Modelling Mobile Experience in Chinese Language Learning

Introduction

With the rapid and wide application of mobile technologies in mobile learning, the landscape of learning process and pedagogical paradigms has undergone major changes, resulting in innovations in various areas of mobile learning. Mobile learning can be simply defined as the application of mobile devices, such as smart phones, laptops, palmtop computers and electronic readers, in order to enable electronic learning (e-learning), allowing learners to learn anytime and anyplace, rather than limiting them to the confines of a classroom (Chen & Kinshuk, 2005; Georgiev, Georgieva & Smrikarov, 2004; Liang & Huang, 2014).

In the case of Chinese learning as a second language, the application of mobile technologies is universally acceptable to provide ubiquitous learning opportunities. The emergence of mobile technologies has shifted the learning model from in-class formal learning to out-of-class informal learning. The shift has made learning more personalized and empowered learners to be more self-determined to cater to their different needs, interests, tastes and preferences. In particular, mobile technologies are uniquely suited to supporting language learning on an ongoing basis, in a range of settings, according to a person’s ability and adapted to their needs (Kukulska, Lee & Norris, 2017).

As a result, learners’ experience with new technologies represents emerging spaces, which have created and shaped new literacies (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001). Eisenlauer (2014) discusses the multiple relationships between modes and the implications for mobile learning in that text and image in interplay can serve as effective means for acquiring a new language (Kukulska, Lee & Norris, 2017).

The concept of meaningful learning was first proposed by Ausubel (1963), who stated that that only when learning is interrelated with a learner’s previous life experience, as present in their cognitive structure, and the learning content is compatible with that structure, can learning be claimed to be meaningful (Huang & Chiu, 2014). A meaningful learning implies learning is in fact personalized or customized experience impacted by demographic and socio-cultural aspects. To foster a meaningful learning, it is imperative to track the mobile learner’s expectations of mobile learning experience in a mobile learning app. It is equally imperative to identify the gap between mobile learners’ expectations and what mobile learning experience they actually obtain from a mobile learning app.

In the mobile learning era, the most evident change is the role of learners and their digital skills for independent learning process in the out-of-classroom environment. Kukulska‐Hulme (2013) argues that language learners need to be re‐skilled to meet their different needs and to secure their autonomy in the mobile world. Therefore, learning autonomy, meaningful learning and experience with mobile technologies constitute a unique experience in learning a language. That unique experience refers to what Xu (2018, 2019) calls the process and outcome of interacting with a product or service, and in this context, mobile technologies in learning Chinese language. This is especially true against the backdrop of our world moving towards to experience economy, “where experiences supplant services as the predominant economic offering in terms of GDP, employment and especially actual value” (Pine & Gilmore, 2013, p.26). The experience economy emphasizes selling experience (Pine & Gilmore, 1998) beyond its carrier, be it a product or a service. As learners of Chinese language pay more and more attention to their experience in learning, it is imperative to explore that unique experience and to provide guidance for further studies.

Equipped with the three-step 3M approach (mapping, measuring and modelling) (Xu, 2018) to mobile experience research and based on the factor-stage-dimension framework (five-factors, six stages, and three dimensions) (Xu, 2018), this chapter proposes an innovative model to model mobile experience in applying mobile technologies to Chinese language learning. To model is to locate predictors of mobile learning experience in Chinese language learning. By refining the factor-stage-dimension framework and proposing the innovative model, this chapter invites further global efforts to compare mobile learning experience in Chinese language learning for securing further discoveries of more effective and powerful ways to describe, explain and predict mobile learning experience.