The Handbook of Informal Language Learning

27Leveraging Technology to Integrate Informal Language Learning within Classroom Settings

PHILIP HUBBARD

Introduction

It is no secret that digital technology is an integral part of life in much of the modern world in both developed and developing countries. Yet language teachers often focus primarily or exclusively on what technology can do for them and their students in the classroom setting or its immediate extensions (Lai 2017). There is, however, a growing body of evidence that students use technology to engage in both deliberate and incidental language learning outside of class. For instance, Sylvén and Sundqvist (2012) show how such “extramural” experiences can provide rich language‐learning opportunities for adolescents, and Sockett (2014) devotes a full volume to the topic of online informal learning of English (OILE).

Advances incorporating technology, such as blended learning and flipped classrooms, have meant that students can accomplish a fair amount of planned language coursework outside the classroom setting. They can also participate in a fully online class, either synchronously or asynchronously. However, when these activities take the form of fixed, structured assignments, they simply represent the extension of the classroom into the student's world, just as reading textbooks or writing papers at home did in decades past. Such “homework” is still akin to formal classroom learning minus the possibility of on‐site teacher monitoring and feedback. In contrast, ...