Self‐initiated informal learning

Self‐initiated informal language learning is shaped by both immigrant learners' own characteristics and the nature of what it is they wish to learn – their goals and motivations for learning. In turn, these factors are intertwined with immigrants' purposeful selection of media for language learning, and the strategies they employ for that learning.

Media designed to support informal language learning

Mobile‐assisted language learning (MALL) tools represent “any technology that migrants use to support their learning or communication while they are mobile or that is available through a mobile device” (Demmans Epp 2017, p. 1). Well aware that immigrants already appropriate a variety of mobile tools to learn language informally (Bradley et al. 2017; Demmans Epp 2017), researchers and educators have designed programs and apps for various media to support informal language and cultural learning for them. One important factor determining whether or how specific apps or programs were taken up as informal learning resources was whether they were context‐independent (i.e. supported language learning at any time or place), context‐dependent, or what researchers characterized as providing “just‐in‐time” learning (Gaved and Peasgood 2017; Fallahkhair et al. 2007).

In a mixed‐methods study, Bradley et al. (2017) studied apps embedded within a national program for recent immigrants to Sweden that focused on Swedish pronunciation. Participants' use of media in Swedish led to benefits: the participants in the program plus app group improved more in their production of Swedish sentences and phrases than did those completing the traditional program only. Repetition seemed key here, especially when participants listened to their own production of Swedish words through the app. Though a small aspect of language, pronunciation highlights an asset of electronic media: the ability to record and hear one's own performance to analyze, reflect on, and make changes to improve in language skills. The researchers also examined all of the participants' media use, opportunities to use their new language skills, and their actual language production. Most often, participants engaged with media in order to communicate with family and friends in their heritage language, leading the researchers to note the significance of making the content and activities meaningful and engaging.

The development of media programs that draw upon meaningful and contextualized learning activities characterized other programs designed to promote language learning in immigrants. One of the pre‐smartphone era programs we reviewed – Television and Mobile Phone Assisted Language Learning Environment (TAMALLE) – created an interface between television programs and mobile phones (Fallahkhair et al. 2007). The TAMALLE interface heightened advanced English learners' television viewing by providing on‐screen support through captions and other displays, and it also connected the viewer to a personalizable “learning sphere” (p. 316) that allowed them to access a program summary and information about difficult language and cultural items in the program. These resources could be accessed prior, during, and after the show. Researchers found that TAMALLE prompted learning both in real‐time and at the viewers' leisure. TAMALLE‐like learning supports are even more possible now, with the advent of smartphones. For example, the Best Buy store released a smartphone app in conjunction with the release of the movie Despicable Me, which allowed viewers to “translate” the gibberish spoken by the Minion characters in real time (Furchgott 2010). These kinds of interfaces seem easily adaptable for supporting informal language learning in a variety of contexts, especially given the increasingly sophisticated capabilities of both voice‐recognition and language‐translation technologies.

Smartphone apps with location detection also have increased the possibilities for context‐specific informal language learning. For example, Gaved and Peasgood (2017) created a series of learning activities that aligned with daily tasks and challenges (e.g. shopping, medical care, transportation) as well as cultural activities for recent immigrants into the European Union. The Sensors and Apps for Languages in Smart Areas (SALSA) linked app users with their current location, allowing participants to select relevant activities based upon the context. Beacons were connected to 12 different location‐specific scenarios, such as transportation, healthcare, and shopping. Participants learned on‐the‐go as well as during planned situations. SALSA provided six different types of learning activities connected to the scenarios: audio dialogues, written transcripts, vocabulary, grammar, language tips, and recommendations for other self‐directed activities.

The developers identified time, place, and purpose as determining when informal learning occurred (and when it did not). Some participants in Gaved and Peasgood's study mentioned “using the app when out and about if the trigger occurred at a moment when they had time, or could stop for a while” (2017, p. 9). For example, one participant

Went to the bus ticket office, where the app was triggered, unlocking an activity about asking staff for ticket information. Rather than read the app in front of the staff, the participant stepped outside the office, read the app, learned the key phrases, and then went back into the office to use them in conversation.

(p. 9)

Another participant reported that the location‐specificity of the learning helped him “feel more confident to go there” (p. 10). Still other participants reported quickly checking the app when it was triggered in a location, but spent time more carefully studying the content later. Importantly, the researchers found that participants were far less likely to use the app in contexts where it was socially or culturally unacceptable to use phones: “I don't want to annoy people with the sound [of the app], because I think I'm respectful … I think people want to do their own stuff on the bus and not just hear my music or hear my English lesson” (p. 10), one participant recounted. These findings highlight the social‐emotional element of informal learning through/with an app.

When created for a certain population, electronic media products and programs clearly serve an important role in learning and functioning. However, when electronic media products and programs are difficult to use or do not provide the support wanted or needed, then they fall to the wayside (e.g. Bradley et al. 2017).

Implications for educators

The kinds of learning we have discussed, of course, primarily occur outside formal instructional contexts, as learners engage in self‐directed learning or in learning on‐the‐fly. Yet, our review points to two types of implications for educators in formal settings: (i) lessons from the informal learning in which immigrants are already engaged, and (ii) lesson about the ways in which educators can provide support for informal learning through media.

Immigrants' informal language via the media offers important lessons for educators about what immigrants want to learn, what kinds of learning tools are available to them, and the strategies they feel are helpful in learning. This means that educators, first, can recognize that informal learning is happening and that – far from assumptions about television being a “boob tube” or the internet being a “wormhole” – both old and new media can be useful tools in facilitating that learning (Perry and Moses 2011).

Recognizing the media‐facilitated informal learning in immigrant students also means attending to the various funds of knowledge that learners bring to their learning. Because a variety of demographic and contextual factors shape immigrants' informal learning, educators can seek to learn about the media contexts and media‐related practices of various immigrant communities and specific learners. Knowing learners' ages, literacy levels, and the languages in which they are fluent and literate can help educators make plans and provide appropriate instruction and materials. Educators also can ask about learners' access to or familiarity with a variety of media, platforms, programs, apps, and content. They might inquire about the age at which learners first began using particular digital media, and the language in which they learned to use those media. This knowledge can point to the types of media, practices, and strategies with which learners already may be familiar, as well as those that an educator might introduce to enhance learning. Indeed, immigrants are already adept at finding, accessing, and using mobile resources; as Demouy et al. (2015) has rightly pointed out, “their knowledge of what is available may surpass educational practitioners' knowledge” (p. 19).

Accessing this information about immigrant learners also means acknowledging and honoring learners' migration and transnational experiences, as well as their desires to remain connected to loved ones, homelands, and heritage languages and cultures. As Lam and Rosario‐Ramos (2009) observed,

A language education that takes into account the transnational connections of young migrants would need to move between the local and the global, between language as community resources and language as transnational resources. This would be a language education that draws from and fosters the funds of knowledge (Moll et al. 1992) of immigrant students coming from their communities, and also the funds of knowledge that come from their points of connection across societies.

(p. 187)

In addition to demographic and cultural factors, educators also need to find out about immigrants' learning needs and goals. Are they accessing media in order to learn about language, and if so, which aspects of language do they feel are most pressing? For example, some learners might need basic vocabulary and grammar assistance, while others might be interested in culture or language pragmatics, and still others might have context‐specific needs. Do immigrants wish to learn or maintain a heritage language, or are they learning a new language? Are learners seeking to learn about their new cultural context or to make social connections with those in the host society? Or, do they hope to maintain connections with a heritage and a homeland?

As noted in this chapter's Introduction, theories related to informal learning and the media emphasize that learners engage in bifocality (Lam 2009) and use multiple frames of reference, or what Razfar and Yang (2010) refer to as “multiplicity and mediation” (p. 122). This multiplicity of frames of reference represents rich funds of knowledge that immigrants and other transnational learners bring to language‐learning situations, which educators may capitalize upon to further learning. For instance, knowing that their learners are likely engaging in informal learning that goes beyond classroom assignments, educators also can provide lists of websites, apps, or other media‐related resources, such as educational programming on TV, that can address learners' real‐world learning goals. These resources can include both “just‐in‐time” or context‐dependent resources, such as smartphone apps that are triggered when a learner is in a specific location, as well as those that are more general or independent of context. Educators can also highlight other helpful features of existing media, such as television closed‐captioning, print‐to‐voice apps, or voice memos that studies have shown promote language learning. Immigrant learners can use these features for independent learning or to facilitate communication in challenging language contexts (Demmans Epp 2017). In conjunction with recommending specific media resources and features, educators also can help learners to develop the skill of “noticing,” or fostering explicit awareness (Kukulska‐Hulme and Bull 2009), as well as self‐regulation (Demmans Epp), both of which may enhance learners' ability to better select and use appropriate media resources. Along these lines, educators can model and facilitate learners' ability to be critical users of media (Razfar and Yang 2010).

Implications for educational designers

The informal learning that can happen through media is only as good as the media themselves. The current literature offers insights for ways in which media platforms, or the content offered through them, can be designed to foster everyday informal learning.

Dual coding theory (DCT), rooted in the practical use of imagery that evolved into writing systems (Paivio 2006), suggests that two codes work in tandem during all cognition: “the verbal code, which uses verbatim language as input to an associative network of verbal representations, and the nonverbal code of mental imagery that is evoked in reading by the activated verbal representations” (Sadoski and Paivio 2007, p. 350). Paivio's (2006) work illustrates the beneficial effects of concreteness and imagery on learning, memory, and recall. Therefore, “combining pictures, mental imagery, and verbal elaboration” (p. 11) is more effective than words alone at promoting learning. Mayer and Moreno's (2002) work regarding animation as an aid in multimedia learning similarly uses the beneficial cognitive connections between images and words to outline several principles for supporting meaningful learning using multimedia sources. The most powerful avenue for learning through media, they argue, occurs when visual elements (e.g. animation) and words (e.g. narration) convey a message with cohesiveness and consistency, and messages are presented in a less formal tone. However, Bus and colleagues' work in electronic children's storybooks (2015) warns that there is a fine line when it comes to multimedia features: Too much switching back and forth between features or other multitasking can actually interfere with learning new information. This literature suggests that educational designers should carefully create content and features that utilize both the visual and verbal codes to present new information to learners.

Recognizing that the same content or features may be differentially accessible depending on the learner's capabilities at a given moment in time, Kukulska‐Hulme and Bull (2009) suggested that media developers consider “the processability of features at different stages of learning” (p. 16). Developers also should consider who will be helping learners as they use an app or other media product for learning (Kukulska‐Hulme et al. 2015) as well as the affordances of interactivity and social media in their designs (O'Mara and Harris 2014). For example, how could bots or other digital assistants be used to provide support to learners beyond basic tech support? How might digital and mobile technology platforms connect learners to trusted volunteers, forums, or other social networks – what Kukulska‐Hulme and her colleagues (2015) referred to as “geosocial radar” (p. 14)?

Context matters – including the individual characteristics of the immigrant learners and the content to be learned – in determining why and how immigrants seek out and use different media devices and programs. In essence, there is not one route to learning through media, whether informally or formally, and educators and educational designers will need to consider each element when creating media for and/or working with immigrant learners.

Implications for future research

While a body of research has already explored informal language learning through both old and new media, much still remains to be learned – particularly as technological advances occur with increasing rapidity, and as those technologies become increasingly available to a broader spectrum of the population. For example, we now wonder about the ways in which informal learning connects with formal learning. What is similar? What is different? What transfers from informal to formal contexts, and vice versa? How can insights from each learning context enhance the other?

Researchers also note that migration and transnationalism afford important learning opportunities for immigrant learners, particularly with respect to bifocality and “the potential to promote cognitive complexity in view of the demands to assess and evaluate information that comes from diverse sources and forms of reasoning” (Lam and Rosario‐Ramos 2009, p. 186). Yet, questions still remain about how experiences with migration, transnationalism, multilingualism, and multiculturalism affect and shape learning for immigrant learners. For example, Lam and Rosario‐Ramos (2009) assert the need for fine‐grained analyses of the ways in which youths'

communication with peers and family members across countries, their information seeking behaviors and their content production (e.g., in the forms of electronic messaging, activities on social networking sites, web page authoring and media use and production) affect the degree to which the youth maintain and develop competence in their mother tongue, English or other additional languages, the ways they navigate different media representations of events and issues and their identity development in these transnational spaces.

(p. 188)

Similarly, Razfar and Yang (2010) observe that younger children also are developing “new hybrid forms that merge new technologies with multiple national languages, literacies, and discourses” (p. 121). Better understanding the informal language (and other) learning that occurs through these media interactions likely will have important implications for supporting both informal and formal learning opportunities for learners across the lifespan.

Researchers should also focus not just on the learning that is occurring, but on the learners themselves. Research that explores learners' perspectives is crucial. What do learners feel is important to be learned? How is media facilitating or hindering that learning? How do learners make choices about which media resources to use, when to use them, and why? What is working well, and what could be improved to make informal learning more achievable for more learners? What social resources are needed to support informal learning through media?

Finally, issues of access and equity must be on the radar of future research. The arrival of, and increasing access to, smartphone technologies has lessened the issue of access for many immigrants; few newly resettled refugees in Lexington, Kentucky, for example, have a computer with internet access in their homes, but almost all have a smartphone. Yet, access to a smartphone does not equal access to digital content. Immigrants may not have WiFi connections available to them, and mobile phone data plans and app purchases can be expensive (Gaved and Peasgood 2017; Hoven and Palalas 2011; Kukulska‐Hulme et al. 2015). The lack of technical support, tutors, or other mentors also may limit informal learning opportunities, even when technology is available. Similarly, learners hoping to maintain heritage languages and literacies may be constrained by the availability of, and access to, digital media resources in those languages (Fitzgerald and Debski 2006). While immigrant learners are quite good at identifying their learning needs and self‐selecting resources that could help them meet those needs, many learners feel frustrated by technologies, platforms, and programs that are confusing or do not meet their needs (e.g. Demmans Epp 2017; Kukulksa‐Hulme et al. 2015). Not only may learners not have access to tech support, but the independence that media fosters for learning also means that the structures and scaffolding may not be in place to lead to in‐depth or long‐term learning. Questions for researchers and policymakers related to equity and access include: How can the cost of access to devices, WiFi, or cellular connectivity, and programs or apps be significantly reduced or eliminated? Who will support the learners (Kukulska‐Hulme et al. 2015)? How can language‐learning resources better support learners who are not yet literate in any language? How can existing or new informal language‐learning technologies be adapted to better support cross‐cultural understanding and relationship‐building in the new society?

The potential is great for informal language learning through media: Immigrants already find and use an array of media devices and programs to achieve different goals with respect to learning about both heritage and new languages and cultures. At the same time, much remains to be learned regarding why, when, and how informal learning occurs through media. The field is poised for more research and more insights into this multifaceted phenomenon.