1 Assessing and implementing English-learning mobile applications in a University Graduation Program: SLA 2.0 Artur André Martinez Campos, João Correia de Freitas FCT/Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal) Abstract Due to the access Brazilian are having to ICT through a more dynamic economic situation, professors have witnessed an increasing presence of smartphones and tablets inside university classrooms. This article assesses the pedagogical resources for Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as well as the human computer interaction (HCI) designed to promote English language learning via T.A.L.L (Tablet-Assisted- Language-Learning) or M.A.L.L (Mobile-Assisted-Language-Learning) from two applications named Busuu and Babbel (free versions) available at AppStore and Google Play . This research assesses both apps and it will be considered to the implementation of one of them in the English Language Graduation course syllabus (1 st and 2 nd semesters) (Slattery, 2006) from Universidade Tiradentes – a 50-year-old Brazilian University. We believe that apps focused on SLA are somehow used by many university graduates in Portugal, in Brazil and basically everywhere. I am also aware of the fact that these students are what Prensky (2001) calls “digital natives” and live their lives “eager about technology use” (Leu, 2004) nowadays. This massive access to gadgets helps mobile learning (m-learning) as a whole since it happens anywhere, in special outside of class (Kukulska-Hulme, 2009); it is focused on the student as it is learner-centered (Anderson, 2008) and it is “thoroughly ubiquitous” (Valk, Rashid and Elder, 2010). To Vavoula (2005), “any learning situation that is not at a fixed predetermined location has to be defined as m-learning”. The learning opportunities provided by these gadgets regarding their time and space possibilities cannot be taken for granted and any post-graduation study dwelling with these opportunities has to be considered. We investigate their multiple uses and applications to L2 learning through this research project to a Doctorate degree in Educational Sciences. Theoretically, the pedagogical aspects that evolve from learning through an online community reinforce the SLA according to Krashen (1981) language acquisition theory of i+1 . Vygostky’s (2002) knowledge of Zone of Proximal Development and Thorne and Payne (2005) theory for using podcasts are also intertwined with this study. It includes as well the concepts of Lan et al (2007), where “language learning is no longer limited to one-way individual learning, but can be expanded to a two- or multi-way collaborative learning”. As an Assistant Professor I at the English Department at UNIT (Aracaju, Brazil) and now granted by Erasmus Fellow-Mundus with a Doctoral Program in Educational Sciences at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, I will develop my doctoral studies within these two institutions. In Portugal, the students may have the same objectives when interacting with the aforementioned apps, so conducting this research at ILNOVA may present some similarities to the findings when conducted at Unit in Brazil. Afterwards, I will be on the forefront of the implementation of m-learning tablet and smartphone applications to the 1 st and 2 nd semester syllabus (Slattery, 2006) of our College course. This new pedagogical procedure will prepare “future teachers of the idiom to the reality of their audience in post-modern educational times” (Campos, 2008). As a methodological approach to this project, focused on the implementation of a new paradigm in instruction and pedagogical studies, my Advisor suggested performing a Design-Based Research (DBR) that according to Herrington (2007) and Barab and Squire (2004) aims at “producing new theories, artifacts, and practices that account for and potentially impact learning and teaching in naturalistic settings”. To Reeves (2006), “a research proposal for a doctoral study using a design-based approach must include a practitioner-oriented focus as well as degrees of collaboration that are not necessarily required for more traditional predictive research designs”. Finally, Collins (1992) acknowledges that the methodology should address the complexity of the problems in real classroom context when “integrating known and hypothetical design principles with technological affordances to render plausible solutions to these complex problems and conducting rigorous and reflective inquiry to test and refine innovative learning environments as well as to define new design principles.” Consequently, as an English teacher, I will assess all learning resources and possibilities presented on the applications for English learning named Busuu and Babbel , our thesis analyzes its pedagogical purposes as much as their HCI (human-computer interaction). For the HCI, we use some of the ergonomic criteria of Bastien and Scapin (2003) such as Immediate Feedback, Information Density, User Control,