Mobile assisted language learning of less commonly taught languages: learning in an incidental and situated way through an app

Cervini, Cristiana; Solovova, Olga; Jakkula, Annukka; Ruta, Karolina

doi:10.14705/rpnet.2016.eurocall2016.542

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…It is a highly innovative solution for incidental and context-aware learning of less widespread languages, among which, precisely, Italian in Bologna (Cervini, 2018). CALL-ER takes up the principles at the basis of the design of the Union app (Cervini et al, 2016), orienting the redesign on the communicative, cultural and tourist needs of Forlì, one of the city of the UNIBO multicampus, aiming at a greater interactivity among users and at the valorization of places out of the classical tourist circuits.…”

Section: Previous Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When learning Italian as a Second Language, tourism and technology go hand in hand

Zingaro

Cervini

2021

7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21)

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This paper aims to describe the development of CALL-ER, an application for mobile devices, produced within the CALL-ER project (Context-Aware Language Learning in Emilia Romagna). An ever-increasing availability of applications for language learning that meet the different learning needs of users, as well as the ubiquitous wireless communication, led applications for mobile devices to become gradually more context-aware. This means that language is acquired by users through the direct experience with the local context where they are. An example in this regard is represented by the CALL-ER mobile application, that supports mobility students through the incidental learning of Italian language and culture in the city of Forlì. We will begin this contribution with an outline of the theoretical underpinnings that supported the project and a presentation of the project itself. We will then present the first stage of the project, during which the application was developed before its first testing. At this point, an overall description of the application will be given. A special attention will be paid throughout this paper both to how language learning has been conceived through experiential tourism and to the multimodality of the contents.

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Section: Previous Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When learning Italian as a Second Language, tourism and technology go hand in hand

Zingaro

Cervini

2021

7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21)

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“…Erasmus, exchange, overseas, International, mobility students, etc.) would be supported in their daily activities, getting in touch with local language and culture in a simple and innovative way, which enhances their integration and their interaction with the country hosting them [17].…”

Section: User-centered Design: the Ilocalapp Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Collaborative design of software applications: the role of users

Mirri

Roccetti

Salomoni

2018

Hum. Cent. Comput. Inf. Sci.

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Drawing on a 1-year application design, implementation and evaluation experience, this paper examines how engaging users in the early design phases of a software application is tightly bound to the success of that application in use. Through the comparison between two different approaches to collaborative application design (namely, user-centered vs participatory), we reveal how sensitivity to the role that users may play during that collaborative practice rebounds to a good level of user satisfaction during the evaluation process. Our paper also contributes to conversations and reflections on the differences between those two design approaches, while providing evidences that the participatory approach may better sensitize designers to issues of users' satisfaction. We finally offer our study as a resource and a methodology for recognizing and understanding the role of active users during a process of development of a software application.

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Incidental language and culture learning through mobile technologies: a multi-case study

Prandi

Valva

Salomoni

et al. 2023

Multimed Tools Appl

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Incidental learning is a human learning paradigm that takes its form as a response to unplanned initiatives, potentially occurring at any time and at any place. It is emerging as very promising in the case of learning a second language, as it multiplies the occurrence of unexpected and unintentional learning situations. Still open, and subject of debate, is the issue of which is the right methodology to be applied when mobile computer-based technologies are exploited to provide support to such kind of a learning paradigm. Drawing on the results of an international Project (ILOCALAPP), in this paper we provide our reflections on a specific incidental learning methodology we have adopted, based on the use of a mobile application (the UniOn! App) that was developed at the University of Bologna to support mobility students in their daily activities. Our main goal was to understand if such an approach was effective to let individuals incidentally learn the Italian language and culture driven by our mobile application, while conducting informal and daily activities. Specifically, we aimed to measure how much students have learned Italian, by means of self-evaluation and self-assessment tools and statistical analysis, involving 95 students who incidentally improve their Italian language skills, supported by the app. In particular, we adopted a quasi-experimental design, and we focused our investigation on four different dimensions: target users, users’ language background, duration and frequency of use, context of use. The 95 participants were grouped into 5 case studies, based on the four different dimensions. After having used the app, the participants were asked to answer a survey. The obtained results confirm the viability of our approach, showing that incidental learning is enhanced if certain conditions (i.e., integrated guidance) are met, where more than 55% of the participants reported to be more confident about their acquired skills.

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Mobile assisted language learning of less commonly taught languages: learning in an incidental and situated way through an app

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

When learning Italian as a Second Language, tourism and technology go hand in hand

When learning Italian as a Second Language, tourism and technology go hand in hand

Collaborative design of software applications: the role of users

Incidental language and culture learning through mobile technologies: a multi-case study

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