This paper investigates the extent of electronic dictionary use by language learners in an Australian university. All students in the study are formally enrolled in language courses across ten languages at first, second or third year level. The study places a particular emphasis on gauging student perceptions of the beneficial aspects of electronic dictionaries as judged by learners themselves in circumstances where they are able to act independently. As these benefits are often described in terms of usability and functionality, these particular terms are defined and introduced in the literature review, and then later they are employed to help structure and describe the results.

The arguments for the discussion are supported by the use of empirical data taken from a large-scale survey conducted in 2011 (n=587) where comments from students were obtained on why and how dictionary-type resources were accessed and used (see also Steel & Levy, 2013). The paper restricts itself to the quantitative and qualitative data gathered on mobile phones, translators, dictionaries and web conjugators and related items (e.g. discussion forums). The particular functions that students use and the ways in which they use them are described and categorised, with the discussion supported by student comments.

The data exhibits a remarkable range of resources available to students to look up unknown words or to see translations and, consequently, our understanding of what exactly an electronic dictionary might comprise is challenged. Many students’ comments demonstrate a sophistication and knowledge about the effective use of these dictionary tools together with a keen awareness of their limitations.

Adopting a multiple-case, multiple-method design, this study investigates mobile technology use in the practices of three experienced second language teachers. The findings, based on an analysis of the teachers’ rationales, stated beliefs and classroom actions, show that the teachers tend to prohibit or reluctantly tolerate mobile device usage, while they recognise some of its potential benefits to support their teaching and student learning. They also highlight the incentives and barriers which respectively facilitate and hinder the integration of mobile technology, including factors which are internal (e.g. beliefs) and external (e.g. contextual constraints) to the teachers. Implications for classroom practice and teacher education are drawn.

English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in Malaysia, as in many other countries, are anxious to exploit the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance the teaching and learning process. Given the increasing pressure exerted by technological developments on language education, it is important to understand the underlying factors behind teachers’ decisions regarding ICT. Egbert et al. (2002) state that few investigations have been conducted on computer-using language teachers’ development. According to BECTA (1999) the learning potential of ICT is not being realised, because many teachers are not familiar with ICT and do not use it in their teaching. This study investigates the present use of ICT among ESL technical school teachers in teaching, factors that affect the use of ICT and perceptions of their skills in ICT. The theory that frames this study is drawn from theories of learning. The model adopted is Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (1989) which provides a basis for determining ICT attitudes and factors affecting the usage of ICT in teaching. Data was collected via a questionnaire survey of ESL technical school teachers in Malaysia, and followed by semi-structured interviews with them. The questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics and later triangulated with the interviews. The findings will be presented and elaborated upon in this paper.

Research into the online informal learning of English has already shown it to be a widespread phenomenon involving a range of comprehension and production activities such as viewing original version television series, listening to music on demand and social networking with other English users.

Dynamic systems theory provides a suitable framework within which to study informal learning because it emphasises the unique range of resources, strategies and relationships which contribute to non-linear language development for each learner.

While research into the impact of these activities for language development has yielded some data regarding vocabulary gains and improvements in fluency and comprehension skills, the mechanisms at work in such language development have proved difficult to study because of the private nature of most online informal learning. In this study, an emic approach is adopted, involving a group of students experienced in second language acquisition research, who used blogs to report on their own online informal learning of English over a three-month period. Extensive examples from these blogs are used to build up a picture of the learning processes at work, within a framework suggested by the literature of complex dynamic systems. These results allow conclusions to be drawn regarding the way in which these processes are used by informal learners in different phases of real communicative tasks.

Recent research shows that negotiation of meaning in online task-oriented interactions can be a catalyst for L2 (second/foreign/additional language) development. However, how learners undertake such negotiation work and what kind of an impact it has on interactional development in an L2 are still largely unknown mainly due to a lack of focus on task engagement processes. A conversation analytic investigation into negotiation of meaning (NoM) in task-oriented interactions can bring evidence to such development, as conversation analysis (CA), given its analytic tools, allows us to see how participant orientations in interaction evolve over time. Based on an examination of screen-recorded multiparty online task-oriented interactions, this study aimed to describe how users (n=8) of an L2 (1) negotiate and co-construct language and task rules and (2) later show orientations to these rules both in the short term (50 minutes) and in the long term (8 weeks). The findings showed that in addition to negotiating existing rules, the learners co-constructed new rules around an action called policing, which occurred when the learners attended to the breach of language and task rules. Furthermore, even after the negotiation work was completed, they oriented to negotiated rules through policing their own utterances (i.e. self-policing). Overall, this interactional continuum (from other-repairs to self-repairs) brought longitudinal evidence to bear on the role of NoM in the development of L2 interactional competence. These findings bring new insights into NoM, technology-mediated task-based language teaching (TBLT), and CA for second language acquisition (SLA).

Several authors (e.g., Mcniff & Whitehead, 2006; Wallace, 1998) defend the idea that teachers’ own involvement in research has the potential to encourage professional growth. Journal writing, teacher logs, written narratives and stimulated recall are some examples of methods that have been used by researchers to encourage and support teachers’ reflective practice in teacher-researcher collaborative research. This paper discusses the use of video-stimulated reflection as both a research method and as a means for teacher professional growth. The research findings are drawn from a longitudinal study that investigates a model of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) technology professional development programme. The research was carried out in the form of seven in-depth case studies with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in German secondary/vocational schools, as they learn how to integrate the IWB into their teaching. Research data were collected via a variety of research instruments, namely classroom observations and field notes, video recordings of school lessons and teacher training workshops, interviews and video-stimulated reflection. Findings based on the analysis of the copious amount of data gathered indicate that the video-stimulated dialogues were used by the teachers as effective opportunities for reflection, self-evaluation and pedagogical development.

This study investigates an instantiation of a 3D virtual world–based Japanese learning curriculum within the context of a Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) classroom. Through a mixed-method case study approach, participants’ natural acquisition of Japanese in a 3D virtual environment was examined. In the present study, four sources of data from 11 university-level JFL students (n=11) were collected and analyzed to evaluate the learning outcomes from a new instructional approach called computer-assisted learning of communication (CALC). Based on both interpretative and statistical analyses of data, the major finding of the present study was that the participants, when immersed in the 3D virtual world of Tokyo, acquired contextualized communicative competence. More specifically, quantitative analyses revealed statistically significant improvement in the participants’ acquisition of incidentally encountered vocabulary, in particular, kanji pronunciation and vocabulary interpretation. Qualitative analyses revealed participants’ acquisition of various communicative competencies specific to the context, including persuasive talk, awareness of audience, and collaborative communication.

In this study of affordances for second language (L2) learning in World of Warcraft (WoW) group play, we compared three gameplay episodes spanning a semester-long course. Applying multimodal analysis framed by ecological, dialogical and distributed (EDD) views (Zheng and Newgarden, forthcoming), we explored four English as a second language learners’ verbalizations and avatar actions. Players learned to take skilled linguistic action as they coordinated recurrent WoW gameplay activities (questing, planning next moves, traveling, learning a skill, etc.). Frequent activities matched Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) speaking proficiency descriptors, used widely in L2 teaching and learning (L2TL), providing evidence that players engaged in the types of communicative activities interaction-oriented classroom approaches develop. However, in the WoW context, interactions were not planned, but emerged as players dynamically directed the course of play. Furthermore, modalities of avatar-embodiment and conversing over Skype allowed players to flexibly integrate language and actions to co-act toward game goals, discuss non-game topics during play, or demonstrate comprehension with avatar actions alone, an affordance for less verbal players. This research builds on previous work (Zheng, Newgarden & Young, 2012) relating WoW’s multiplayer activities and L2 learners’ skilled linguistic actions. We refer to Chemero’s (2009) model of the animal-environment system to explain how L2 learners develop abilities to take skilled linguistic action by acting on affordances in WoW. The EDD framework presented may enable other researchers to account for more of the complexities involved in L2 learning in multimodal, multiplayer virtual environments.

This paper describes the multimodal pedagogical communication of two groups of online teachers; trainee tutors (second year students of the Master of Arts in Teaching French as a Foreign Language at the University Lumière-Lyon 2) and experienced teachers based in different locations (France, Spain and Finland). They all taught French as a Foreign Language to a group of students from UC Berkeley in 2010. They participated in a project using a desktop videoconferencing platform (VISU1) designed for delivering online courses. The study focuses on the webcam's effects on teaching and learning and tries to answer the following question: how does multimodal interaction affect interactive learning? Our hypothesis is that experienced teachers channel information through the webcam more efficiently and effectively in order to engage learners in knowledge construction. This paper presents the results of research based on an empirical method of collecting ecological data.

In all educational contexts, technological developments and changes in pedagogical theory mean that any picture of current practice and attitudes must be dynamic. In many countries, the learning outcomes of foreign language courses now include intercultural communicative competence (ICC), although the precise model for teaching ICC varies even across the English-speaking world. Internet-mediated approaches are widely used to support intercultural learning. In China, the geographical scale of the country and the speed and extent of contemporary socio-economic evolution, allied to long-established and distinctive cultures of learning, make the interface of new technologies and intercultural learning objectives particularly interesting and significant. A small-scale study of college teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of intercultural classroom instruction, with a special focus on Internet mediation, was conducted in mid-2007, using questionnaires and semi-structured questions, to explore the professional, personal and technical issues associated with Internet-mediated learning of languages and cultures. The results show that textbooks remain the predominant authority, while Internet tools are used as a source of information rather than a means of communication. Findings suggest recognition by teachers and students of the potential of the medium, and of the validity of intercultural goals for foreign language classes, although there are some divergences between the views of teachers and students. However, it is suggested that national policy, local incentives and resources and above all educational traditions do not yet allow optimal use of Internet-mediated approaches.

Virtual exchange (VE) is an umbrella term used to refer to the engagement of groups of students in sustained online intercultural interaction and collaboration with international partners under the guidance of their teachers. In the computer-assisted language learning literature, telecollaboration and eTandem approaches to VE have been researched extensively. However, this research has principally focused to date on learner gains and the impact on teachers has been much less explored. This paper identifies the impact of VE on foreign language teachers’ practices and their professional development by examining the results of a qualitative study of 31 teacher trainers who engaged their classes in VE projects as part of a large-scale European project. The findings of the study suggest that participation in VE projects provides teachers with valuable experience in continued professional development and methodological innovation. In particular, VE was seen to open up opportunities for teachers to develop new professional partnerships, collaborative academic initiatives, to develop their own online collaboration skills, and also to introduce more innovative approaches in their current teaching practice.

This paper presents research findings of a longitudinal empirical case study that investigated an innovative Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) professional development program for pre-service English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. The conceptualization of the program was based on the assumption that pre-service language teachers learn better in situated contexts (Egbert, 2006). Therefore, a key component of the program was the development of school-based research projects, in which the student teachers needed to design, implement, and evaluate technology-enhanced EFL lessons in collaboration with in-service teachers. Data were collected via field notes, video recordings of lessons, academic research reports produced by the pre-service teachers, and in-depth interviews with the pre-service and in-service teachers. Our findings indicate that the field experiences provided professional learning opportunities that supported the student teachers’ development as CALL practitioners. The participating pre-service teachers especially emphasized the important role played by school-based experiences in allowing them to use technology in authentic language teaching scenarios and to evaluate the impact of technology on language teaching and learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of important principles and guidelines that should underlie and inform such collaborative efforts and a summary of the implications of the findings for the design of CALL pre-service teacher education programs.

Mobility can affect a learner's participation in different communities that support language learning. In this paper we report on our experience with supporting a course in which language students are encouraged to travel to a country where the target language is spoken. On the one hand, students who travel abroad get in contact with local communities,which can promote their learning of the language and the culture. On the other hand, they risk losing contact with their classmates and the support that they provide. In this context we introduced a mobile community blog with the aim of extending the learning arena and promoting the sharing of knowledge among the students, independently of their location. This paper discusses the design considerations for the blog and describes its use to support students' sense of community. An evaluation and analysis of the usage of the blog is presented. These results suggest that the learners lack an identity within the community of language learners and there was no sense of community among the members. Reflecting on these results, we suggest that while a blog might be an appropriate tool for promoting knowledge sharing, it lacks functionalities to promote connectedness among learners and foster their identity as a community.

This paper discusses the effectiveness of a web-based learning programme of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) for British students from ethnic minority backgrounds. Original web-based materials for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) were developed and 43 student volunteers participated in two different modes of learning during the 9-week long programme: through blended learning and at a distance. The study attempts to investigate which mode of delivery is more effective in terms of student retention, achievement levels and satisfaction with the programme. The study found that the blended learning mode was much more effective in student retention in this non-credit bearing programme, whilst students’ achievement levels were similar in both groups. In addition, formative and summative feedback from the students suggests that most students in both groups were satisfied with this web-based EAP programme.

This article describes the influence of tool and task design on student interaction in language learning at a distance. Interaction in a multimodal desktop video conferencing environment, FlashMeeting, is analyzed from an ecological perspective with two main foci: participation rates and conversational feedback strategies. The quantitative analysis of participation rates shows that as far as verbal interaction is concerned, multimodality did not have an equalizing effect in this context, contradicting previous research on multimodal student interaction. Additionally, the qualitative analysis of conversational feedback strategies shows that whereas some multimodal strategies were employed, the students did not manage to fully act upon the communicative affordances of the tool, as the feedback ratio during and after the often long broadcasts was relatively low. These findings are related to task and tool design and the article discusses how design improvements in these areas might result in a more constructive language learning ecology.

This article presents a pedagogical design for teacher education that combines flipped materials, in-class instruction, and telecollaboration (also known as virtual exchange) for foreign language teacher education. The context of this study is a course on technology and language learning for future teachers in which the flipped classroom concept was applied to technology-infused collaborative teacher training between future ESL/EFL instructors located at two partner universities (one in the USA, one in Europe). The three main teaching approaches (flipped materials, in class, and telecollaborative, or “FIT”) were symbiotic in that each structure reinforced the other through reception, discussion, and reflection as a means to help the student teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice. We apply classroom ethnographic discourse analysis to data sources (face-to-face and online discussion groups, student e-portfolios) to look at uptake of ideas, conceptual understanding, and successful transfer of new knowledge, and thereby identify whether the design provides significant learning opportunities for the future teachers. Although most studies of telecollaboration in language teacher education look principally at output, this approach allows an in-depth look at the learning process as knowledge is developed collaboratively between the participants.

According to the dichotomy popularized by Levy (1995, 1997), computers may be used in language learning in either tutor or tool roles. Recently there has been a waning of interest in tutorial software for language learning in favor of tool-oriented applications. While we do not dispute the value of the computer as a tool, we argue that it is in the best interest of CALL practitioners and language teachers in general to be better informed about the realities of tutorial software so that the field can continue to grow and mature along multiple paths. In support of this position, we present a case for placing tutorial CALL back into the mainstream of the field. After a discussion of several common myths about tutorial CALL, we offer six reasons as to why tutorial CALL has been marginalized. We follow with some evidence that, despite the presence of these myths and this marginalization, CALL practitioners around the world continue to find tutorial CALL appealing for research and development. Specifically, we review the presentations at four major CALL Conferences in 2002 and classify them as primarily focused on tutor or tool uses. Although tool-oriented applications dominate overall, the results show a strong continuing interest in tutorial applications as well. We conclude with proposals for (1) reconsidering the dichotomous nature of the tutor-tool distinction, (2) changing the defining characteristic of tutorial CALL from evaluation to teaching presence, and (3) suggesting several aspects of language learning that tutorial CALL is best suited to support, given the present state of technology.

In webconferencing-supported teaching, the webcam mediates and organizes the pedagogical interaction. Previous research has provided a mixed picture of the use of the webcam: while it is seen as a useful medium to contribute to the personalization of the interlocutors’ relationship, help regulate interaction and facilitate learner comprehension and involvement, the limited access to visual cues provided by the webcam is felt to be useless or even disruptive.

This study examines the meaning-making potential of the webcam in pedagogical interactions from a semiotic perspective by exploring how trainee teachers use the affordances of the webcam to produce non-verbal cues that may be useful for mutual comprehension. The research context is a telecollaborative project where trainee teachers of French as a foreign language (FFL) met for online sessions in French with undergraduate Business students at an Irish university. Using multimodal transcriptions of the interaction data from these sessions, screen shot data, and students’ post-course interviews, it was found, firstly, that while a head and shoulders framing shot was favoured by the trainee teachers, there does not appear to be an optimal framing choice for desktop videoconferencing among the three framing types identified. Secondly, there was a loss between the number of gestures performed by the trainee teachers and those that were visible for the students. Thirdly, when trainee teachers were able to coordinate the audio and kinesic modalities, communicative gestures that were framed, and held long enough to be perceived by the learners, were more likely to be valuable for mutual comprehension.

The study highlights the need for trainee teachers to develop critical semiotic awareness to gain a better perception of the image they project of themselves in order to actualise the potential of the webcam and add more relief to their online teacher presence.

Many studies about listening strategies are based on what learners report while listening to an oral message in the second language (Vandergrift, 2003; Graham, 2006). By recording a video of the computer screen while L2 learners (L1 French) were listening to an MP3-track in German, this study uses a novel approach and recent developments in computer technology to examine objectively what learners do while listening. The videos of the participants’ screens show the movements of the mouse and its time-course, and therefore the pauses and the backward or forward movements learners do in order to master their listening task. In this study, “self-regulation” indicates the capacity of the listener to exercise physical control over the listening input by using the mouse. Our point is that the recorded physical movements of the mouse during the listening task are a good indicator of metacognitive activity. This is independent of what the learner reports. The data and the time-courses of the mouse were then analyzed, from both a psycholinguistic and a linguistic point of view. This enabled us, on the one hand, to define a typology of listening strategies depending on the initial level of the participants and to show that, on the whole, the opportunity to have personal control over information input/intake does improve all the learners’ information processing. On the other hand, tracking the movements of the mouse while a learner individually listens to an oral text on a computer also has a methodological interest and equally allowed us to verify some precise research hypotheses about the links between linguistic features, for example, place of German compounds and final position of the verb in a subordinate clause, self-regulation strategies and comprehension.

In order to make optimal educational use of social spaces offered by thousands of international communities in the second generation web applications termed Web 2 or Social Web, ICT competences as well as social skills are needed for both teachers and learners. The paper outlines differences in competence structures of Net Natives (who came of age in the 21st century) and the Net Generation of the 1980s and 1990s who evolve in response to changes between Web 1 and Web 2 technologies.

Virtual educational environments in the age of the Social Web represent a perfect embodiment of the Constructionist paradigm: they offer shared discussion and work spaces instead of presentation tools, coaching utilities instead of help desks, and digital learning resource repositories instead of ready-made learning materials. LRE, the European Learning Resource Exchange, and several collaborative web based services and applications will be presented, to illustrate the interrelated change in educational software design and use.

New teaching and learning aids require and at the same time inspire new educational theories. The trialogical learning paradigm that invites all educational stakeholders to work on shared objects of inquiry and development and thus develop epistemic agency will be offered as a foundation for a ‘social CALL’.