Problem Identification The meaning of learning English using Busuu to junior high school students grade VII.
the essential elements of these experiences and highlight implications for adolescent development and informal education policy.
Concerning specifically to smart phones usage in learning, there was a phenomenology research which investigated the students’ lived experiences of
using smart phones for learning Chan et al., 2013. According to the participants, their use of smart phones are primarily for communication and
social networking using mobile applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Line and Viber. Entertainment is next, with a focus on playing games
and watching YouTube videos. Learning takes the last position and the participants perceive their learning as searching for information in class and
outside of class, writing on blogs or websites and reading. They have very limited awareness of their learning or the learning potential of their smart
phones as their perception was that these were daily activities associated with their smart phones. The findings reveal that there were other aspects of
learning occurring: peer-based learning from communities of practice, problem-based learning, collaborative learning, reflective learning, music
learning and language learning. In addition, they were sub-consciously learning even while they were watching YouTube videos, playing games and social
networking. In their approaches to learning, they were utilizing both surface and deep approaches and with the easy access to information on the Internet, their
preference was not for memorization of knowledge or facts. Their perceptions of mobile learning was that it was ‘spontaneous’, ‘easy’, ‘convenient’, ‘simple’, and
‘learning anytime, anywhere’. They term it as ‘satisfaction learning’ or learning by ‘trial and error’. Some participants believed that in searching for information
and reading for greater understanding, they began to see changes in themselves and were able to perceive topics and the world in new ways.
A study by analyzing the mobile technology’s use in the different aspects
of language learning have supported the idea that mobile technology can enhance learners’ second and foreign language acquisition. Learners’ attitudes towards
technologies, their intention to use it, and the various actual uses of mobile technology integrated in their second and foreign language learning is a
dominating research focus Chang Hsu, 2011; Cheng et al., 2010. The impact of mobile technology on language learning has often been measured by
individuals’ stated perceptions. This exemplifies what Orlikowski Iacono 2001 call the proxy view of technology. Effectiveness studies focus on how
this technology is viewed by individual users where the perceptive, cognitive, and attitudinal responses to technology become the critical variable in
explaining mobile technology. This tool view of technology is criticized as it fails to take into account the transformational nature of technology; technology brings
with it changes not only in procedures – how we do things – but also in our perceptions of what is doable or not, e.g. in terms of accessing distant materials
and people. Hence technology itself plays a role in reshaping people’s preferences, perceptions, and attitudes and the new teaching and learning
methods that evolve are co-constructed in a sociotechnical system rather than engineered. This is called the ensemble view of technology Orlikowski
Iacono, 2001, and this idea of sociotechnical construction – as opposed to purely social construction – is something often lacking in MALL studies.