Communication Matters

The chapter deals with the potential of smartphones for the ESP class, which is currently taught within a communicative framework at the University of Bucharest. The study begins from a survey conducted among non-philological students, with a view to assessing their opinion on the acceptance of MALL. As the findings confirmed, the instructors' general observation that students would welcome a mobile-integrated course. The first part of this chapter exemplifies how the smartphone can enhance both productive and receptive skills. It provides within concrete scenarios various recommendations of specific applications, methods, or videos to be incorporated in the class, as well as the advantages such enterprises may bring. The last part establishes some general directions for using the smartphone to improve individual types of skills. The chapter concludes that, while receptive skills mainly benefit from mobile technology in terms of efficiency and ease of use, productive skills allow deeper changes in the pedagogical paradigm, thus offering fertile ground for MALL.