If some readers are surprised to receive a copy of ReCALL at this early stage in the year, let me remind you that we are now moving from two to three issues a year, for publication in January, May and September instead of May and November. The changeover has proved rather difficult, in terms of allowing time for authors to make revisions in the light of reviewers’ comments, which is why this issue is rather late.

In this issue, as well as regular papers from Dermot Campbell, Fenfang Hwu and Elke Stracke, we have included two papers from the EUROCALL 2006 conference in Granada. Melor Md Yunus discusses Malaysian ESL Teachers’ Use of ICT in Their Classrooms, whilst Petter Karlström and colleagues explore Tool mediation in focus-on-form activities. Having received 39 conference paper submissions, so far 13 have been rejected (but some of these have been advised to submit a version of their paper to the EUROCALL Review) and the remainder are at various stages in the process of bringing them to publication. Tony Harris, organiser of the Granada conference, will have more to say about conference submissions in the next issue of ReCALL, where the bulk of the selected papers will be published.

This paper outlines the ongoing construction of a speech corpus for use by applied linguists and advanced EFL/ESL students. In the first part, sections 1–4, the need for improvements in the teaching of listening skills and pronunciation practice for EFL/ESL students is noted. It is argued that the use of authentic native-to-native speech is imperative in the teaching/learning process so as to promote social inclusion. The arguments for authentic language learning material and the use of a speech corpus are contextualised within the literature, based mainly on the work of Swan, Brown and McCarthy. The second part, section 5, addresses features of native speech flow which cause difficulties for EFL/ESL students (Brown, Cauldwell) and establishes the need for improvements in the teaching of listening skills. Examples are given of reduced forms characteristic of relaxed native speech, and how these can be made accessible for study using the Dublin Institute of Technology’s slow-down technology, which gives students more time to study native speech features, without tonal distortion. The final part, sections 6–8, introduces a novel Speech Corpus being developed at DIT. It shows the limits of traditional corpora and outlines the general requirements of a Speech Corpus. This tool – which will satisfy the needs of teachers, learners and researchers – will link digitally recorded, natural, native-to-native speech so that each transcript segment will give access to its associated sound file. Users will be able to locate desired speech strings, play, compare and contrast them – and slow them down for more detailed study.

This case study investigated the ways pre-major and pre-minor students of Spanish interacted with a grammar application from four perspectives. Firstly, using the computer’s tracking ability to collect learners’ behaviors, the study set out to uncover the different ways learners approached the application. Secondly, the study assessed the influence of two learner variables on learning behaviors: language abilities determined by a placement test and personality preferences measured by Jung-Myers-Briggs-Typology based approach. Thirdly, the study assessed whether the frequency of various behaviors resulted in different knowledge increases. Finally, the study categorized the uncovered behaviors into the learning strategies covered in the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford 1990). The study concludes with implications for software improvement, as well as with indications of likely directions for future research.

We present two case studies of two different pedagogical tasks in a Computer Assisted Language Learning environment called Grim. The main design principle in Grim is to support ‘Focus on Form’ in second language pedagogy. Grim contains several language technology-based features for exploring linguistic forms (static, rule-based and statistical), intended to be used while writing. Our question is, in what ways does Grim support Focus on Form in actual classroom use. We have explored this question within sociocultural theory, emphasizing tool mediation and how tools shape the learner’s activity. The first case concerns a text-reconstruction exercise in which students worked in a pair within the Grim environment. The second case was conducted with another group of students, who engaged in collaborative revision of texts, written in advance by one of the students, in student pairs. In both studies, students were instructed and encouraged to use the different features of Grim. Data was collected by recording dialogue during the sessions with Grim. Our results show how learners put the features of Grim into use in their writing tasks. In some instances, the program was used creatively, in combination with external tools such as the users’ own dictionaries, knowledge of other languages, or teachers. In other instances, we note that Grim was used for error correction, rather than as a language resource. The learners’ activities are thus transformed by their use of the program, from the tasks of revision and text-reconstruction into error correction. The application shapes the activity, in conjunction with the pedagogical tasks. We argue for studying the activities of students with CALL tools, in order to find out in detail how tasks and technology concur in use and what view on language and pedagogy they mediate.

This paper addresses the views of students of blended language learning (BLL) – a particular learning and teaching environment, that combines face-to-face (f2f) and computer-assisted language learning (CALL). In this instance, the ‘blend’ consisted of learners’ independent self-study phases at a computer, with a CD-ROM, and traditional f2f classroom learning. This paper explores this BLL environment from the participants’ perspective and focuses on three learners who left the class. The aim of the study was to understand the reasons behind those students’ decision to leave, so that ideas might be developed for the successful implementation of BLL environments in the future that would appeal to all learners. The analysis showed that students left the class for three reasons: a perceived lack of support and connection/complementarity between the f2f and computer-assisted components of the ‘blend’; a perceived lack of usage of the paper medium for reading and writing; and the rejection of the computer as a medium of language learning. The paper concludes by pointing out implications for the possible future of BLL.

English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in Malaysia, as in many other countries, are anxious to exploit the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance the teaching and learning process. Given the increasing pressure exerted by technological developments on language education, it is important to understand the underlying factors behind teachers’ decisions regarding ICT. Egbert et al. (2002) state that few investigations have been conducted on computer-using language teachers’ development. According to BECTA (1999) the learning potential of ICT is not being realised, because many teachers are not familiar with ICT and do not use it in their teaching. This study investigates the present use of ICT among ESL technical school teachers in teaching, factors that affect the use of ICT and perceptions of their skills in ICT. The theory that frames this study is drawn from theories of learning. The model adopted is Davis’ Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (1989) which provides a basis for determining ICT attitudes and factors affecting the usage of ICT in teaching. Data was collected via a questionnaire survey of ESL technical school teachers in Malaysia, and followed by semi-structured interviews with them. The questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics and later triangulated with the interviews. The findings will be presented and elaborated upon in this paper.