Recognizing the importance of multinational telecollaboration and form-focused instruction in computer-assisted language learning teacher education, this article investigates teaching English grammar through a seven-week-long telecollaborative project with 41 pre-service language teachers from the United States (US), Poland, and China. The telecollaboration was a pedagogical intervention in which the US participants taught grammar to their non-native-speaker peers. Specifically, the study aimed to trace pre-service teachers’ grammar instruction techniques applied in the communication-oriented context of online exchanges and responses to this instruction, the grammar forms attended to in the exchanges, and the participants’ evaluations of the usefulness of telecollaboration for teaching and learning grammar. Utilizing data from the participants’ emails and results of a post-project survey, this mixed methods study reveals that (1) the implicit technique of modeling was the most frequently applied; (2) the grammatical forms used in both implicit and explicit teaching reflected the communicative orientation of the exchanges; (3) the levels of uptake (i.e. attempts to follow the models provided in the input), and the forms attended to by the learners, reflected their proficiency levels and linguistic background; and (4) participants reported positive opinions about the value of telecollaboration in grammar instruction and in teacher training. The data thus underscore the benefits of online exchanges in giving prospective teachers hands-on experience with communicative grammar teaching.

Drawing on existing research with a holistic stance toward multimodal meaning-making, this paper takes an analytic approach to integrating eye-tracking data to study the perception and use of multimodality by teachers and learners. To illustrate this approach, we analyse two webconference tutoring sessions from a telecollaborative project involving pre-service teachers and learners of Mandarin Chinese. The tutoring sessions were recorded and transcribed multimodally, and our analysis of two types of conversational side sequences shows that the integration of eye-tracking data into an ecological approach provides richer results. Specifically, our proposed approach provided a window on the participants’ cognitive management of graphic and visual affordances during interaction and uncovered episodes of joint attention.

This paper focuses on automatically assessing language proficiency levels according to linguistic complexity in learner English. We implement a supervised learning approach as part of an automatic essay scoring system. The objective is to uncover Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) criterial features in writings by learners of English as a foreign language. Our method relies on the concept of microsystems with features related to learner-specific linguistic systems in which several forms operate paradigmatically. Results on internal data show that different microsystems help classify writings from A1 to C2 levels (82% balanced accuracy). Overall results on external data show that a combination of lexical, syntactic, cohesive and accuracy features yields the most efficient classification across several corpora (59.2% balanced accuracy).

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.

The aim of this study is to comprehensively evaluate quantitative experimental mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) studies published between 1994 and 2019 that meet minimal conditions of research design and statistical analysis. Starting with a bibliographical database of 1,144 references to experimental MALL implementations, of which there were 700 objectively substantiated by quantitative experimental language learning outcomes, only 84 experimental MALL studies met the inclusion requirements. Their analysis addresses two critical sets of research questions. First, what are the general characteristics of the selected studies and, second, what are their language learning outcomes in terms of measured effect size. Nine general characteristics are considered: publication source, chronological distribution, country of origin, institutional environment, sample size, intervention duration, targeted language, language learner competence level, and learning focus. Effect size was calculated separately for between-group (independent, experimental) and within-group (quasi-experimental) treatment studies. In both cases, the overall results were quite large: 0.72 for the former and 1.16 for the latter. An analysis of four critical moderator variables (language learner competence level, language area focus, institutional environment, and intervention duration) revealed similarly large effect sizes. Notwithstanding, analysis of the data also confirmed obvious publication bias and a very high level of heterogeneity that frequently approached 100%. The relevance of positive language learning outcome conclusions thus needs to be tempered by these shortcomings.

Owing to the anytime-anywhere-anyhow nature of mobile learning, together with the ubiquity of affordably priced mobile phones, learning has become a mobigital practice, as termed by Şad and Göktaş (2014). Consequently, language teaching/learning is gradually shifting from computer-assisted language learning to mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). In response, the current study examined the impact of MALL training on preservice and in-service EFL teachers’ perceptions and use of mobile technology (MT). For this purpose, two groups of preservice (N = 33) and in-service (N = 31) EFL teachers were randomly selected and exposed to MALL training. The pretest-posttest experimental mixed-methods design was used as a framework for collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data (using closed- and open-ended-question surveys). Quantitative results revealed that both preservice and in-service teachers had similar perceptions of MT before and after training. The only exception is that, after training, in-service teachers were more interested in MT than preservice teachers. However, both groups demonstrated an overall (and subfactor) improvement in their perceptions after MT training, except for their perceived ease of use. In-service teachers’ use also improved after training and, due to the yielded positive correlation, their perceptions were a significant predictor of use. Qualitative findings showed that in-service teachers used MT more in listening and speaking (for synchronous communication) than in reading and writing, selecting social media and translation apps as the least useful ones. Moreover, they regarded technical and digital literacy problems as the ones most challenging to the use of MT.

Participation in online courses has become essential for training language professionals in under-resourced contexts with skills in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) (Godwin-Jones, 2014). Most online CALL courses use asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) to facilitate meaningful learning for participants. Although participants’ sustained engagement with ACMC is the target, global realities of participants interfere with their participation levels. This article investigates participants’ engagement profiles in asynchronous online discussions in an 8-week CALL-based global online course developed and implemented by a team at Iowa State University. Using a case study approach, nine focal participants’ engagement profiles have been analyzed in terms of identifying patterns of engagement in the discussion posts and their relation to the types of discussion prompts. Then, social network analysis (SNA) and thematic analysis were employed to investigate patterns of interaction among the participants in the replies. The results indicated that engagement patterns observed in discussion posts overall aligned with the primary goals of prompt types. SNA further identified two participants as social mediators to connect participants with each other. These findings are significant in that they suggest the effectiveness of using ACMC to promote co-construction of knowledge for a global audience. This article also provides implications regarding the design of discussion prompts to help maximize participant engagement with course content.

In an increasingly ageing, multilingual, and digitalised society, there is still a lack of research on older adults’ adoption and use of mobile technology for supporting their self-directed second language learning. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which seniors residing in Germany (aged 60+) engage in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) and the factors encouraging or discouraging them from using language learning apps by conducting a web-based survey (n = 208) and a series of in-depth individual interviews (n = 22). Our results show that (1) participants were resistant to fully embrace the potential of MALL despite their active engagement in language learning and extensive use of digital technology, online resources, and mobile devices; and (2) self-perceived digital literacy and openness towards new developments are strong factors favouring the use of language learning apps in older adulthood. We interpret and discuss these results in the light of theoretical accounts of mobile learning and education in (older) adults, emphasising the need to consider the specific requirements of late-life learners in future implementations of language learning apps. Based on our results, we highlight several implications for designers and developers of such apps intended to facilitate full inclusion of seniors as mobile language learners.

Despite the rapid development of virtual exchange in foreign language education, its use in the field of Chinese language education is still rather nascent. Adopting a mixed-methods research approach, this study focuses on examining the pedagogical benefits of a Chinese-American virtual exchange as mediated by students’ self-reported data. Two Chinese language classes (i.e. one at the elementary level and one at the intermediate level) at a small liberal arts college in the United States and a group of Chinese-speaking English majors at a Chinese university in Shanghai participated in the exchange. Analyses of four sources of qualitative data (i.e. WeChat group cultural discussion transcripts, Skype conversations, reflection journals, and end-of-program interviews) gave rise to four benefits of the exchange: promotion of cultural learning, improvement of Chinese language skills, enhancement of learning motivation, and establishment of a language learning community. Quantitative analyses of the end-of-semester questionnaire items show that the benefit regarding cultural learning, on average, received the highest rating, followed by community building and motivation enhancement, with improvement of Chinese skills being rated the lowest. Moreover, intermediate-level students evaluated all four benefits with higher ratings than elementary-level students. In particular, the two groups’ quantitative evaluations in terms of Chinese skills and motivation differed significantly. However, both groups enthusiastically endorsed the benefits of cultural learning and community building. The pedagogical implications of these results are also discussed.

This paper presents IdiomsTube (https://www.idiomstube.com), the first-ever computer-assisted language learning tool for facilitating the learning of English idiomatic expressions from YouTube videos. The web-based tool is designed to automatically (1) assess the speech rate and lexical difficulty level of any learner-chosen English-captioned YouTube video; (2) generate a range of vocabulary-building and revision tasks (e.g. fill-in-the-blanks, the classic spelling game hangman, pronunciation, flashcards); and (3) recommend YouTube videos based on learners’ individual learning progress, class teachers’ instructions, and current trends. This paper describes the app’s current features in conjunction with the challenges endemic in the development of applications that automatically generate English language learning content out of internet video content. At the time of writing, the IdiomsTube app had over 8,000 registered users worldwide.

Extracurricular reading is important for learning foreign languages. Text recommendation systems typically classify users and documents into levels, and then match users with documents at the same level. Although this approach can be effective, it has two significant shortcomings. First, the levels assume a standard order of language acquisition and cannot be personalized to the users’ learning patterns. Second, recommendation decisions are not transparent because the leveling algorithms can be difficult for users to interpret. We propose a novel method for text recommendation that addresses these two issues. To enhance personalization, an open, editable learner model estimates user knowledge of each word in the foreign language. The documents are ranked by new-word density (NWD) – that is, the percentage of words that are new to the user in the document. The system then recommends documents according to a user-specified target NWD. This design offers complete transparency as users can scrutinize recommendations by reviewing the NWD estimation of the learner model. This article describes an implementation of this method in a mobile app for learners of Chinese as a foreign language. Evaluation results show that users were able to manipulate the learner model and NWD parameters to adjust the difficulty of the recommended documents. In a survey, users reported satisfaction with both the concept and implementation of this text recommendation method.

This study aims to synthesize research trends of blended language learning studies over the past two decades, from 2000 to 2019. Data were collected from the Web of Science, and a total of 60 SSCI-indexed journal articles were retrieved for bibliometric synthesis. Drawing on the revised technology-based learning model, participants, learning strategies, research methods, research foci, adopted technologies, and application effectiveness, advantages, and challenges were addressed. The findings demonstrated that publications were increasing rapidly, and that most articles were published in computer-assisted language learning, educational technology, and applied linguistic journals. The most common target language was English as a foreign language, and the most common learners were college students. In most studies, technologies were mainly used for the purposes of practice or exercises. Mixed, quantitative, and qualitative methods were frequently adopted, with a particular eye on the experiment design, questionnaires, and other specific methods in the second decade. Productive language skills, along with autonomy, satisfaction, and motivation, were major research foci. Language management systems and computer and web-based applications were frequently adopted technologies. Findings of application effectiveness, advantages, and challenges were summarized.

Considerable research has been conducted on the advancement of mobile technologies to facilitate vocabulary learning and acquisition in a second language (L2). However, whether mobile platforms lead to a comprehensive mastery of both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge has seldom been addressed in previous literature. This study investigated English vocabulary learning from engagement with mobile-based word cards and paper word cards in the context of the Chinese university classroom. A total of 85 undergraduate students were recruited to take part in the study. The students were divided into two groups, a mobile learning group and a paper-based learning group, and tested on two word knowledge components: receptive knowledge of the form–meaning connection and productive knowledge of collocations. Both the digital and non-digital word cards enhanced L2 vocabulary learning, and the results showed that the mobile application (app) promoted greater gains than physical word cards.

The present study aims to verify the impact of dynamic aids on learning L2 prepositions in relation to individual learner variables. Situated within the cognitive linguistics (CL) framework and differing from previous research, the present study hypothesizes that dynamic (animated) aids are not equally effective for all learners; rather, their effectiveness differs according to learners’ first languages (L1s) (Chinese or Japanese) and information-processing styles (verbalizers or imagers). To verify this hypothesis, we utilized learning materials comprised of static and dynamic images for three English spatial prepositions (above, on, over). After conducting a Style of Processing questionnaire, we administered three cloze tests (pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest) of target words to Taiwanese and Japanese participants (N = 109), whose L1s differed in terms of their linguistic proximity to English. Although no significant differences were found between the treatment groups in tests for all participants, the results were differentiated by individual factors. In results of a two-way ANOVA, Taiwanese participants showed significantly greater improvement from the pretest to posttest than Japanese participants when the participants used dynamic images, whereas the Japanese group made more learning gains from the posttest to the delayed posttest test. Moreover, imagers obtained more benefits from the visual aids, whether static or dynamic, than verbalizers. Our findings indicate that CL-based visual aids are beneficial and that individual factors, especially learners’ L1, may produce different learning effects, especially in multimedia environments.

With the growth of chatbots, concerns about implementing artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots in educational settings have consistently arisen, especially for the purpose of language learning. This study introduced a task-based voice chatbot called “Ellie”, newly developed by the researchers, and examined the appropriateness of its task design and performance as an English conversation partner and students’ perceptions on using it in EFL class. Korean EFL learners (N = 314) aged 10–15 years performed three speaking tasks with Ellie in their school classroom. The participants took 9.63 turns per session on average using the first 1,000-word band, indicating that the chatbot highly encouraged students to engage in conversation, which rarely occurs in general EFL classes in Korea. The high task success rates (88.3%) showed the design appropriateness of both L2 tasks and operational intents in terms of users’ successful understanding and completeness of the given chatbot tasks. The participants’ responses to the survey not only supported the positive potential of the chatbot in EFL settings but also revealed limitations to be resolved. Future suggestions for advancing and implementing AI chatbots in EFL classrooms are discussed.

This article focuses on designing and evaluating conversation practice in a second language (L2) with a robot that employs human spoken and non-verbal interaction strategies. Based on an analysis of previous work and semi-structured interviews with L2 learners and teachers, recommendations for robot-led conversation practice for adult learners at intermediate level are first defined, focused on language learning, on the social context, on the conversational structure and on verbal and visual aspects of the robot moderation. Guided by these recommendations, an experiment is set up, in which 12 pairs of L2 learners of Swedish interact with a robot in short social conversations. These robot–learner interactions are evaluated through post-session interviews with the learners, teachers’ ratings of the robot’s behaviour and analyses of the video-recorded conversations, resulting in a set of guidelines for robot-led conversation practice: (1) societal and personal topics increase the practice’s meaningfulness for learners; (2) strategies and methods for providing corrective feedback during conversation practice need to be explored further; (3) learners should be encouraged to support each other if the robot has difficulties adapting to their linguistic level; (4) the robot should establish a social relationship by contributing with its own story, remembering the participants’ input, and making use of non-verbal communication signals; and (5) improvements are required regarding naturalness and intelligibility of text-to-speech synthesis, in particular its speed, if it is to be used for conversations with L2 learners.

The aim of the paper is to investigate the usefulness of different illustration formats in online English learners’ dictionaries for the accuracy and speed of meaning comprehension as well as immediate and delayed retention. In a controlled online experiment, the meaning of selected English words and phrases had to be explained with the help of purpose-built monolingual dictionary entries. Four experimental conditions were created, which reflected the presence and format of illustrations in the entries: color pictures, greyscale pictures, line drawings, no illustrations. Meaning retention was checked immediately after exposure and two weeks later. The results show that it is worthwhile to include illustrations in online learners’ dictionaries and suggest the most beneficial illustration formats. Line drawings prove the most recommendable; they considerably improve meaning comprehension, reduce reception time, and stimulate the best immediate and delayed retention. Color pictures emerge as the second best. They produce results comparable with those for line drawings, except they do not help so much to remember meaning in the long run. Entries with greyscale pictures are the least recommendable. They do not contribute more to meaning comprehension and delayed retention. Yet, they even shorten reception time and help users to remember more words immediately after exposure.