In line with the 2021 CALICO Conference theme "Global realities," we presented a plenary on how immersive virtual reality (IVR) could be used for second language learning by allowing learners to virtually travel around the globe via headset. The main affordances of virtual reality (VR) technology include immersing learners in an…

The use of digital exhibitions in two advanced language and culture courses within a liberal arts curriculum provides an innovative pedagogical approach to promoting language learning and critical analysis. This article proposes a pedagogy to incorporate Maker-Centered Learning (MCL), the framework that emerged from a Harvard Graduate School of…

Despite its numerous benefits and potentialities for language learning and teaching, digital technology can also play a role in creating and maintaining inequality. While critical CALL often focuses on micro-level issues and contexts, macro-level perspectives, including discourses, are also essential to consider: From ecological and…

The sociocultural perspective of second language teacher education (L2TE) (e.g., Johnson, 2009), unlike the traditional one, values the importance of teacher development through actual teaching practice. Student teachers' (STs) initial beliefs should be challenged and reconstructed by taking into account particular teaching contexts. This…

This qualitative case study describes a unique online professional development program utilizing Web 2.0 technologies for teachers of German using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model as a theoretical framework to promote technology literacy, expand German language proficiency and cultural knowledge, and integrate…

This ongoing project seeks to investigate the impact, inside and outside of class, of instruction focused on developing learner awareness of social-networking site (SNS) use in an American Intensive English Program (IEP). With language socialization as an interpretative framework (Duff, in press; Ochs, 1988; Watson-Gegeo, 2004), the project uses a…

This paper presents the findings of a six-week telecollaborative project between sixteen American students enrolled in a second-semester German class at an American university and sixteen German students enrolled in an advanced English course at a high school in Germany. Students discussed various cultural topics with their partner in two e-mails…

For many patients throughout the world, access to healthcare depends on the patients" and healthcare providers' ability to communicate efficiently in each other's language. One way to reduce linguistic barriers to healthcare access is to increase the number of linguistically and culturally competent healthcare professionals. Conspicuously…

This paper qualitatively analyzes reflective data gathered from learners' electronic and paper writings about their cultural learning in and about New Zealand. The data comes from three intakes of learners in "Culture and New Zealand Society," a second-year course for migrant and international learners within a Bachelor of Arts in…

This action-research project was designed to assess how the use of video as a central instructional component impacts features of cross-cultural competence among adult ESL students. The study was conducted in a college-level intensive English language program in North America. Findings suggest that students' deeply embedded beliefs and values…

Students learning foreign languages in the United States generally have little exposure to the target language outside the classroom. Web-based technology can facilitate language learning in context by offering easily accessible, authentic materials. This paper introduces MIMEA (Multimedia Interactive Modules for Education and Assessment), an…

Presents BANZAI, a new intelligent language tutor program that is designed to develop learners' grammatical and sentence production skills in Japanese as well as to instill cultural knowledge about Japan. Illustrates actual lesson plans and sample exercises provided by BANZAI. (Author/VWL)

Examines whether foreign language students learn cultural information embedded in videos. Fifty beginning French students viewed eight targeted videos as part of their multimedia-based curriculum. A pretest and posttest assessed long-term gains in overall cultural knowledge and in the learning of little "c" culture (practices) and Big "c" culture…

Describes the design and implementation of a CD-ROM-based German exercise package for commercial distribution and a listening and culture package using interactive multimedia based on authentic German television programs. The project demonstrates how a set of specialized authoring tools can be brought to bear upon the real-world needs and…

Provides data on the computer literacy of university-level Spanish students with respect to word processing, CD-ROMs, E-mail, and the World Wide Web. The training method used integrated technical training into activities focuses on learning language and culture and resulted in gains in students' computer literacy for a small investment of class…