While mobile devices have become increasingly integral to students' lives, there is an apparent disconnect between this trend and our second language (L2) pedagogy. The present study investigates potential benefits of a nontraditional assignment, texting, on vocabulary acquisition and motivation in adult learners of Spanish. Quantitative results…

This study presents an innovative approach to developing interlanguage pragmatics (ILP) by training students to engage in online participatory cultures and analyzing their participation through the lens of communities of practice. Participants were university-level English language learners studying in the United States who were trained on the…

Drawing from activity theory and its notion of contradictions of various levels, the present study analyzes tensions that emerged during a six-week telecollaborative project between American learners of Japanese (AMU students) and Japanese learners of English (JPU students) regarding expectations and manners of interaction. Transpacific groups of…

This study presents a synthesis of empirical research reporting on learners' perceptions about the effectiveness of CMC in EFL/ESL writing classes. Conducting a multi-stage systematic review, we analyzed 52 scholarly research articles published between 2000 and 2016. Our findings indicate that while learners perceive linguistic benefits from…

In this paper, we attempt to investigate the pedagogical value of visual social media platforms, specifically Instagram, for the development of the online social presence of language classes. Students in intermediate university-level French and Italian classes used Instagram for a six-week period to reply to a series of questions prompted by the…

This study examines how technology is perceived by different stakeholder groups in The Language Flagship programs. We administered questionnaires to three stakeholder groups: 14 directors, 34 instructors, and 100 learners at a variety of institutions with three goals: (a) to investigate what technologies the directors, instructors, and learners…

With the increase of online language teaching the training needs of teachers have long been established and researched. However, the training needs of students have not yet been fully acknowledged. This paper focuses on learner training as preparation for language classes where online synchronous conferencing is used. It presents an action…

English language learners in the United States and abroad have begun to utilize Facebook, a social networking site, which since its inception in 2004 has been extremely popular with American college students. This qualitative case study with participants from an intensive English program in the US explores seven ESOL students' motivations for…

The present study adds to the computer-mediated communication (CMC) literature by exploring oral learner-to-learner interaction using Skype, a free and widely used Internet software program. In particular, this task-based study has a two-fold goal. Firstly, it explores possible differences between two modes of oral CMC (audio and video) and…

Most pedagogical applications of wikis in foreign language education draw on this collaborative tool to improve (formal) writing skills or to develop target language cultural sensitivity, missing largely on the opportunity to support student-developed L2 content knowledge. Seeking an alternative to traditional teacher-centered approaches, this…

Educational blogs have drawn the growing interest of researchers and language teachers due to the user-friendly interfaces as well as the powerful archiving features. The purpose of the current study is two-fold: (1) to examine the effectiveness of extensive speaking practice on speaking performance in voice blogs, and (2) to examine learners'…

This study investigates preservice teachers' discourse about CALL in a required CALL class which combines theory and practice. Thirty-three students in a Linguistics MA program CALL course were observed over a 10-week quarter. For all of these students, it was their first formal exposure to CALL as a discipline. Communication in the class…

This study examines synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) discourse in a bilingual chat setting consisting of Spanish-speaking learners of English and English-speaking learners of Spanish. Participants were members of a telecollaboration involving 80 students at North Carolina State University and the University of Puerto Rico. Data…

Learning to perform academic writing in university content classrooms is a major challenge facing nonnative-English-speaker (NNS) students. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) offers new possibilities for bidirectional peer-to-peer scaffolding in which students interact and negotiate meaning concerning academic writing and thus represents a new…

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is being used widely to support and extend foreign language instruction. Language learners are practicing the target language by communicating with their instructors, peers, and native speakers at a distance. This study examines high-beginning and low-intermediate learners of Russian and their uses of, and…