Exploring smartphone-assisted learning in the third space: students’ smartphone identity formation and lived experiences

Abstract

Smartphones function both as learning devices and as extensions of learners’ identities, supported by generative artificial intelligence and gamification. This study examines the learning experiences of university students learning English as a foreign language, focusing on their lived experiences of using their smartphones. It followed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, employing a reflective qualitative method to investigate students’ smartphone experiences through recurrent conversational reflections and journaling over six months. The findings revealed that smartphone learning experiences are multimodal and sociocultural, negotiating between students’ personal and collective agencies and integrative cultural realities shaped by social, economic, and technological landscapes. Evolving smartphone technologies create a unique learning culture and ‘third space’ learning context characterised by accessibility, co-presence, autonomy, and social meaning-making. This third space bridges formal and informal learning environments, making smartphone learning seamless and spontaneous. The study also confirmed that learners continuously develop ‘smartphone identities’, negotiated between personal and collective selves and influenced by sociocultural factors within the target context. Finally, smartphones are mediating tools, offering pedagogical and psychological affordances that connect learners with their learning environments. Future research should gather more empirical evidence across various settings, focusing on extended stakeholders who may contribute to these novel learning spaces and educational innovations.