It is well known that teachers' feedback plays an important role in students' learning, as it enhances learners' cognitive development; yet there has been little research on how positive feedback given in the form of emojis works in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) courses. In this study, an experiment was designed to clarify how English…

A systematic review examining the efficacy of commercially available foreign language-learning apps (FLL) was completed. A database search of ERIC, PsychINFO, and LearnTechLib produced 1,786 journal articles. After applying specific inclusion and exclusion criteria based on Burston's seminal study (2015) requiring a minimum number of 10…

Neural Machine Translation (NMT) has gained increasing popularity among EFL learners as a CALL tool to improve vocabulary, and many learners have reported its helpfulness for vocabulary learning. However, while there has been some evidence suggesting NMT's facilitative role in improving learners' writing on the lexical level, no study has examined…

Collocations, a crucial component of language competence, remain a challenge for L2 learners across all proficiency levels. While the data-driven learning (DDL) approach has shown great potential for collocation learning from a shorter-term perspective, this study investigates its effectiveness in the long term, examining both linguistic gains and…

Speaking skills generally receive little attention in traditional English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, and this is especially the case in secondary education in Indonesia. A vocabulary deficit and poor pronunciation skills hinder learners in their efforts to improve speaking proficiency. In the present study, we investigated the effects…

The role of practice has been largely overlooked in second/foreign (L2) pragmatics research. Furthermore, very few studies have directly compared the effects of different "practice contexts" (e.g. practice in a telecollaborative context versus practice in a face-to-face context) on L2 learners' pragmatic competence (e.g. in compliment…

The current mixed-methods study aimed at incorporating a virtual reality (VR) tool (i.e. Google Expeditions) into the writing process of Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners, examining its impact on their writing motivation and performance. To that end, 42 EFL learners were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups,…

The Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) model provides a basis for integrating motivational dynamics and technological affordances into the design and implementation of instructions to maintain learner motivation and interest. Little attention has been paid to this potential in teaching the complex and often demotivating…

While the study of serious games has received due attention, few studies have investigated their potentials of simultaneously offering a route to both content and language acquisition. Understanding the interdisciplinary educational affordance of serious game play is significant, as it might provide game designers and teachers with insight into…

This study introduced an app, called Smart UEnglish, for helping EFL conversation practices in authentic contexts. These conversation practices were categorized into 'designed talk' and 'free talk', based on the content of an English textbook and authentic ambient environment that includes such things as transportation, weather and scenic…

Over the past two decades, the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) has become a popular buzzword in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Although applications of the ILH can improve students' learning of productive vocabulary, this effect appears to be transitory. Students' learning of productive vocabulary often fades over time, as shown…

The objective of this study was twofold: (a) to determine the extent to which three types of instruction could improve writing performance of railway engineering students and (b) to explore students' perceptions of flipped classroom, Edmodo, and Google Docs for improving their academic writing performance. The participants were 61 undergraduate…

Affordance refers to the opportunity available to a learning activity. Taking affordance as a theoretical and analytical construct, this exploratory study investigates learners' attitudes and the opportunities WeChat may provide for Chinese cultural knowledge (CCK) learning. The aim is to find out the potential new affordances and compare learners…

Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has recently attracted the researchers' attention in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context; however, insufficient studies seem to have examined the role of online programmes in enhancing EFL learners' ICC. The current study, therefore, employed a mixed-methods approach to explore EFL learners'…

Owing to the plethora of user-friendly audio/video creation and editing applications as well as free full-featured hosting platforms, videoing and sharing has become a lifestyle of today's students. Utilizing these spontaneous practices, the current study examined the effects of digital media assignments (DMAs) and accompanying asynchronous…