Academic research on MALL in Brazil: a systematic review

Resumo

 This paper aims at presenting an overview of academic research developed in Brazil on foreign language Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) from 2009 to 2019. A systematic review was conducted on the Catalog of Theses and Dissertations from CAPES. The search retrieved 15 publications, mostly published from 2017 to 2019. It was revealed that the majority of studies were developed on a Language Studies program of the Southeast region and that there are more dissertations (from master studies) than theses (from PhD studies) published on the subject matter. The objectives found were: (i) evaluation of language learning applications; (ii) evaluation of other types of electronic resources related to education; (iii) development of language learning application; (iv) systematic review; (v) survey on MALL; (iv) assessment of language learning activities mediated by mobile devices at schools. The results pointed out the need for modernizing language learning applications in terms of language views, methodologies, and game elements. The use of MALL in class was fruitful to improve linguistic proficiency, collaboration, and agency.