MALL tools tried and tested

In 2013, Stockwell and Hubbard published an article on emerging principles in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). In that article, they mentioned three issues that could perhaps impede learning in the domains of the physical, pedagogical, and pyscho-social. The physical issue they imply, refers to the general size of screens, which at the time were deemed small, or not big enough to have an impact on learning. The pedagogical issue involved with MALL, according to Stockwell and Hubbard (2013), is to ensure that tasks introduced with mobile tools are suited to the affordances of the devices. They questioned the need for mobile devices for language learning and whether tasks that were being introduced were suitable and worthwhile and not simply replicating what could normally be done without them, with pen and paper for example. The psycho-social issue they refer to implies that the primary function of mobile devices is generally regarded as one for “personal and social purposes, as opposed to work or study purposes” (Stockwell & Hubbard, 2013, p. 4). In this short paper, we would like to argue this point by introducing seven tools currently available for free on mobile applications that can be adapted to foreign language learning in several ways.