Many studies have examined the factors that influence second language interaction, such as task type and communication mode, i.e., face-to-face and computer-mediated communication through online mode. However, there is a paucity of research that has investigated the effects of task type on negotiation of meaning (NoM), a specific type of…

Purpose: The study explored how Feifei, a 3-year-old trilingual girl living in England, uses touchscreens across her multiple languages (English, Mandarin, and Bahasa Indonesia), exploring how her languages and social interactions interact with her touchscreen use. Design/methodology/approach: The research adopts a case study approach, using…

A key goal in World Language Education (WLE) is challenging learners' preconceived notions about other cultures, aligning with the leading intercultural competence models, national language teaching standards, and the emerging Transformative Language Learning and Teaching (TLLT) paradigm. However, challenging stereotypes remains a concern to…

The starting point for this research is an eTandem initiative between learners of Mandarin Chinese and German. The participants mainly learnt the dominant variety of their target languages (German Standard German, Mainland Chinese Standard Mandarin), however, their tandem partners are speakers of a non-dominant variety (Austrian Standard German,…

This study reports on the results of a semester-long Chinese-American telecollaborative exchange via WeChat, in which students from China and the U.S. shared thematically similar songs in their respective languages and discussed relevant cultural topics that were suggested by the students. Various types of qualitative data collected from the…

Informed by an increasing amount of research in understanding spatiality in language learning, this ethnographic case study investigates two ethnic minority university students' English language learning in urban, virtual, and classroom spaces as they relocated to an interior city for higher education in southeastern China. Data consisted of the…

This article deals with vocabulary learning in synchronous, multimodal eTandems focussing on Mandarin Chinese as a target language. In doing so, the study adopts an emic, conversation analytic perspective and triangulates self-reported data from learner diaries with recordings of actual eTandem conversations. The analysis of the learner diaries…

Research in computer mediated communication and sociolinguistics, have increasingly highlighted the concept of establishing an "online identity" through specific language use. However, while emojis or common netspeak abbreviations are often the focus of research concerned with cyber language, no studies have considered the function…

This paper examines whether a web-based training on English discourse intonation leads to better spontaneous speech quality for Mandarin Chinese speakers who reside in the U.S. and in China. The four-week fully online training consisted of meta-instruction videos as well as listening and speaking activities, including instant visual pitch contour…

This 'inclusive practitioner research' study presents a collaborative 'virtual intercultural fieldwork' project in which Balinese and Chinese university students communicated in English to explore similar emic cultural concepts related to the Japanese concept of "amae" (presumed indulgence); namely, "manying" (Balinese) and…

Ireland's new strategy for foreign language education, "Languages Connect," identifies the establishment of Mandarin Chinese as a curricular language as a key goal for the coming years. Within the curriculum specification for Mandarin at Junior Cycle (ages 12-15), "using digital technology is identified as a core component: the…

The 23rd Annual Graduate Student Conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature (LLL) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa was held on Saturday, April 20th, 2019. As in past years, this conference offered the students in the six departments across the college, East Asian Languages and Literatures, English, Indo-Pacific…

This quasi-experimental research explored Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners' use of a popular social networking application in China, WeChat, in acquiring vocabulary. The research questions answered in this study are: (1) How may the CFL learners' vocabulary performance be described in terms of: (a) pretest scores and (b) posttest…

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of bilingual learning strategies designed to support Chinese undergraduate business students facing significant learning challenges in an Australian university capstone curriculum delivered at their Chinese university. These challenges include the students' difficulty understanding…

Online kindergarten to twelfth grade (K-12) language learners have usually been found to hold more negative perceptions of their courses and to perform less well academically than their face-to-face counterparts, despite the well-attested benefits of computer-mediated communication in language learning. In an attempt to improve upon such outcomes,…