Developments in the affordances of the Internet provide language learners with easy access to learning resources as well as interactions with native speakers. This emerging learning landscape thus creates favourable conditions to learners who want to engage in self-directed language learning. This in-depth single case study reports on the…

Utilizing a structural equation modeling approach, this article aims to examine the dynamics between Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) and Intercultural Competence (ICC). Altogether, 1490 Chinese college students from different types of universities in China answered the self-developed and validated IDLE-ICC questionnaire. The results…

Contextualised mobile assisted language learning (MALL) has been known for its potential in language learning rooted in social constructivism theories. However, a consistent approach to constituents of contextualised MALL, in addition to a quantitative tool to evaluate it, is missing in reported case studies. The present research, drawing upon…

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) has witnessed an explosion of interest from consumers and researchers. However, consumers often complain about the limited functionality of MALL applications, which typically do not allow for critical self-reflection or for users to consider different aspects of their learning such as the task itself, the…

In foreign language education, instruction in pronunciation has received less attention than instruction in other language skills. Many teachers do not know how to teach correct pronunciation due to lack of knowledge in pronunciation pedagogy even if they want to or they assume that students pick it up on their own. With the development of…

Recent calls from applied linguistics and from CALL have emphasized the importance of situating the understanding and use of digital tools for language learning within layered contexts. An important component of these layered contexts is societal discourses of technology, which are multiple and far from neutral. In response to these calls, this…

While intercultural learning is a key goal of study abroad, it is often difficult to assess or even achieve. Recent models, such as linguistic landscapes (which looks at the language of public signs, including road signs, advertising billboards, street, and place names), can help students reflect on and make sense of their intercultural…

The use of technology such as online software has been examined in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing contexts. However, few studies have incorporated context-aware ubiquitous technology into EFL writing instruction. To develop multimodal and digital literacy of target EFL undergraduates in this pilot project, the researchers designed and…

The educational potential of mobile and social media technologies in combination is becoming increasingly salient with the advance of modern technology. However, there is a dearth in the research on educational use of mobile social media for language learning. This study adopted a qualitative single case study approach to investigate a language…

Studies into the use of mobile applications (apps) for language learning have found positive results on language improvement and learner engagement, but they have mostly focused on small samples of learners using apps that were selected by a researcher/educator rather than on learners using apps of their own choice. This article presents the…

This study investigated the effects of Facebook and Twitter on foreign language (Chinese) learners' written production in both short- (10 days) and long-term (50 days) pseudo-experimental settings. Adopting two concepts (i.e. symmetric vs. asymmetric) from matrix theory in social network analysis, we categorized Facebook as a symmetric social…

With the emergence of innovative mobile-based tools, new opportunities have been made to enhance the quality of language learning. Keeping this in mind, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of a flipped classroom on enhancing EFL learners' pragmatic competence. To this end, 60 EFL learners from two universities in Iran were assigned…

Different from the traditional term language input, affordance, an ecological term, has been deployed to analyze the perceived opportunities for second language (L2) learning an environment provides to L2 learners. L2 learning occurs only when the semiotic resources in the environment resonate with the learner's capacities such as their abilities,…

Helping students to become autonomous learners, who actively utilize technologies for learning outside the classroom, is important for successful language learning. Teachers, as significant social agents who shape students' intellectual and social experiences, have a critical role to play. This study examined students' and teachers' perceptions of…

This study examined university undergraduate English language learners' (ELLs) perspectives on an intervention, Word Matters, that aimed to enhance functional academic vocabulary learning critical to their cognitive academic language proficiency development (Cummins, 1989), a challenge faced by many ELLs in English-medium universities. This…