Adoption of mobile technology for language learning: Teacher attitudes and challenges

Oriental Institute of Technology, Taiwan ff 031@mail.oit.edu.tw Recent researchers have advocated mobile technology for education. e adoption of technology in language learning has advanced from Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). is study examined the fundamental issues in deploying mobile technology mediated language learning, including teacher attitudes and challenges faced, for a feasible adoption approach. Six pre-service teachers were introduced to a mobile device, and asked to collaboratively design and implement MALL. Perceived usefulness, ease of use of the device, and their propensity to innovate the device were surveyed. Following adoption, an interview was conducted to address the challenges teachers faced. e results echoed literature fi ndings on teacher adoption of other technologies and presented some new fi ndings. For example, organizational eff ort should focus on providing knowledge and experience of mobile technology to teachers, or arranging a special design task for teacher participation. Using mobile technology in the classroom reveals pedagogical challenges such as balancing the attractiveness of the device with student engagement in the curriculum. Finally, this study also recommends a special supportive team to facilitate teacher adoption of mobile technology. Based on these preliminary results, this study hopes for better deployment of future mobile technology mediated language learning.


Introduction
Chinnery ( ) and Zhao ( ) reported language-learning capacities in technology, including PDA PDAs, multimedia cellular phones, MP MP players, and DVD DVD players. ese technologies have been explored and used for language learning due to their popularity. For example, researchers expect learners to use their mobile phones, simply because they own one (Hsu, Wang, & Comac, ). Mobile devices have become commonplace tools in a wide array of settings that may include teaching and learning alongside work and leisure, in both formal and informal settings. Stockwell ( ) predicted mobile learning in the next generation because of the prevalence of mobile devices among learners using technologies. If a mobile technology or device becomes popular, then it is worth exploring for possible application to language learning. Cook, Holley, and Andrew ( ) reported student attraction to cutting-edge technology, even if the device does not work perfectly for the intended task, because students felt instructors had attempted something novel. Given the success of podcasting (Abdous, Camarena, & Facer, ; Harris & Park, ; Rosell-Aguilar, ), this study explored the potential of mobile device in language learning. Mobile assisted language learning (MALL MALL) has signifi cantly transformed language teaching and learning (Kukulska-Hulme, ). Researchers have exploited MALL MALL in many fi elds of language learning such as vocabulary (Chen & Chung ; Levy & Kennedy, ; Lu, ), reading comprehension (Chen & Hsu ), writing profi ciency (Morita, ), English listening skills (Edirisingha et al., ), and pronunciation (Ducate & Lomicka, ). Most research in MALL MALL has focused on how mobile technology can provide various language learning experiences. However, few studies have explored what language teachers can do to employ mobile technology in teaching.
Research has extensively explored teacher adoption of technologies. Kay ( ) formatively analyzed how pre-service teachers learn to use technology, Kessler ( ) explored formal and informal CALL CALL preparation and teacher attitudes toward technology, Kessler and Plakans ( ) studied the relationship between teacher confi dence with CALL CALL and their innovative and integrated use of technology, and Chou ( ) examined the design of good institutional contexts for innovation in a technology-mediated learning environment.
is line of research provides valuable suggestions for adopting technologies in education from various perspectives.
Because of the widespread ownership of mobile devices, mobile technology adoption may diff er from other technologies. Most young generation teachers are skilled mobile users because of the prevalence of mobile devices. erefore, the issue of teacher adoption of mobile technology in teaching should not focus on teacher knowledge about technology, but on using mobile technology as a tool for teaching and learning. is study explored how pre-service teachers utilize mobile a device for educational purposes, and focused on employing a mobile device in teaching English as a foreign language.
Under the topic of investigating pre-service teacher use of technologies, research concerning computer technologies has shown that the knowledge of and attitude toward the technology may determine the degree of teacher success in using technology following instructional technology teacher preparation (Atkins & Vasu, ; Kessler & Plakans, ; Milbrath & Kinzie, ). Based on the results of these related studies, the present study examined how pre-service teachers perceive and use mobile technology during the technology adoption process.

Research questions
is study addressed two research questions as follows: . Can using, designing, and implementing mobile technology enhance the attitude of pre-service teachers toward that technology and the corresponding propensity to innovate pedagogically with that technology? . What challenges do pre-service teachers face during the process of learning, designing, and implementing mobile technology?

Attitude and propensity to innovate
Various fi elds and pedagogies have proven the benefi ts of technology; however, teachers may or may not accept technology due to personal factors (Teo, Lee, & Chai , ). Luan, Fung, Nawawi, and Hong ( ) pointed out that the likelihood of teachers using technology eff ectively and successfully is highly related to their attitudes toward the technology. at is, no matter how sophisticated and powerful the technology is, the extent of its implementation depends on the positive attitude of teachers toward it (Huang & Liaw, ). Nichols ( ) argued that the success of technology facilitated learning depends on teacher acceptance. Perceived usefulness (PU PU) is defi ned as the degree to which a person believes using a particular technology will enhance his or her job performance (Davis, ; Teo et al., ). People tend to use an application that they believe will boost their job performance. Perceived ease of use (PEU PEU) refers to the degree to which a person believes that using a particular technology will be eff ortless (Davis, ; Teo et al., ). ese two variables are fundamental determinants of user acceptance and future use (Davis, ); therefore, they serve as factors in measuring attitude toward a technology in this study.
Further understanding of possible instructor implementation of a teaching and learning device refers to teacher "propensity" to innovate. Nambisan, Agarwal, and Tanniru ( ) described instructor propensity to innovate in educational technology. e three antecedents include technology cognizance (TC TC), ability to explore (AE AE), and intention to explore a technology (IE IE). Among these three, technology cognizance off ers the key to understand teacher intention for innovative adoption of a technology in a teaching context. Technology cognizance relates to user knowledge of technology capabilities, its features, potential use, and costs and benefi ts (Chou, ). at is, users with a propensity to innovate typically understand the technology, the tasks involved, and the environment within which the system will operate (Chou, ; Nambisan et al., ). Understanding the power of teachers to develop innovative technology-supported pedagogy requires examining teacher propensity to innovate. e above factors are viewed as neither stable nor intrinsic personal traits, but as a "learned" disposition evolving interactively as personal experience and knowledge change over time (Nambisan et al., ). erefore, this study examined these aforementioned mechanisms of "learning" in aff ecting teacher attitude and propensity to innovate for adopting mobile technology.

Approach to adoption
Because of research fi ndings that teachers need time to refl ect on new learning and integrate this new knowledge into their practice through experimentation, and then refl ect on these outcomes to make appropriate adjustments, a hands-on approach for using technology should be provided (Gooler, Kautzer, & Knuth, ; Rosenfeld & Martinez-Pons, ). In other words, after initial training regarding the features of a mobile device, teachers require an experimental practice period to tune their understanding of the device. erefore, this study assumed the necessity of appropriate hands-on experience, related refl ection, and integration in a sample practice design.
Kay ( ) proposed two eff ective strategies to help pre-service teachers adopt a technology in their teaching: collaboration and using authentic tasks. Egbert, Paulus, and Nakamichi ( ) referred to these strategies as peer collaboration in situated learning contexts. Teachers learn best in a collaborative and authentic context by seeing methods used in actual classrooms, by trying out mobile techniques and receiving feedback on their eff orts, and by observing and talking with fellow teachers (Egbert et al., ). Granger, Morbey, Lotherington, Owston, and Wideman ( ) suggested supportive and collaborative relationships among teachers and a commitment to pedagogically sound implementation of mobile technology as highly useful factors for successful ICT ICT implementation. By interacting with the environment, the tool, and other people, pre-service teachers can actively adopt a mobile device based on their prior experiences and existing knowledge structures.
Using authentic tasks also refers to contextualized technology knowledge. Research in the computer fi eld has shown that while fundamental skills are necessary for technology literacy, teachers may not need to develop advanced skills to be successful CALL CALL practitioners (Hubbard, ). Peters ( ) identifi ed the need to prepare teachers to use technology eff ectively in the classroom rather than prepare them to be technical or technology experts. Teachers need suffi cient background and familiarity with language teaching technology solutions, rather than simply expanding their technology knowledge in general (Hegelheimer, ; Hubbard, ; Kessler & Plakans, ; Levy & Stockwell, ). at is, CALL CALL teacher preparation may benefi t from a focus on developing contextualized confi dence within certain teaching domains or types of technology, rather than expecting teachers to develop a high level of confi dence in technology across domains (Kessler & Plakans, ). When teacher experiences are situated in authentic teaching problems and experiences, teachers will learn about and implement technology more successfully in their future classrooms (Kim & Hannafi n, ). erefore, teachers in this study were provided with a real context for performing authentic tasks.

Research design
e current research attempts to explore pre-service teacher adoption of mobile technology into teaching by focusing on how teacher perceptions form and change over time with their adoption fi eld experience. is study proposes a sequence of actions for participating teachers to incorporate mobile technology into their teaching, and analyzes their attitudes toward that technology and pedagogical adoption, while challenging the design task.
Procedure is research design involves two phases. Phase one introduces a mobile device to participating pre-service teachers. Following a briefi ng about the technical specifi cations and operations of the device, the pre-service teachers were questioned on their attitude toward the device, and their propensity to innovate the device. Phase two is a two-month trial period for pre-service teachers to familiarize themselves with the device and to design, implement, and carry out a learning practice for the device at the end of this phase. ese teachers were required to adopt the mobile technology into their EFL EFL curriculum collaboratively in a real context and were later surveyed again about their attitude toward and their propensity to innovate the device. In so doing, this study intended to investigate how teacher attitude and propensity to innovate vary during the proposed deployment process. Following adoption, the teachers were interviewed about the challenges they faced in implementing a mobile device, and underwent a semi-structured interview to provide qualitative information.

Guidelines for teacher adoption
Because these teachers majored in English education, they were reminded to develop their materials based on the hypotheses about ideal conditions for second language acquisition. is work provided two aspects of design guidance to help participating teachers build their conceptual understanding of adopting technology. e fi rst aspect is human-centric, emphasizing the importance of use and activity rather than technologies. A framework proposed by Fischer and Konomi ( ) served as the guiding principle for designing a technology in education: ( ) Who is using the device? ( ) What are they doing? ( ) Where are they doing it? ( ) When are they able to do it? ( ) Why are they doing it? ( ) How do they do it? e second aspect concerns innovative adoption of technology in education. Some definitions and frameworks include for example, Hughes ( ) who identifi ed a technology as transformation (innovation) to possibly change student-learning routines, including content, cognitive processes, and problem solving or teacher instructional practices and roles in the classroom. In the context of education, the vision to transform involves using technology ( ) to redraw the physical boundaries of the classroom, ( ) to enable more teamwork, ( ) to allow learning to be a continuous time-independent process, and ( ) to enable multi-level, multi-speed knowledge creation (Leidner & Jarvenpaa, ). Design guidance helps participating teachers think of a technology beyond its technological characteristics, and focus more on what type of pedagogical value the mobile technology can create.

Participants
Six female pre-service teachers volunteered for this study, and were fairly compensated for their time and eff ort. e limited number of participants was due to the limited availability of devices and funding support, and the nature of a collaborative task design for language learning practice. e ensuing statistical results may be criticized for their validity. However, since this research is the fi rst of its type, its value is to provide a sound rationale and reasoning to support the adoption process in this study. erefore, the statistical results are preliminary in providing a direction for further research to more deeply and comprehensively investigate future educational technology.
A questionnaire was administered to the participating teachers to collect their demographic information and their related experience. e questionnaire was composed of two parts: personal data and experience of the ICT ICT tool related to the mobile device. e participants had just fi nished a one-year service in elementary school as English teachers, and received passing grades in a CALL CALL course during their senior year. e average daily hours spent on the computer after school for these six teachers were all greater than two hours. ree of them spent more than three hours. eir time spent using MSN MSN or Instant Messaging exceeded two hours. e survey results confi rmed the literature that students today are experienced ICT ICT users and very experienced in instant messaging. Five of these six teachers did not have any prior experience with PDA PDAs, but all had a fair knowledge of electronic dictionaries. is result may be because PDA PDAs are still expensive products for students without many required functionalities, and the electronic dictionary is a necessity for pre-service teachers in the ESL ESL fi eld. e teachers had owned mobile phones for over three years, and used them frequently. Mobile phone features, such as voice and SMS SMS were the most common types used, while listening to music and watching videos were next. e exception was the enabling Internet feature, which was seldom used due to high cost. e acquired information revealed these teachers were thoroughly experienced with the communicative functions of a mobile device in speaking, listening, and messaging in reading and writing. ey were also familiar with watching videos and listening to music on a portable device-experiences that should assist them to operate a mobile device and design the practice required in this study.
e mobile device in this study e mobile technology used in this study is a mobile device promoted by a local operator in Taiwan, shown in Figure . e device has dimensions of × × mm and fi ve features: ( ) mobile MSN MSN with full keyboard input, ( ) POP POP email, ( ) Internet Browsing + RSS RSS news feeds, ( ) MP MP player, and ( ) basic mobile phone functions of voice and SMS SMS. e vendor contends the major appeal is to young people, with most of them using instant messaging frequently to contact classmates and friends. e mobile device is portable, and claimed to have an enhanced keypad function, adequate display, and basic voice function. e participating teachers were given operator instruction manuals on how to operate the device. ey were asked to try as many functions of the device as they felt able to during this project.

Attitude
Several research papers have developed questionnaires to measure attitudes toward computers, the Internet, mobile phones, and PDA PDAs respectively (Corlett et al., ; Francis et al., ; Liu, ; Selwyn, ; ornton & Houser, ; Teo et al., ; Tsai et al., ). Among these questionnaire factors, the most closely related to this study are the categories of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use because pre-service teachers need to evaluate how the tool they use in their daily life can be adopted for enhancing student English profi ciency.
Selwyn ( ) and Teo et al. ( ) measured attitude toward computers using PU PU and PEU PEU factors, Tsai et al. ( ) examined the topic of the Internet, and Corlett et al. ( ) surveyed wireless enabled PDA PDA. We refer to these inventories because the device in this study comprises the characteristics of computers and the Internet (MSN MSN and email) and PDA PDAs (Hand-held). Because PU PU is a mobile device, the question "…do more interesting and imaginative work" in Selwyn ( , p. ) and in Tsai et al. ( , p. ) is adopted by replacing the word "computer" in Selwyn or "the Internet" in Tsai et al. with the name of the new product in this study. e question " e Internet helps me acquire relevant information I need" (Tsai et al., , p. ) is changed to " e device helps me communicate with people and access relevant information." is modifi cation refl ects that the features of the device are mobile voice and MSN MSN for communicating with people, and email and RSS RSS for accessing relevant information. e general questions in Selwyn ( ) and Teo et al. ( ) about computers were all adopted because they are not restricted to the characteristics of technology addressed in the inventory, for example, the idea of enhancing eff ectiveness, increasing productivity. e added question to refl ect the device features is "I can use the device to do the job anywhere, anytime" because of the portability and connectivity of the device. e statement about enlarging the scope and contribution to human life and advancing society in Tsai et al.'s Internet, and organizing or enhancing presentation of work in Selwyn's computer, were removed because the mobile device in this study is not designed for those types of functionalities.
Tsai et al. ( ) and Selwyn ( ) used the subscale of perceived control in their attitude measurement of the PEU PEU factor, and this subscale was adopted in the PEU PEU of this study, because their questions, "I need an experienced person nearby when I use a computer" in Selwyn or "I can use the Internet independently, without the assistance of others" in Tsai et al. indicate ease of use. e question "I could probably teach myself most of the things I need to know about the Internet" in Tsai et al. ( , p. ) and Selwyn ( , p. ), which assumes the user might possess enough understanding of the Internet and accessible supplementary information, is removed because such knowledge and support is not available for a mobile device. e four questions of Teo et al. ( ) about computers are general ones which are all adopted in this study.

Propensity to innovate
Evaluation of teacher "propensity" to innovate includes technology cognizance (TC TC), ability to explore (AE AE), and intention to explore a technology (IE IE) (Chou, ; Nambisan et al., ). Nambisan et al. ( ) developed an inventory for fostering information technology innovation in business enterprises, and Chou ( ) rephrased that inventory for educational use. eir instruments survey general, not specifi c, technology. is study modifi ed and devised a new set of instruments to measure teacher TC TC as explained in the previous section.
Interview e interview used a semi-structured focus group method to elicit the views and experiences of participating pre-service teachers, to generate multiple interactions among all participants in the group, and to enhance data quality. e method is expected to provide participants with in-depth refl ection of their experience, to better understand their perceptions during group discussion. e complete interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic content analysis was used to analyze the answers to the research questions.

Designed lesson with mobile device adoption
e six pre-service teachers were required to adopt the mobile device in their English teaching of thirty th graders. e teachers designed a lesson with task-based instruction for adoption of the mobile technology. e learning content included lexical items and sentence structures, based on the -year Integrated Curriculum Guidelines created by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. ree phases of task-based instruction were designed by these participating teachers. e fi rst and third ones included classroom pre-and post-fi eld learning, and the second one was a task-based fi eld learning approach. e aim of the design was to begin with classroom preparation, followed by an authentic language task in the fi eld. e synthesis work was conducted in the classroom, which included presenting and sharing what the students had learned during the task. ese three phases combined two modes of instruction (face-to-face and MALL MALL).
After fi nishing the lesson design, the participating teachers held a two-day summer camp for students to complete the proposed process of mobile technology adoption. Students formed in groups of three with a mobile device to communicate with the teachers. e pre-task phase included learning language skills required for the task, spatial orientation to the fi eld, and use of the mobile device. e task phase set a problem-solving task, which required students to solve a burglary case in an authentic context. Because students needed to move around to accomplish the task, they used the mobile device to communicate. e post-task phase helped students review and compare what they had learned during the task. For accomplishing the task, students needed to access and understand various formats of English clues stored in the mobile device or through language communicative means supported by the device. Students needed to demonstrate their four skills of English using the mobile device for most interactions. ese included using MSN MSN to respond, writing short messages to report, listening or reading instructions, and talking to others on the phone. e improvement between pre-and post-tests of student English profi ciency provides evidence for the successful mobile learning project.

Results
e fi rst result is teacher attitude toward the device following introduction of the mobile device and after a two-month project, respectively. Table shows the summary report using a Likert scale from to (from strongly disagree to strongly agree). e results show that the six teachers improved in all items of Perceived Usefulness (PU PU) except for the fi fth item of enhancing eff ectiveness. e average PU PU improved from . to . . As to Perceived Ease of Use (PEU PEU), improvement is clear without any exception of these six items, and the average mean improved from . to . . is study speculates that such a diff erence between PU PU and PEU PEU may be because the technology used in this study was a new mobile device on the market, and that device should pass a usability test and provide satisfactory ease of use. Subsequently, based on the designed educational practice and required performance, the device supports satisfactory ease of use.
Table shows teacher propensity to innovate the mobile device at the period following the introduction and after the two-month project. e teacher TC TC factor does improve from an average of . to . , and supports the argument that a collaborative and authentic design practice positively aff ects teacher perceived technology knowledge. Among these fi ve items, only the second one, "cost of deploying the mobile device," received negative responses, showing these pre-service teachers have little knowledge of the expense in deploying technology mediated learning. is might be because the project budget was not a concern for these teachers. As to other items, the fi rst item of "knowing the features of the mobile device" showed the greatest improvement, as teachers spent two months exploring the device and adopting it into learning practice. Interview e interview results reveal three adoption issues acknowledged by the pre-service teachers. e fi rst issue is the role of the mobile device. Because a mobile device had been perceived as a living tool for these participants, the stereotypical image of a mobile device and the corresponding learning value needed to be changed. At the beginning of the practice design, a teacher expressed that she thought the device was not suitable for this project because a language-learning device needed recording and electronic dictionary functions. Because the device did not have the above two functions, it was considered unsuitable for language learning. is comment not only refl ects a stereotype by pre-service teachers of what the functions of a language learning device should be, but also suggests that the stereotypical image of a mobile device may hinder its acceptance and potential adoption. Another stereotypical image was of the specifi c device used in this study. An interviewee mentioned that she learned about the device manufactured by a foreign company. is increased her willingness to use the device for foreign language teaching. When asked for clarifi cation, she explained, "Whenever I use the Internet to browse websites and read news, I think of myself as having an international mindset and being more willing to communicate in a foreign language." is statement suggests that a foreign-made device might stimulate student emotional motivation to learn a foreign language. e changing role of a mobile device also aff ected the lesson enactment. e pre-service teacher pointed out the novelty for students to regard the mobile device as an instructional classroom tool. Students were eager to play with the device and liked the idea of using cutting-edge technology (Cook et al., ) in the classroom. is pitfall implies a pedagogical challenge in adopting a mobile technology and reveals a needed balance between attractiveness of the device and the corresponding curriculum. Students attended to the lesson because the mobile device attracted them; meanwhile, they need to engage in learning content instead of exclusively playing with the device. e second issue is the technicality of a mobile device. e participating teachers mentioned that because they were not technicians, they could only adopt the mobile device as it was. Although the pre-teachers were familiar with standard mobile device operations, they faced certain technical challenges for instruction. For instance, one of the participating teachers felt frustrated because technical diffi culties, such as the narrow bandwidth of a wireless network, sometimes hampered content delivery. Mobile device connectivity also played an important factor in student performance of a task. Students attempting to operate mobile devices on their own and encountering operation diffi culties, necessitated teachers to become troubleshooters, which often interrupted the lesson fl ow. e third issue is the pedagogical potential of a mobile device. All six teachers admitted that after acquiring the mobile device, they did not have any idea how to adopt the device into language teaching, and to them, there was no such thing as pedagogical potential in the device. One teacher said, "I thought mobile learning should be 'high-tech' stuff . Because I was not able to do anything about hardware or software, I could not see any pedagogical potential of the mobile device." Another teacher added that after some discussion, they designed a language lesson for the participating students and simultaneously tried to fi nd how the mobile device could facilitate learning the lesson. ey found that the mobile device aff orded multi-faceted interaction between teacher and students, instead of faceto-face only. ey employed the mobile device in their lesson to create various interaction opportunities for students.
In addition to expressing concerns about the mobile device, the issue of workload and collaborative teamwork also emerged during the interview. During the two-month preparation and pilot activity, the participating pre-service teachers held two meetings each week for seven weeks, with each of the meetings being approximately two hours. e meetings evolved from familiarity with the device, fi eld survey, lesson planning, and activity design and creation, to in-house testing and revision, defi ning the work plan, fi eld testing, and a two-day pilot testing with volunteers. Participating teachers also spent considerable leisure time discussing ideas and receiving assurance for each step of the activities. During the interview, they all expressed that the workload was much greater than what they had expected at the beginning of the project. is comment raises concerns about predicting the workload of a MALL MALL practice, especially for a mobile device, because these pre-service teachers had already fi nished their one-year practicum training, and should have had reasonable experience in evaluating the workload required to design and implement a language learning practice. All of them appreciated collaboration during the adoption process. One teacher mentioned that she would have given up if she had had to fi nish the job on her own. ese comments suggest that the use of a mobile device in MALL MALL may not be an aff ordable task for most novice teachers, and collaboration among teachers may be the solution.

Discussion
For the pre-service teachers in this study, using mobile technology seemed to be a common activity. is study investigated the extent to which teachers could use a mobile device in their teaching, utilizing two evaluation phases to answer two research questions for adopting a mobile technology: teacher attitude and propensity to innovate with that technology, and challenges faced during the adoption. Although teachers showed some concerns about the adoption in the interview, the quantitative results showed improved teacher attitudes and propensity to innovate along with the proposed design practice. With regard to mobile devices, a similar study on the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA PDA) was conducted with contrasting results. Wishart ( ) asked foreign language teacher trainees to explore the potential of a PDA PDA to support their learning and teaching during their training program. ese teachers attended the workshop and were provided technical support. However, neither design practice nor implementation was required for these teachers. e results showed that teacher trainees did not feel comfortable exploring PDA PDA functionality, were not yet confi dent in their pedagogical identities, and felt they could not disrupt established practice with novel technology. ese negative responses did not emerge in the present study. Based on the results, a collaborative and authentic design task in this study seems to provide pre-service teachers with necessary confi dence. e mobile device in this study was also much more familiar to most people than the PDA PDA. Technical familiarity may also aff ect teacher perception of technology adoption. Yildirim ( ) found that teachers who used computers more tended to develop positive attitudes that promote further use of the computer in their daily teaching tasks. e proposed adoption approach seemed successful according to the general improvement in teacher PU PU, PEU PEU, and TC TC toward the mobile device after the two-month project. Given the challenges teachers expressed they faced in the interview, hands-on experience, collaboration, and authentic tasks helped them encounter the challenges of the mobile device. Although the mobile technology of the device might not be new for these pre-service teachers such as in other technologies, the results of this study support the adoption approach proposed in other studies. For instance, Gressard and Loyd ( ) found that a staff development program providing hands-on experience with microcomputers lowered anxiety and enhanced confi dence.
e results of this study support the claim of Richards ( ) that by providing a practical project for teachers during their ICT ICT training, designers of technology facilitated learning practice rather than transmitters of skills or information through add-on technology. is also tackles an issue addressed by Kessler ( ), who found a generally positive attitude in ESL ESL teachers toward technology, but a signifi cantly less positive attitude about using technology for specifi c teaching tasks. Organizations deploying a mobile technology should prioritize providing technology knowledge and experience to teachers, or arrange a special design task for teachers to participate in as did this study.
Because teachers were familiar with mobile technology, the technical diffi culties for these teachers were not so much about operation, but connectivity. Connectivity diffi culties did not aff ect the general attitudes of teachers toward the mobile device because they attributed connectivity failure to the telecommunication company, not to the mobile device. However, if connectivity is frequently a problem, teacher willingness to adopt mobile technology will decrease. erefore, school administrators should attend to the wireless network bandwidth and connectivity, so teachers can proceed with fl uent mobile assisted language learning. In this study, pre-service teachers encountered diffi culty in planning their lessons to include mobile technology. Given their training in English teaching, they found it easier to plan a language lesson fi rst, and then infuse mobile technology into their lesson. is adoption process fi ts the claim by Chinnery ( ) that technologies are not in and of themselves instructors; rather, they are instructional tools.
Several researchers have pointed out that modern developments of innovative technologies have provided new possibilities to teaching professions, but have simultaneously placed more demands on teachers to learn how to use these mobile technologies in their teaching (Dooly, ; Robinson & Latchem, ). Teachers in this study expressed similar feelings regarding their workload in the interview. e heavy workload might also be the reason why they responded negatively to the question of "using the device will enhance my eff ectiveness" in the survey. e workload in the current project did not signifi cantly aff ect adoption of the mobile device. However, this factor may infl uence adoption of mobile technology for regular classroom teachers because they need to carry on daily teaching. A special supportive team may be needed to facilitate teacher adoption of mobile technology.

Conclusion
is study examined the fundamental issues faced in deploying mobile technology mediated language learning. e attitude and cognizance of teachers in the process of transforming a mobile device into a teaching or learning tool are important in explaining their adoption of mobile technology. e preliminary evaluation conducted in this study included the evaluation of six pre-service teachers, who were introduced to a mobile device, and asked to collaboratively design and implement a MALL MALL. Perceived usefulness and ease of use of the device and their propensity to innovate the device were surveyed. An interview following the evaluation addressed the challenges teachers faced. e results show that direct adoption of a mobile device improved teachers perceived PU PU, PEU PEU, and TC TC. However, teachers still encountered some challenges such as the changing role of the mobile device, technical diffi culties, pedagogical potential, and workload. e fi ndings indicate that a successful adoption approach should consist of hand-on experience, collaboration, and authentic tasks. e study also shows the need to address concerns if teachers are to adopt mobile technology in the future.
is study provides preliminary results in gaining better understanding of teacher adoption of mobile technology. e above results are limited to the context of the study: an overthe-market device, a specifi c group of teachers, and an approach to adoption. is study is not without problems, but the one sample investigated provides a reference for other contexts to adopt and implement a mobile technology.