A Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) application, TextMix, was developed as a proof-of-concept for applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) sentence chunking techniques to creating 'sentence scramble' learning tasks. TextMix addresses limitations of existing applications for creating sentence scrambles by using NLP to parse and scramble…

This paper looks at Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the primary school setting and the problems, possibilities, and potential associated with this context. CALL normalisation is a key feature of successful CALL usage. This paper looks at CALL normalisation in the primary school context through three different lenses: Leakey's (2011)…

This paper describes the initial stages of a project which seeks to develop a language learning game for Italian running a deep linguistic grammar at its backend for fine-grained error detection. The grammar is designed within the grammatical framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). The project aims to bring together work from different…

This paper introduces "FineTune," a mobile application currently in development that features a gamified version of High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT). The aims of this paper are twofold: (1) to outline the theoretical motivation for the app's features, which includes a discussion of HVPT, gamification, and Self-Determination…

Despite the unquestionable academic interest on corpus-based approaches to language education, the use of corpora by teachers in their everyday practice is still not very widespread. One way to promote usage of corpora in language teaching is by making pedagogically appropriate corpora, labelled with different types of problems (for instance,…

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the Republic of Ireland have been called to widen participation in language learning by the government's "Languages Connect Strategy." The challenge is to increase the level of participation from 4% to 20%. Moreover, a recent nationwide study has revealed a grassroots demand for language provision…

This piece explores technologies for freer communication "with" machines, i.e. bots (chatbots or conversational agents), rather than the concept of speaking "to" machines, such as Intelligent Assistants (IA) like "Alexa." Bots are computer programmes which simulate natural intelligent communication using text or…

Robin (n.d.) defines digital storytelling as "the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories", stressing that "they all revolve around the idea of combining the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio, video, and Web publishing" (n.p.). While engaging in digital storytelling,…

Complexity Theory (CT) provides a useful framework for understanding Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Using an ecological model, CT studies the dynamic processes of change and emergent outcomes over time, tracing back how trajectories may have been affected by changes in and interactions among multiple variables and subsystems. Language learners…

Digital technologies have proliferated communications between speakers of different languages, but the widespread use of online machine translation has now become a disruptive force for foreign language education, as it permits intelligible exchanges between persons with little or no knowledge of a foreign tongue. As machine translation technology…

"An Corpas Cliste" ('Clever Corpus') is an Irish language learner corpus. The corpus data comes from a purpose-built intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (iCALL) platform called "An Scéalaí" ('the Storyteller') and comprises both audio and text, produced by second and third level learners of Irish. Metadata (e.g. L1,…

Language classrooms are complex systems, but theory often simplifies these processes making researching effectiveness difficult. Assemblage theory -- a theory of complexity in the social sciences -- allows us to examine complexity in the language classroom. In this paper, I present an account of the language classroom that captures the complexity,…

Game-based Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is an area that currently warrants attention, as task-based, interactive, multimodal games increasingly show promise for language learning. This area is inherently multidisciplinary--theories from second language acquisition, games, and psychology must be explored and relevant concepts from…

In order to use dialogue systems for computer assisted second-language learning systems, one of the difficult issues in such systems is how to construct large-scale dialogue knowledge that matches the dialogue modelling of a dialogue system. This paper describes how we have accomplished the short-term construction of large-scale and…

Language researchers and teachers have long been interested in the timing of learning, and the distributed practice effect, whereby greater inter-session intervals result in longer retention, is well-known (Kim & Webb, 2022). Many L2 studies have focused on the intentional learning of lexis (Edmonds, Gerbier, Palasis, & Whyte, 2021),…