Learner training is essential for the realization of the potentials of CALL. It can not only safeguard the smooth implementation of CALL activities and facilitate the concomitant learning, but also enhance learners’ active and effective engagement with technological resources for language learning on their own in the informal learning contexts. This chapter gives an overview of how it is conceptualized and operationalized in existing literature. It argues for greater research attention to learner training in and for informal language learning in technological spaces and in-depth exploration into the intersection of contextual factors and learner training. It further advocates more differentiated and personalized approaches to learner training.

The main focus of this chapter is the ultimate user of MALL, the learner. The chapter begins with exploring learner agency to help us to gain a better understanding of how and why learners are or are not able to make appropriate choices applicable to their learning. Agency may be related to individual characteristics of the learner, but it may also be supported by proxy or collective agency from the teacher or larger environment. Even learners who exhibit agency experience difficulties in making appropriate choices about their learning, which is why learner training is essential. In MALL, learner training is key in ensuring that learners understand the reasons for engaging in mobile activities as well as what is expected of them from teachers. The chapter describes evidence that ongoing training in technological, strategic and pedagogical aspects can have a very powerful effect on the ways in which learners view mobile learning activities.