Review of mobile learning: Languages, literacies, and cultures
Journal
Language Learning & Technology
Date Issued
June 2015
Author(s)
Abstract
While the targeted audience of Mark Pegrum’s Mobile Learning: Languages, Literacies and Cultures is
not made explicit, its content is best suited to those endeavoring to understand MALL (Mobile-Assisted
Language Learning) within the broader context of mobile learning. In this regard it is much more
contemporary than historical, with nearly two thirds of its references dating from the past six years
(2008–2013). The work is commendable for the background it provides on mobile learning across a wide
instructional spectrum. Of particular note is the attention paid to initiatives in developing countries
endeavoring to exploit mobile technologies to remedy high native-language illiteracy rates and overcome
the educational disadvantages of women, especially in rural communities. This information is all the more
valuable in that it derives mostly from international project reports, which is otherwise largely absent and
unobtainable from published academic research sources. What the work gains in breadth in regard to
mobile learning in general, however, it loses in depth in respect to MALL in particular. Of the book’s
seven chapters, the first three are entirely devoted to general issues concerning mobile learning. In fact,
only the fourth and fifth chapters focus explicitly upon language teaching. The sixth chapter concerns
literacy in its broadest possible interpretation, of which reading and writing are but two of eight abilities
discussed. Lastly, while taking most of its examples from language-based projects, the focus of the final
chapter of the book is very much on the general issue of teacher and student training needed in the digital
age.
not made explicit, its content is best suited to those endeavoring to understand MALL (Mobile-Assisted
Language Learning) within the broader context of mobile learning. In this regard it is much more
contemporary than historical, with nearly two thirds of its references dating from the past six years
(2008–2013). The work is commendable for the background it provides on mobile learning across a wide
instructional spectrum. Of particular note is the attention paid to initiatives in developing countries
endeavoring to exploit mobile technologies to remedy high native-language illiteracy rates and overcome
the educational disadvantages of women, especially in rural communities. This information is all the more
valuable in that it derives mostly from international project reports, which is otherwise largely absent and
unobtainable from published academic research sources. What the work gains in breadth in regard to
mobile learning in general, however, it loses in depth in respect to MALL in particular. Of the book’s
seven chapters, the first three are entirely devoted to general issues concerning mobile learning. In fact,
only the fourth and fifth chapters focus explicitly upon language teaching. The sixth chapter concerns
literacy in its broadest possible interpretation, of which reading and writing are but two of eight abilities
discussed. Lastly, while taking most of its examples from language-based projects, the focus of the final
chapter of the book is very much on the general issue of teacher and student training needed in the digital
age.
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