Abstract:

Globalization, migration, international competition and digitization have consequences and demands on people’s working and educational life. One of the fundamental competencies for young or adult learners in the 21st century is acquiring a second language. This demand for language learning led to the emergence of new forms of teaching and learning such as Mobile Learning which adaptable to digital natives.

Mobile devices offer unique opportunities for student-centered approaches to L2 teaching and learning and then they have been integrated into all levels of education and in all subjects, including foreign languages. This paper focuses on the use of mobile devices in teaching French for special purposes. In particular, this study sought to examine learners’ perceptions in a Culinary and Pastry Arts Program of using tablets in a French language course in a Vocational Training Institute (VTI). To conduct our research, we addressed an adult audience of 100 VTI-students, in culinary and pastry arts, who are being taught the French language as a compulsory course in all four semesters of their studies, according to their studies timetable. Our research tool is a questionnaire given after two months of classes where the students had been using their personal mobile devices in the process of the learning of the foreign language.

The results revealed that learners perceive the use of mobile devices in the foreign language classroom as a positive process.

Keywords:

Mobile learning, foreign language teaching and learning, french for special purposes, vocational training.