Looking at human communication from the perspective of semiotics extends our view beyond verbal language to consider other sign systems and meaning-making resources. Those include gestures, body language, images, and sounds. From this perspective, the communicative process expands from individual mental processes of verbalizing to include features…

Bots are destined to dominate how humans interact with the internet of things that continues to grow around them. Despite their still budding intellectual capacity, major companies (e.g., Apple, Google and Amazon) have already placed (chat)bots at the centre of their flagship devices. (Chat)Bots currently fill the internet acting as guides,…

The purpose of this article is to set out the design principles and architecture of a second language (L2) learning voice chatbot. Building on L2 acquisition theories and chatbot research, in this article, we report on a South Korean government-funded longitudinal project in which we designed and developed a chatbot called "Ellie".…

Drawing on past and current scholarship on digitally mediated communication in language learning, this review article examines the evolution of identity research in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) from the 1990s to the present day. The article offers an in-depth overview of critical issues and topics associated with language learner…

In the 20th anniversary issue of this journal, Reinders and White (2016) describe the relationship between computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and autonomy as having become "both more complex and more promising" (p. 143). This is, they assert, in large part due to the rise of informal language learning online, with an accompanying…

This article provides an update to the author's overview of developments in second language (L2) online writing that he wrote in 2008. There has been renewed interest in L2 writing through the wide use of social media, along with the rising popularity of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and telecollaboration (class-based online exchanges).…

Two of the original authors of "Giving a Virtual Voice to the Silent Language of Culture: The Cultura Project", published in "Language Learning & Technology" in 2001, look back on the origin of the Cultura project, its goals, and the approach and materials used. Their commentary then focuses on the features and the…

The computer-assisted language learning (CALL) field seems to change overnight with new technological affordances. Blake revisits his 2000 "LLT" article on computer-mediation communication (CMC) in order to reflect on how the field has examined this topic over the past decade or so. While the Interaction Hypothesis continues to guide…

In this paper we explore and identify emerging patterns of synchronous digital discourse trajectories between dyads of native (NS) and non-native speakers (NNS), with a particular focus on (absence of) negotiated interaction. We will present a new model of L2 learning interaction that is a schematic representation of two main types of hearer…

The increasingly widespread use of social software (e.g., Wikis, Google Docs) in second language (L2) settings has brought a renewed attention to collaborative writing. Although the current methodological approaches to examining collaborative writing are valuable to understand L2 students' interactional patterns or perceived experiences, they can…

Most L2 instructors implement their curriculum with an eye to improving the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Absent in this vision of language are notions of pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and multicultural competencies. Although current linguistic theories posit a more complex, interactive, and integrated model of language,…

Learner autonomy has become an assumed goal of language education in many parts of the world. In the 20 years since the launch of "Language Learning & Technology," the relationship among computer-assisted language learning research and practice and autonomy has become both more complex and more promising. This article traces how the…

The following commentary presents an overview of earlier studies of discourse functions and syntactic complexity as well as recent investigations that focus on interaction and measures of syntactic and lexical complexity in learners' output in traditional classrooms and computer-mediated environments. Recent studies emphasize the need for better…

In this article I revisit the cultures-of-use conceptual framework--that technologies, as forms and processes comprising human culture, mediate and assume variable meanings, values, and conventionalized functions for different communities (Thorne, 2003). I trace the antecedent arc of investigation and serendipitous encounters that led to the 2003…

In today's globalized, connected world, fixed and stable identities are increasingly uncommon. The means and modes of online communication and engagement, themselves powerful contributors to identity formation, are likewise in a constant state of flux. Participating in emerging online communities may require users to develop new skills, acquire…