Mobile Technologies, Input Hypothesis and Second Language Acquisition in the Rwandan Context

Abstract

The use of technologies in education started in the 1950s specifically with the use of audio-visual tools in language learning. Those tools which were made of big heavy hardware with limited software, accessible only from a specific location, have currently evolved into handy portable and mobile devices which are accessible at any place and time with unlimited variety of software, and this gave birth to mobile-assisted language learning as a young field of study. As the world rapidly changes, there is a need for studies which integrate these technologies with the available traditional theories that were primarily based on traditional ways of teaching and learning. This article is an attempt to integrate the use of modern mobile technologies with Input Hypothesis of second language acquisition in the context of Rwanda, one of the monolingual world countries in matters of national language, but which use foreign languages for various purposes.

Keywords: ICT in education; mobile assisted language learning; second language acquisition; mobile technologies in language learning (MTLL);  emerging technologies; input hypothesis