This study examined the pedagogical use of Google Translate (GT) and its associated text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) as tools to assist in the learning of second/foreign language Dutch vocabulary and pronunciation in an autonomous, self-directed learning setting. Thirty participants used GT (its translation,…

This experimental study examined the design and effectiveness of embodied interactions for learning. The researchers designed a digital learning environment integrating body joint mapping sensors to teach novice learners Chinese characters, and examined whether the embodied interaction would lead to greater knowledge acquisition in language…

Many types of L2 phonological perception are often difficult to acquire without instruction. These difficulties with perception may also be related to intelligibility in production. Instruction on perception contrasts is more likely to be successful with the use of phonetically variable input made available through computer-assisted pronunciation…

This paper looks at the use of "Twitter" as a language teaching/learning tool. It describes the results of a study aimed at testing "Twitter's" effectiveness for pronunciation teaching. The purpose of the study was to determine whether "Twitter" can foster online participation and whether it may have a positive effect…

The present study investigates the effects of two different vocabulary learning conditions in digital reading environments equipped with electronic textual glossing. The first condition presents the concordance lines of a target lexical item, thereby making learners infer its meaning by reading the referenced sentences. The second condition…

Numerous researchers in education recognize that vocabulary is essential in foreign language learning. However, students often encounter vocabulary that is difficult to remember. Providing effective vocabulary learning strategies is therefore more valuable than teaching students a large amount of vocabulary. The purpose of this study was to…

This study examined factors affecting perception training of vowel duration in L2 Japanese with transfer to production. In a pre-test, training, post-test design, 48 L1 English speakers were assigned to one of three groups: auditory-visual (AV) training using waveform displays, auditory-only (A-only), or no training. Within-group variables were…

Pragmatic competence is essential for oral fluency and listening comprehension, allowing speakers to use and interpret language appropriately in varied contexts. The use of technological applications for teaching pragmatics is on the rise (Taguchi & Sykes, 2013), in part because they are well-suited to the types of awareness-raising tasks…

This study investigated the effect of repeated in-class web-based collaborative writing tasks on second language writers' (L2) individual writing scores. A pre-test post-test research model was used in addition to participant surveys, class observations, and teacher interviews. Participants included 59 L2 writers in a writing class at a large U.S.…

While a growing body of research has established the benefits of pronunciation training on second language (L2) production, these benefits have yet to be incorporated into the general skills language classroom in a systematic manner. Furthermore, although relatively new speech analysis software has been shown to be useful in providing visual…

This paper reports on a study into the effects of digital game play on learners' Willingness to Communicate (WTC), or individuals' "readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2" (MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément, & Noels, 1998, p. 547). Thirty Thai learners of English as a foreign…

The present study is aimed at investigating the effect of a radical-derived Chinese character teaching strategy on enhancing Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners' Chinese orthographic awareness. An e-learning teaching platform, based on statistical data from the Chinese Orthography Database Explorer (Chen, Chang, Chou, Sung, & Chang,…

The current study investigated the effects of different computer-supported cooperative prewriting strategies (text-based brainstorming, drawing, and mind mapping) on the writing performance of elementary-school EFL (English as a foreign language) learners in Taiwan. Three intact classes of fifth graders (N = 81 students; 27 per prewriting strategy…

This study illustrates how a synergy of two technologies--Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) and corpus linguistic analysis--can produce a lasting improvement in L2 learners' ability to edit persistent grammatical errors from their writing. A large written English corpus produced by Korean undergraduate and graduate students…

This experimental study examined how the reading and writing development of sixth-grade L2 students was affected by syntactic enhancement. Visual-syntactic text formatting (VSTF) technology, which visualizes syntactic structures, was used to convert a textbook to the one with syntactic enhancement. The sample (n = 282), which was drawn from a…