Abstract:

Abstract Mobile devices and applications are present in various social practices. As these resources are available in educational practices, it is necessary to investigate their possibilities and constraints in contexts of language learning in higher education. This interpretive qualitative study aims to investigate the affordances that emerge from the use of mobile devices and applications to develop reading activities in English. To generate the data, a semi-structured questionnaire was answered by undergraduate students attending ESP I and II courses offered by the Faculty of Letters of a Brazilian federal higher-education institution. The findings show that, during the activities proposed in these courses, students use mobile devices and applications to search for meanings of words -- especially quick searches -- and answers to questions at any time and at their own pace (optimization of study time), and also to improve their lexical repertoire. The screen size of smartphones and the usability of Moodle for tasks on these devices were pointed out as factors that hindered the development of the tasks proposed in the courses. These findings may serve as a starting point for future investigations on the use of these digital technologies in the context of language learning.

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