This is design-oriented learning, which contrasts with the
content-oriented transmission learning typical of classrooms (KukulskaHulme, 2009). However, apps also enable content-oriented (course) approaches wherein the app provides an integral language course in a mobile textbook. This removes the agency of designoriented learning, where learner has more control of their own learning.

Gershon & Manning (2014) provide an evolutionary explanation of aordance, beginning with Gibsons ecologically contextualized conception of aordance as being the possibility a thing oers for action, and moving on to Hutchby's (2001) explanation in a
technologically embedded context where there are designed areas of the environment.

Some educators worry that the kind of active,

collaborative learning facilitated by Web 2.0 is
being eroded by a slick. corporatized appification of
the web (Quitney, Anderson & Rainie, 2012), leading to a learning
landscape populated by individually purchased,
independently used, stand-alone apps training
limited sets of knowledge and skills.

Reinders & Pegrum, 2015, p. 2

App-only content learning

This is what happens when we have a retail orientation to direct access learning.

Language teaching apps

What apps are marketed

for (English) language
teaching and learning?

What epistemologies of
language underlie app
ELT curricula?

duolingo

What pedagogies drive

learning?
babbel

These are my research questions.

Tech
Times
(2015)

I did a small study of popular language teaching apps.

Frequency counts /7: (18 apps)

duolingo (6) ranking: 1 = 4 times; 3 = 2 times - 26

Memrise (4) ranking: 1 = 1 time; 2 = 2 times; 3 = 1 time - 16

busuu (4) (b) ranking: 3 = 2 times; 5 = 2 times - 8

Rosetta Stone (2); ranking 2 = 1 time; 3 = 1 time - 7

Anki (2) ranking 1 = 1 time; 5 = 1 time - 6

Babbel (2) ranking 2 = 1 time; 5 = 1 time - 5

LiveMocha (2); ranking 2 = 1 time; 5 = 1 time - 5

1
2
3
4
5

Lingvist - 5

Hello talk; mondly - 4

fluenz - 3

Pimsleur; Rocket Language; Living Language; verbling - 2

FSI Language Courses; Drops - 1

Language resources:

4
Google Translate; Pleco Chinese Dictionary - 2

5
iHandy translator - 1

Colour my
Lifehacker
learning
(2013)
(2014)

PC
(2015)

teachthought fodors.com Daily Tekk

(2014)
(2015)
(2015)

Most
popular
(6/7)

Very
popular
(4/7)

Very
popular
(4/7)

!
free

$
freemium

$$
freemium

4 skills drills

flashcards;
memorization

Popular
(2/7)

Allen
Luis von Ahn Ed Cooke &
Bernhard
Stoltzfus &
& Severin
Greg Detre,
John Fairfield,
Niesner,
UK
Hacker, USA
USA
USA

MALL apps by consumer popularity according to edutech review sites.

Popular
(2/7)

Popular
(2/7)

$
freemium

$ freemium;
now owned
by Rosetta
Stone

flashcards;
4 skills drills
memorization

4 skills + NS
social
networking

$35
$$$
paid app;
freemium to
subscription
subscription
costs?

dynamic
4 skills drills +
immersion
social
NS coach +4
networking
skills drills

duolingo.com memrise.com busuu.com

Popular
(2/7)

Damien
Elmes,
Australia

Krishnan
Marcus Witte,
Seshadrinathan
Thomas Holl;
& Shirish
Lorenz Heine,
Nadkarni
Germany
USA

Fairfield
Fairfield
Lesson Nine
ankisrs.net
Language
Language
GmbH,
Technologies,
Technologies,
Berlin
USA
USA

Problems Outdated,
inadequate learning theories

babbel

Memrise

Importing old language

pedagogies into new media, e.g.,
re-emergence of the flashcard

Memorization for language

learning goes back to
behavioural approaches to
language learning that were
thought to be buried a half
century ago
This example illustrates what some
programs call a three-sided flashcard

Anki
quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anki_(software)
Accessing old ideas in a new medium multimodal communication.

Problems
Poor pedagogies

Rosetta Stone

repetition hell

Low level content

Poor achievement tests

Tedious repetitive drills

Decontextualized
vocabulary memorization

All testing, no teaching

(unbelievably) poor testing

pragmatically absurd utterances

duolingo
Thank you to my graduate classes in Multilingual Education and Multimodal Literacies for gamely road testing a selection of popular apps on the market for language learners.

The mice are reading a book. reminds me of the early days of audiolingualism when I taught in the South Pacific, and I had an ancient textbook that offered as a feasible sentence: I have a banana. Great conversation starter

Problems
Deprofessionalizing language
teaching

Native UK English Language Tutor"

-Rosetta Stone

Commodification of the native speaker

Rosetta Stone Studio is searching for

native UK English speakers to
facilitate a series of energetic
language classes for beginner to
advanced students. Applicants MUST
have a four-year college degree, be
comfortable with technology, have
access to broadband Internet from a
personal computer, and be able to
work up to 20 hours a week with a
flexible schedule to accommodate
students. We are specifically looking
for candidates who have flexible
availability weekday mornings,
weekends and can specifically work at
least one evening. Prior experience in
ESL teaching is preferred, but not
required.

quotes: (http://jobs.jobvite.com/rosettastone/job/o5QL2fws); http://www.fodors.com/news/7-outstanding-language-learning-apps-and-websites-11121

NS orientation means just thatnot teachers but crowd-sourcing. Since when is a native speaker an effective teacher?

Problems Remediating
technically dated communication
skills

Importing old media language

competencies

Need for language and communication

skills for 21st century media

Rosetta Stone
See also: Lotherington, H., & Sinitskaya Ronda, N. (2014). 2B or not 2B: From pencil to multimodal programming: New frontiers in communicative competencies. In J. Pettes Guikema, & L. Williams (Eds.), Digital literacies in foreign and second language education
(pp. 9-28). San Marcos, TX: Calico Monograph Series, 12.

Problems Retailing
deprofessionalized language learning

Content-based apps
examined are on the whole
retail-oriented, softwarebased outdated pedagogy in
mobile talking textbooks.

...for the most part uses of

mobile devices were pedestrian,
uncreative, and repetitive and did
not take advantage of the mobility,
peer connectivity, or advanced
communication features of mobile
devices.

Godwin-Jones, 2011, p. 7

The mobile learner needs the following (Sharples et al, 2009):

Access to mobile technology

Ownership

Connectivity

Integration

Institutional support (which appears to be lacking in mobile content-based apps that take on the role of authority.)

The idea of memorizing a language goes back to behaviourism a hundred years ago, if not back centuries to boring grammar translation approaches; the audiolingual approach of the mid-20th century gave us drill and kill approaches that seem to have come back to
life.

 We have the opportunity to

design learning differently: linking
people in real and virtual worlds, creating
learning communities between people on the
move, providing expertise on demand and
supporting a lifetime of learning. In order to
understand how people learn through a mobile,
pervasive and lifelong interaction with technology,
we need to understand the implications of
learning with mobile technology and build an
appropriate theory of education for the
mobile age.
Sharples et al, 2009, p. 234

Design-oriented learning
This requires teacher expertise and ingenuity and learner involvement and agency in their own learning plan, not instant app courses.

Design-oriented learning

Chatbot: e.g., Siri

Multi-media social networking platforms,

e.g., WhatsApp

Thanks to Rosana Capredoni, Peter Jull and Nooshin Shakeri of York University for use of their assignment: Exploring whats app to negotiate meaning: A multilingual approach, submitted to EDUC 5383: Multilingual education.

Bo-Kristensen & Meyer (2008) looked at the evolution of early MALL designs from the language lab of the 70s moving towards the bonuses of mobile data capture in language learning.

The voice-activated personal assistant (Siri as chatbot) is not human so you can repeat ad nauseum without irritating anyone. You will need to practice speaking clearly, though a range of accents is accepted, in order to get your message across. The device types as
you make your request so you can see how clearly you are speaking. The device points you to referencessome useful, some not, but it is a start. And for early beginners, you can ask very simple questions and get simple responses.

In point of fact, speaking with machines means sharing cognition. In the case of language teaching and learning, this is helpful sharing but I do not make a wholesale recommendation to start sharing you life with helpful machines There are significant philosophical
as well as psychological issues at stake.

From app to chatbot?

The rise of the chatbot offers a scary

scenario for human cognitionbut
a potentially interesting way to
learn languages.

Olson, 2016
The rise of the chatbotgood for design-oriented language learning or the end of civilization?

Olson, 2016: http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/10/kik-bots-messaging-facebook-wechat/#8ebd3325712c

Mobile learning potentially offers innovative learning designs

but we have a lot of work to do

With commercial MALL apps the learner is connected to questionable conversationalists in social networking/ crowd-sourcing functionshere, you know who you are dealing with.

The horizon in mobile language

learning?

Teachers need to recognize and work towards:

BYOD programs that incorporate mobile pedagogies

crossing school-home borders (the new homework?)

Contextualized professional development utilizing new

technical media to interactively support (not drive)
learning (Dron, 2012; Lotherington, Paige & Holland-Spencer, 2013; )

Incorporating experimental pedagogies towards creative

learning (Lotherington, 2011)

The horizon in mobile language

learning?

App developers need to recognize and work towards:

Theoretical validity

Informed pedagogical practice

Collaborative design incorporating (not hiring as the

help) educational professionals

Shifting their gaze from making a buck to facilitating

learning as the bottom line!

The horizon in mobile language

learning?

Policy makers need to recognize and work towards:

Aligning curricular and testing goals to current

technical media and communication skills

Creating design-oriented, across-the-curriculum

pedagogical project spaces in curricular and school
documents

Special thanks to York grad

students: Rosana Capredoni, Peter
Jull & Nooshin Shakeri for permission to
use their work; to my research assistant,
Deborah Surtees; and to graduate
students, and family members who
road tested MALL apps

References

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