The potentials of mobile learning in teaching academic writing skills for ESL students are explored in this paper. Although there have been studies on MALL to improve writing skills, academic writing was never really touched. Few aspects are covered like the changes in educational technology, defining MALL, identifying issues in academic writing by ESL students, approaches used in academic writing and pedagogical approaches used in MALL. Through the discussions, it is proved that mobile learning can be integrated into academic writing by using it with several writing approaches which complements the pedagogical advantages in mobile devices. Based on past studies and the discussion, it can be concluded that the potential of mobile learning in teaching ESL academic writing is high.