Mobile Assisted Language Learning Across Different Educational Settings: an introduction

When mobile technologies became widely available more than ten years ago, it was evident that they could potentially contribute to educational needs and particularly to language learning. However, understanding how to use them in education was not that obvious. The present collection looks at the use of mobile technologies and the opportunities they offer to students at different ages, in a variety of geographical locations and educational contexts. This introduction is divided into two parts. In the first part, I present the main features of MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) and how they have been adjusted in the last ten years to fit with rapid changes in technology and education. I also describe the different theoretical approaches used to inform studies on MALL and the research methods applied in the studies. The second part is an introduction to each chapter, highlighting some connections between them.