This paper presents a study carried out at the University of Alicante with third and fourth year students training to be future primary and pre-primary teachers. The Valencian Community has a plurilingual education policy; therefore, students on the education degrees can do a course on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). In 2018, these students were invited to participate on an experience using mobile learning and blended learning to focus on the cognitive development in CLIL as part of the 4-C wheel model (Coyle, 2007). Consequently, sixteen activities based on tasks previously designed by Wilden (2017), Dudley and Osvath (2016) and Kryszewska and Campbell (1992) were selected and adapted for the students to carry them out individually, in pairs, or in groups. To this end, additional ICT tools and virtual learning environments (VLEs) were incorporated to promote debates and discussion in class. In total 148 students, belonging to three groups, did M-learning and B-learning activities twice a week during a two-month period. Students primarily used their own devices, which included mobile phones, tablets and laptops. The activities focused on specific tasks future teachers will have to carry out professionally and required high order thinking skills such as creating, analyzing and evaluating. The overall results illustrate how M-learning and B-learning did provide the necessary framework for the development of the activities and objectives of the experience.

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In pre-primary education, there is a need for specific research into developing awareness of literary genres that can be used in the EFL classes to promote literacy. A total of 264 students on the Teaching English for Pre-primary Education course participated on an online questionnaire adapted from Cremin et al. (2008), using both qualitative and quantitative questions to provide an insight into the issue. The first part of the questionnaire examined the reading habits of pre-service teachers. The second part probed into the specific knowledge of texts and authors in general for use in the EFL pre-primary classroom. The results showed that there is a very limited tradition of reading outside the EFL classroom from students’ experiences, that there is a very narrow catalogue of texts and genres that students are familiar with and lastly, that literature is primarily seen as a vehicle for vocabulary acquisition. Thus, it is essential to encourage future EFL teachers not only to become more knowledgeable about genres, but also aware of the different reasons to use literature in the classroom to promote literacy.

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