Abstract

The mobile phone has become an indispensable device for communication and managing everyday life among newly arrived migrants. Learning a new language is a crucial aspect of integration and professionalization in a foreign country, and the phone is a tool that is also used by migrants also for language learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate how mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is situated in the context of newly arrived migrants from the Middle East in Sweden as a means to learn a new language. The designs and context of MALL apps used with migrants are explored from a pedagogical perspective and investigated by means of observations and interviews with migrants. The results show that there are difficulties with how MALL apps are used by migrants, as the apps are built on individualised drilling activities with vocabulary training which are neither motivating nor immediately connected to the everyday language learning needs of the migrants. However, gamification aspects built into the apps together with push notifications attract most of the users who do engage with the apps, and these aspects are incentives for building a routine around MALL app usage. The design around the content and functionality plays an important role in how learners make use of mobile applications.

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