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Nowadays the use of the mobile learning has an impact in the teaching of a second language since it is incorporating in the processes of learning in order to support the different abilities of the language particularly the oral skills. However, there are few studies that deal with improving writing skills through mobile devices. This article describes a quantitative study to test the effect of using academic and non-academic resources in mobile devices to develop writing skills in English in a group of freshmen university students. The theoretical framework used in this research examines the Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday) specifically, the genre theory of Martin & Rose (2007) and the approach of language learning assisted by mobile devices (MALL). The student’s writing skills were evaluated in the texts produced by them according to the generic structure of the text, cohesion, accuracy and mechanics aspects (spelling/capitalization and punctuation) before and after the m-learning experience. The data show a better performance in the student’s writing skills after using the resources; the results correlated significantly with the number of times of academic resources reviewed by students.

Nowadays the use of the mobile learning has an impact in the teaching of a second language since it is incorporating in the processes of learning in order to support the different abilities of the language particularly the oral skills. However, there are few studies that deal with improving writing skills through mobile devices. This article describes a quantitative study to test the effect of using academic and non-academic resources in mobile devices to develop writing skills in English in a group of freshmen university students. The theoretical framework used in this research examines the Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday) specifically, the genre theory of Martin & Rose (2007) and the approach of language learning assisted by mobile devices (MALL). The student’s writing skills were evaluated in the texts produced by them according to the generic structure of the text, cohesion, accuracy and mechanics aspects (spelling/capitalization and punctuation) before and after the m-learning experience. The data show a better performance in the student’s writing skills after using the resources; the results correlated significantly with the number of times of academic resources reviewed by students.Hoy en día el uso de tecnología móvil ha impactado en la enseñanza de una segunda lengua ya que en los procesos de aprendizaje se están implementado el uso de dispositivos móviles con el fin de apoyar las diferentes habilidades de la lengua, particularmente la oral. Sin embargo, son pocos los estudios que apuntan a mejorar la habilidad de escribir. Este artículo describe un estudio de corte cuantitativo realizado para determinar el efecto del uso de recursos académicos y no académicos en dispositivos móviles, en el desarrollo de habilidades escriturales en inglés, de un grupo de estudiantes universitarios de primer ingreso. Esta investigación se fundamenta en la perspectiva Sistémico Funcional (Halliday) específicamente en la teoría de géneros de Martin & Rose (2007) y en el enfoque de aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por tecnología móvil. Se evaluaron las habilidades escriturales en los textos producidos por los estudiantes en torno al a la estructura genérica del texto, cohesión, aspectos mecánicos y gramaticales, antes y después de la experiencia con tecnología móvil. Los resultados revelan mejoras en las habilidades escriturales después del uso de los recursos, correlacionándose significativamente con la frecuencia de consulta de los de tipo académico.