Review of Research on Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Familiar, Authentic Environments

Familiarity with learning contexts is important in the field of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). Several review studies on MALL have been published to date. However, scholars have not covered certain aspects of familiar contexts in their reviews, such as which learning/instructional methodologies support learning in familiar contexts or what the affordances of familiar contexts are for language learning. To address this gap, the authors in this study reviewed research articles related to MALL in familiar, authentic environments published in the past 10 years. The reviewed articles were from journals published in the Social Science Citation Index between 2009 and 2018. The main aim of this study was to review the published articles to understand (1) pedagogical approaches, (2) data collection, (3) locations, (4) affordances of authentic environments and (5) issues in MALL research. The results revealed that the most frequent items in reviewed articles were "task-based learning" and "communicative language teaching" (pedagogical approaches); "questionnaires," "pretest and posttests" and "interviews" (data collection); the "local community" and "campus" (locations); "daily encounters," "language learning" and "cognitive load" (affordances of authentic environments); and "small sample sizes" and "short-term interventions" (issues in MALL research). Based on the results, the authors in this study made several suggestions and provided implications for educators and researchers in the field about MALL in familiar, authentic environments.