This study examined how Korean university students, majoring in English interpretation and translation, used their smartphones to meet their language learning needs. We surveyed 241 students on their smartphone use in four conditions: overall use, use related to coursework, use in English related to coursework, and use in English not related to…

While there is widespread agreement on the expected benefits of hands-on access to corpora for language learners, reports abound of the difficulties involved in realising those benefits in practice. A particular focus of discussion is the challenge of transferring the skills of the corpus linguist to learners, so that they can explore this type of…

Currently there is a push toward offering more language courses online because they can provide students with new forms of social and learning interaction, widen their access to education, and offer an individualized learning experience in large classes. Little research exists examining how students transition between online and on-campus language…

A study is reported of the performance and attainment of 32 students from overseas studying elementary Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in a Chinese university. With an AB-BA design, they were asked to use two forms of writing media to present two essays: one a word-processed essay entitled "My Favourite Female" and the other a…

One of the main purposes of foreign language teaching is currently identified by many researchers as developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of foreign language learners. Facebook is one of the easiest and quickest ways to communicate with other people, therefore it may potentially be used to promote intercultural communicative…

The present study aimed to examine whether agent-based instruction would privilege English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners any better than mainstream approaches (e.g. analogical reasoning, guessing from context, image formation, semantic analysis, etc.) when it comes to the teaching of English idioms. It also sought to explore whether…

Emerging mobile technologies can be considered a new form of social and cultural artefact that mediates people's language learning. This multi-case study investigates how mobile technologies mediate a group of Hong Kong university students' L2 learning, which serves as a lens with which to capture the personalised, unique, contextual and…

This article reports on an exploratory study investigating mobile-assisted oral feedback in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). It is aimed at exploring the characteristics of mobile-assisted feedback on oral production with the smartphone social communication app WeChat as a case in point and examining learners' perceptions of…

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools to facilitate second language acquisition and develop English as a second language (ESL) teaching skills and cultural awareness. The paper describes a collaborative online project between students from China and the USA, who communicated using the…

This case study investigated the characteristics of computer-mediated synchronous corrective feedback (SCF, provided while students wrote) and asynchronous corrective feedback (ACF, provided after students had finished writing) in an EFL writing task. The task, designed to elicit the use of the hypothetical conditional, was completed by two…

Translation instruction is very important in specialized English teaching activities. The effectiveness of current specialized English translation instruction (SETI) in mainland China, however, is unclear because university students have become less interested in, and less confident when doing, English translation. This study investigated the…

Content-based instruction (CBI) has been widely adopted for decades. However, existing CBI models cannot always be effectively put into practice, especially for learners of lower English proficiency in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. This study examined an animation design course adopting CBI to promote reading abilities of English…

This exploratory computer assisted-language learning (CALL) study used a computer-mediated communication (CMC) interface to allow English as a foreign language (EFL) writing students in classes at two universities to give each other anonymous peer feedback about essay-writing assignments reacting to selected news stories. Experts also provided…

Wikis provide users with opportunities to post and edit messages to collaborate in the language learning process. Many studies have offered findings to show positive impact of Wiki-based language learning for learners. This paper explores the effect of collaborative task in error correction for English as a Foreign Language learning in an online…

Help options, or in-built application resources designed to provide assistance, have long been an integral component of computer-based second language (L2) listening materials. Despite their potential to promote comprehension and efficiency, research on the role of help options has lagged. Previous research has found that learners do not often…