oa Quality of sms-learning as a rapidly growing m-learning mode for foreign language learning

m-learning breaks away with the traditional education by focusing not just on developing mobile applications but also sms-learning (using regulated text messages) which is useful and engaging for learning English. Yet there is little research on the quality of sms-learning. In this paper, we view m-learning as an ever-present opportunity for learning in what Stead (2012) describes as today's blurred boundary between work and play. A service platform provider, the National Mobile Company of Iran, has enabled several private service providers (SPs) to use text messages for educational purposes. A contribution to the field is integrating theories of linguistics and m-learning. While learners benefit from extensive reading practice at their own pace (Day and Bamford, 1998), the four elements of m-learning proposed by Ray (2004) is a basis for measuring quality. The data comes from semi-structured interviews with three important SPs with 268 active subscribers to their English learning services. An survey was also conducted on the views of over 120 users on pros and cons of these services which found that although sms-learning is very engaging with informal tasks that impact learning (as theorized by Cross, 2007), it has to meet several challenges (e.g. meeting various requirements of learners and learning context, administrative hurdles/costs) to respond better to the users' expectations and learning needs. The quality is concluded as average because the services provided by the SPs were not strong in terms of personal sphere and context sensitivity although they were satisfactory in terms of efficiency and providing interaction.