We gathered data from business practitioners to learn how they describe successful online business presentations. We found that many--but not all--successful examples were described in terms of classical rhetorical concepts (e.g., source credibility and content). We also found that about 20% of the examples were described as successful because of…

In today's digital society, the quest for sustainable development requires a paradigm shift in policy making, education, and individual lifestyle choices. This study explores the impact of informal education through communication technologies, with a specific focus on the social media network Instagram, to promote education for sustainable…

Without a strategy in place, online discussions in asynchronous courses rarely rise above the level of information sharing. As a result, it is important to design discussion strategies that push students further in their interactions with both the content and each other. In this case study, the role-play strategy was examined to determine whether…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lecturers of higher learning institutions had to pivot quickly from face-to-face classes to online classes. The new normal of online teaching and learning challenged lecturers in keeping their students engaged, especially when teaching a language course that heavily focuses on the writing component. The purpose of…

Providing foreign language students with opportunities to engage in meaningful and purposeful communication and culturally authentic interaction with peers and native speakers is critical to successful second language acquisition and the development of intercultural competence . This paper describes research that investigated how selected native…

Despite the recent growth of mobile instant messenger (MIM), research into the correlation between English learners' learning gains, learning engagement, and how this engagement helps develop authentic relationships remains underexplored. This mixed-method study involved 222 college English learners to investigate their engagement in team-based…

Language pedagogy has recently shifted its focus to digital pedagogy, hence classroom tasks being modified has become an essential practice around the world. One challenging element of teaching in a digital classroom is keeping students interested and ensuring that they have genuine learning experiences. It was also discovered that digital…

There is growing demand for online learning activities that offer flexibility for students to study anywhere, anytime, as online students fit study around work and family commitments. We designed a series of online activities and evaluated how, where, and with what devices students used the activities, as well as their levels of engagement and…

Actively encouraging foreign language learners to establish a meaningful connection with the target language culture--by engaging in authentic activities with other learners and native speakers in real-world communicative contexts--is a critical goal of foreign language education. This paper describes a design-based research study that…

The goal of this short-form article is to provide an overview of the opportunities and benefits for faculty and students who are considering the implementation of Virtual Exchange (VE) learning experiences to globalize the curriculum and their classrooms. The essay describes the benefits of students developing global competence, improving…

This paper reports on crossing borders virtually via an e-Tandem scheme and presents the findings of a study, in which students of English from an Austrian university were paired with students of German from the UK and the USA. Drawing on data from 19 in-depth interviews, the study aims to identify links between e-Tandem language learning and…

There is widespread agreement that collaboration, teamwork and intercultural competence, among others, are essential 21st century skills. Higher education teaching and learning initiatives tend to have a significant focus on developing these skills through assessments and other in-class activities, and yet often do not take advantage of…

The growth of online learning and the demand for quality education has prompted universities to investigate innovative approaches for providing students with a more interactive, engaging and authentic learning experience. Frameworks such as Garrison, Anderson and Archer?s (2001) community of inquiry (CoI) model have been widely used in the design…

The 2016 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (CSC), a joint conference with the Ohio Foreign Language Association, focused on fostering language and culture connections within and outside the language classroom and across the curriculum at all levels. A variety of approaches aimed at improving skills in language,…