This article conceptualises how disruptions to conventional teaching models may lead to innovative practice. We have identified a gap in current knowledge around how innovations in higher education teaching and learning are initiated in times of crises. Disruptive Innovation Theory and Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Theory are used as lenses to…

The use of virtual teachers (VTs) in environmental education is an important but little-studied issue. The advantage of VTs over robot teachers is that they have more freedom in designing their appearance and can change it immediately. Therefore, this paper hypothesizes that 'VTs with animal ears are better suited to teach environmental issues…

Background: While self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy-based writing instruction has been proposed in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms, there is insufficient evidence with Japanese EFL learners and little discussion on incorporating online resources into SRL strategy-based writing instruction, despite the availability of various…

With online learning solutions responding to the novel coronavirus pandemic, it is important for educational technologists and other practitioners to understand how learners are experiencing the demands of socially distanced online learning and how they conceive of themselves within distant spaces and digital communities. Research into the…

The rise of augmented reality hits the world of Information, Communication and Technology which brings about the booming phenomenon of mobile games. One of hot mobile game with the successful application of augmented reality is "Pokémon Go," issued in August 2016. The uses of augmented reality not only give the gamers a new kind…

Teaching foreign languages via flipped classrooms, in which the typical elements of a course are reversed, has been a popular pedagogy recently as the modern digital technology is flourishing unprecedentedly. The aim of this study is to review a selected sample of 50 studies on flipped classroom instruction in foreign language education published…

This paper presents an outline of our project, in which we develop an observation framework for integrating lecture and contextual learning in the field of crop cultivation. Specifically, we will use multi sensing of learners' activities in classrooms, and contextual learning in fieldwork, farm planting, and farming environments. The motivation…

This paper describes the initial findings of an exploratory research project investigating the use of the cooperative digital puzzle game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes as a means to facilitate Second Language Acquisition (SLA). A qualitative case study approach was taken to closely examine the linguistic interaction between three L2 learners of…

Online vocabulary learning tools have been gaining popularity in EFL classrooms. Although a considerable number of research papers have showed its effectiveness, the amount of research on learner progress in terms of productive skills is scarce. Little is also known about what types of learners make progress after using these tools. This is…

The coronavirus pandemic affected the whole world in 2020, with high pressure on the health sector, many deaths, reduced business activity, rising unemployment rates, travel restrictions and social distancing. These developments have had severe consequences for all areas of every society around the globe. This also includes education. In many…

The application of online authentic language data has played an increasingly important role in language teaching. These include freely available online corpora such as the British National Corpus and the Corpus of Contemporary American English. However, students are easily overwhelmed by the enormous amount of incomplete sentences (concordance…

While the use of intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) has exploded in recent years, little is known about their use to promote English as a foreign language (EFL) development. Thus, this study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the in-class use of the IPA, Alexa, among second language (L2) English students to support improvements…

Recent literature suggests that communicative language tasks widely used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to try and improve Japanese students' learning have had little effect on improving their language ability and their intrinsic motivation to improve. Consequently, a number of teachers are now using interactive technology in the…

This study aims to analyse the initial use of Digital Storytelling (DS) in primarily asynchronous classes in order to yield results and recommendations for future courses. All participants were students in elective English courses at a Japanese university in Spring, 2020. Due to COVID-19, the courses were redesigned and conducted remotely with the…

The use of flipped learning as a pedagogical approach has increased in the 21st century. While there is an existing survey of literature regarding the development in American educational institutions--and fewer in an Asian context--there are some unique cultural considerations that may need to be examined regarding flipped learning's adoption and…