Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

1222

Date

2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Instr and Curr Leadership

Concentration

Instructional Design and Tech

Committee Chair

Michael M. Grant

Committee Member

Trey Martindale

Committee Member

Inmaculada Gomez Soler

Committee Member

Carmen Weaver

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe how higher education language instructors design mobile-assted language learning environments for communicative language teaching. As our focus in second language acquisition has moved toward a communicative approach, the media richness and communication savvy of mobile devices can plan a vital role in this new communicative goal. Offering authentic content and dialogue opportunities, language instructors can take advantage of these devices leading language learners to achieve true fluency in another language. While the opportunity for communicative language teaching with MALL is viable, how to best design MALL environments for this purpose is still in its infancy. Answering questions regarding device type, application usage, theoretical foundations, and communicative task type and frequency will add to the richness of research for planning communicative MALL experiences. This study focused on two research questions. The first question explored how higher education language instructors design mobile assisted language learning environments. The second dealt with influences that ignite those decisions. Four higher education language instructors participated in this case study. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and observations, and were analyzed using general qualitative analysis and the constant comparative method. Three themes emerged in the findings: (1) describing the communicative language learning environment enhanced by mobility, (2) meeting student, organizational, and instructional needs/goals, and (3) planning the implementation of MALL experiences for communicative language purposes. A discussion integrated these findings with interpretations in order to answer the research questions. The data suggested higher education language instructors identify goals, and create authentic learning experiences via communicative modes in order to achieve those goals. Further, the data suggested they have theoretical alignments with constructionism and situated learning, hold strong beliefs in CLT, and have beliefs aobut mobility that inform how they design communicative MALL environments.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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