This paper reports a study in a technology-assisted Chinese teaching context where one major teaching objective is to encourage international students to participate in speech contests with the theme of 'Tell China, Tell Your Stories'. Results showed that through four weeks' preparation, all the students had a more robust method for presentation…

The aim of this study is to examine how collaborative skills can be developed among secondary school pupils using digital tools (Word online, Adobe Spark Video) in the language classroom. Several types of data were collected: semistructured interviews with teachers and learners, and observation of collaborative activities in the language classroom…

This piece looks at the use of Twitter to share good practice among education professionals responding to the so-called 'pivot online': the sudden shift to online learning necessitated by the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. It presents a general overview on how Twitter provided a source of advice, ideas, and resources and how teachers shared…

During our six-week Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) module (Oct.-Nov. 2019), 58 students jointly developed task-based projects on expressions of popular culture in Albany (USA) and Caracas (Venezuela). In teams of seven to eight participants, learners from both countries reflected on variations of popular culture through…

Although smartphones have become normalised in people's everyday behaviours, they remain under-exploited from a language learning perspective. This paper describes a study in an Irish university which explored the nature and extent of language learners' existing use of smartphones for informal learning purposes through a survey, a case study, and…

At Ysgol Merllyn, a primary school serving the village of Bagillt in North Wales (UK), Tracy Jones, Headteacher, presents data from diagnostic assessment used to determine how well children had retained knowledge of the Extended Code during the disruptions posed by lockdowns and periods of remote learning. [For the complete volume,…

Mobile COLT is a portable platform for analysis of activities in the second language classroom, and is based on the well-known Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT) scheme (Spada & Fröhlich, 1995). It has been developed to facilitate real-time class analysis using a Windows tablet. This paper first describes the COLT analysis…

In this chapter, the authors argue that there are five different dimensions of continuing professional development (CPD) crucial to its effectiveness. It should be: (1) systematic; (2) collaborative; (3) innovative; (4) reflective; and (5) digital. For each dimension, they give several concrete examples to illustrate the kind of CPD that they are…

Massive Open Online Language Courses, also commonly known as Language MOOCs or LMOOCs, are online courses offered for a limited period of time by higher education institutions worldwide for anybody wishing to learn a foreign language. The average duration of these courses is between four and six weeks, and approximately three to five weekly study…

This paper will detail the introduction of the open-source content creation tool H5P in a first year university French language module with 115 students in autumn 2019 and its evaluation in early spring 2020. The aim of this project is to analyse what happens when students are given access to an authoring tool traditionally intended for and used…

This article presents two studies performed on 14 immigrant families with children aged one to 16; 12 families in Iceland and two Icelandic families living abroad. Lack of exposure and availability of online materials for learning Icelandic as an L2 may affect what skills children can practise at home. This study represents 32 children aged one to…

The use of chatbots in language learning has been on the rise. In recent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research, there is a consensus that rule-based, scripted voice systems are optimal for language learning. Such systems integrate well into instructed language learning in that interactions with the user are predictable and…

This paper reports on research that aimed to provide initial insight into how university students in two different countries, Japan and Ukraine, coped with greater use of videoconferencing software and whether this resulted in any issues surrounding their online privacy. To facilitate learning under the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors and learners…

Video is used widely in language education as a learning tool and a production tool for students to demonstrate oral competence. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Irish language lecturers at Dublin City University (DCU) set asynchronous video assessment tasks for students on teacher education programmes. Tasks were completed using the…

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is a digital communication method that transforms spoken discourse into written text. This rapidly evolving technology is used in email, text messaging, or live video captioning. Current ASR systems operate in conjunction with Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to transform speech into text that people…