MLEARNING: POWERFUL LEARNING TOOLS FOR EAP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

In many of today's private higher education institutions, it is difficult to find students without a mobile phone, a PC tablet, or an iPad. At the same time, it is even more difficult to find students in higher education who use their mobile devices for academic purposes. Research indicates that English language instructors in higher education are not necessarily advocates of mobile use in the teaching classroom (Dashtesatani, 2016; Ally, 2013; Stockwell, 2012). However, in recent, years, higher education institutions are advocating the use of mobile learning for English language learning and promoting it as a "powerful learning aid" (Chen & DeNoyelles, 2013). The educational benefits of mobile learning include ease of information sharing and retrieval, adaptation of the learning to students' learning styles, facilitating the breakdown of complex learning content, independent learning, interactive learning, flexibility, increased motivation, portability, and effective communication between instructor and students (Walker, 2013; Pei-Hsun & Ming-Kuan, 2012). Mlearning, conceptually despite its numerous benefits, has faced challenges in implementation in some cultural contexts. Misperceptions about mobile devices as non-academic devices or learning tools, has made instructors reluctant to use mobile devices for academic purposes (Stockwell, 2012). At the same time, the lack of trained educators in using Mlearning for English language teaching, poses barriers to students' learning in today's 21st C learning spaces (Ally, 2013). Mobiles are primarily perceived as a social interactive communication tool not a serious learning one. The paper aims to correct misconceptions related to mobile learning and its use in the English language classroom. This paper will share Mlearning strategies, demonstrate how to embed Mlearning into lesson plans for EAP in a university context, highlight the correlation between Mlearning and improved English language proficiency for L2 students and share useful resources. By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to easily adapt their newly acquired knowledge in their relevant contexts.