Narrow reading has the potential to reduce vocabulary load and to provide rich opportunities for developing collocation knowledge, but these benefits rely on narrow reading increasing lexical repetition within a text. Hence, interest in narrow reading has been limited by the relatively small lexical effect of narrowing reading by topic (Nation, 2013). Nevertheless, research in data-driven learning and teaching and language corpora has reported positively on learners using concordances in a manner comparable to narrow reading. However, the potential for concordances to provide an increased lexical-repetition effect has not been assessed. This study bridges this gap by exploring the degree of lexical repetition available in concordances and identifies corpus composition as a key predictor of lexical repetition. The study uses standardised type-token ratio (sTTR) to analyse concordances extracted from corpora at three different levels of homogeneity/heterogeneity. The results show large, reliable variations in lexical repetition resulting from variation in corpus homogeneity/heterogeneity, and so identifies concordance-based narrow reading as a possible means of overcoming the limitations of traditional narrow reading by topic. The results are discussed with reference to pedagogical implications for language learners, teachers, and researchers.

This study investigates and compares the quality of Google-translated texts (GTTs) across writing genres (narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive) with EFL student–generated texts (SGTs), and explores students’ attitudes toward Google Translate (GT) output. In a mixed-methods design with a computational approach to text analysis, this study utilizes multiple data sources, including 328 written texts, written reflections, four attitude questionnaires, focus group discussion, and individual interviews. Forty-one Arabic-speaking undergraduate students majoring in English language and translation at a Saudi university participated in this study. They engaged in eight computer-mediated writing sessions by responding to tasks using English, then responding to the same tasks using their first language (L1). Subsequently, they utilized GT to translate L1 texts into English and compared SGTs with GTTs. The findings show that GTTs have higher literacy levels and richer content in the persuasive and expository genres, and higher style levels in the narrative and descriptive genres. Moreover, the comparison between SGTs and GTTs reveals that GTTs have higher literacy levels, better style, and richer content in the descriptive, expository, and persuasive genres. Meanwhile, the students hold positive views on the general quality, grammatical accuracy, and provision of lexical alternatives in GTTs across genres. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

This study investigates the effects of an optional and required (jigsaw) task on learners’ quantity and quality of use of language under synchronous and asynchronous conditions. The question raised is: Does performing either of these task types under synchronous conditions cause a compounding effect that either positively or negatively impacts language production? Eighty-six beginning learners of German participated in this study. The results show that the optional task yielded significantly more learner output, both in terms of target language and c-unit counts. The impact of the condition appears to be mixed, favoring the synchronous mode. Regarding quality, students produced fewer errors when performing the required than the optional task. The results of this study have implications for task design and implementation in online learning environments.

This study traces the evolution of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) by investigating published research articles (RAs) in four major CALL journals: ReCALL, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology, and CALICO Journal. All 2,397 RAs published over four decades (1983–2019) were included in the pool of data, and the Google Scholar citation metric was adopted to assess the impact of the papers. By selecting the top 15% of widely cited papers from each individual year, we minimized the time bias between years, enabling a balanced narration of the history of CALL through a representative dataset of 426 high-impact RAs. To identify the evolution of research trends, the contexts, methodologies, theoretical underpinnings and research foci of all 426 RAs were investigated using NVivo 12 and AntConc. The analysis of the data yielded encouraging results such as the upward trend in the number of publications and the international reach of CALL in the last two decades, the physical or virtual presence of language learners with diverse language profiles, and the growing tendency to triangulate methodology for increased complexity. However, long-standing issues such as the heavy reliance on traditional research contexts, poor reporting practices of basic demographic information, the large number of atheoretical papers and the concentration on a limited number of research foci continue to pose challenges in CALL research. Based on the findings, the paper suggests solutions for the controversies and addresses key issues for future research in CALL.

As Tarone (1998) stated, an understanding of interlanguage variation in relation to contextual changes has been a key issue in both second language acquisition (SLA) and language assessment (LA) research. Research on interlanguage variation has shown that systematic variation is often evidenced when different phonological and syntactic forms are examined across contexts. Such systematic variation has raised important questions about the distinction between competence and performance, and generalizability of results beyond the research elicitation tasks or test tasks in SLA and LA research. However, most previous studies that have examined this issue are based on cross-sectional data with a focus on between-group differences rather than within-individual differences across different contexts. Such limited data often make it difficult for researchers to understand individual developmental trends in interlanguage as well as to interpret context effects on the learner's spoken and written language data. Electronic (E)-portfolios may address this limitation by serving as a valuable research and assessment tool for collecting and storing an individual learner's language samples obtained across different tasks over time. The technology may also enhance the situational and interactional authenticity of tasks by including multi-media input and constructed response tasks. However, it is not clear how tasks in E-portfolios can be constructed to represent various linguistic and situational contexts, and how they could be systematically evaluated and scored. In that vein, this article addresses a number of limitations of existing E-portfolios as a research and assessment tool, and offers recommendations and suggestions for future research.

Grammar checkers are not reliable enough yet to be used in CALL programs. Their rate of overflagging is still much too high for learners of a foreign language. CALL programs, however, could profit greatly from the incorporation of a grammar checker if this could provide the option of responding more intelligently to students’ input. Several strategies are proposed to make grammar checkers more acceptable for CALL developers, among them adapting the lexicon and the parser in the grammar checker.

The use of computer programs that can be used to correct and assess students' written work in the EFL classroom has become more commonplace within the last decade. This paper discusses the role of CALL in the process of data collection, standardisation of assessment criteria and compilation of the number of errors in the areas of grammar learning and its application to L2 writing. Students benefited from the correction process and showed increased grammatical awareness through the corrected feedback. However, the analysis of the results after the first correction phase demonstrated that the students had improved less than expected. For this reason, in the second year, Genre Theory was adopted as a theoretical framework so that students would become aware of the relationship between the structure and shape of texts in order to be effective in a particular context, and to achieve the goals of a particular culture. As proponents of the genre approach, we argue that making the genres explicit and showing how to write them will help students to be aware of how knowledge is structured in different written genres. A careful selection of text types was made at the beginning of the year so that improvement in the students' writing not only depended on the CALL system being used, but also on the different genres or text types used as class material. In this study, we intend to demonstrate that the combination of new technologies in the classroom and Genre Theory helped students to increase their writing competency. Our research highlights the relationship between literacy, new technologies, and effective writing with an emphasis on the educational application.

An essential component for assessing the accuracy and fluency of language learners is understanding how mode of communication and task type affect performance in second-language (L2) acquisition. This study investigates how text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (F2F) oral interaction can influence the performance of language learners in producing grammatical forms accurately when learners of English as a second language complete different tasks in their L2. Findings show a systematic variability in learner interlanguage that depends on mode of communication and task type. L2 learners used articles more correctly and produced advanced-stage questions more frequently in text-based SCMC than in F2F. These findings suggest that task types and the mode of communication in which a task is completed need careful selection based on pedagogical purposes in order to maximize L2 learning and better evaluate L2 performance.

In this qualitative systematic meta-synthesis study, 57 studies from the international literature published between 2010 and 2024 on the use of voice-based artificially intelligent chatbots in English language learning were analyzed. The present study aimed to explore the most recent studies on this topic by investigating the theoretical frameworks, methodological and technological properties, user reports of chatbot usage experience, and pedagogical implementations. It sought to identify research and implementation trends for voice-based chatbots via qualitative data analysis methods. Based on the reviewed studies, this paper presents data-based pedagogical implications that align with the latest voice-based AI chatbot research trends.

The topic of EUROCALL '97, ‘Where research and practice meet’, is perhaps the most provocative and complex one in all of higher education. It would be interesting to recast the assertion that EUROCALL '97 is where research and practice meet as a more probing question: Where do research and practice meet? Unarguably, yes, at this conference: our program – the variety of presentations on practice, and on the research done on practice, and on theoretical research and the nature of research – makes that clear. But it is not only at this yearly gathering; research and practice also meet in the organization of EUROCALL, and for many of us in our daily professional lives. But we could push the question further and ask: do research and practice meet regularly and inherently in the profession of CALL? In the multimedia classroom or language center? In our materials? In cyberspace? in the mind of the learner? To most of those questions we would probably have to give, reluctantly, a negative answer.

This paper presents a macro speech act analysis of computer-mediated conferencing on a university course on language pedagogy. Students read scholarly articles on language learning and discussed them online, in order to make sense of them collaboratively in preparation for a reflective essay. The study explores how the course participants made use of computer-mediated conferencing for such collaborative text processing. A discussion thread with 97 messages was analyzed for its macro speech acts. The conference messages were treated as pragmatic macrostructures where micro-level speech act sequences can be mapped onto a higher-level, global speech act or textual function. The discussion turned out to be reader-centred and practice-oriented. Approximately two thirds of the messages were concerned with interpreting theory from a practical point of view, expressing the students’ personal experience, opinion or idea about a certain issue related to the article. In comparison, only one tenth dealt with checking the explicit propositional content of the article. The results are interpreted in terms of the distinction between a narrative and paradigmatic/expository discourse.

This paper presents an online course for assessing and developing lexical competence which grew out of one simple question: How many words do our students have? We start by highlighting the importance of vocabulary teaching in the second language learning process and the beneficial effects of multimedia on developing lexis. The first response to the aforementioned query took the shape of a research study which evaluated the lexical competence of students in their final year of an English Philology degree course. As a result, the lecturers involved in the project undertook a further study entitled ADELEX – ‘Assessing and Developing Lexical Competence through the Internet’ – aiming to develop a web-based course that would improve the vocabulary levels of our students (http://www.ugr.es/~inped/index.htm). The instructional design of the online vocabulary project, ADELEX, developed through Web Course Tools (WebCT), is detailed in the second part of the paper. First we set out its pedagogical objectives and describe the main characteristics of this modular course. We then address the issue of syllabus design describing its lexicographical, lexicological, semantic and discoursal contents, and offer a brief profile of its nine modules. Needless to say, we establish some methodological guidelines for the implementation of a virtual course which may help students control their own learning and provide constant feedback and interaction. In fact, learner autonomy is one of its main objectives. In addition, its teaching procedures are examined, emphasizing the tools of WebCT: online assignments, forums, online vs. on campus sessions, students’ projects, grading, test design, etc. An unavoidable research question is also addressed: how to assess lexical competence both at the diagnostic level, to obtain initial feedback, and at the achievement level, i.e. when a word can be said to be acquired in a web-based environment. The answer to this question has been to develop a complex system of computer-based tests (CBTs). Finally, we draw some pedagogic conclusions.

This paper presents FipsOrtho, a spell checker targeted at learners of French, and a corpus of learners’ errors which has been gathered to test the system and to get a sample of specific language learners’ errors. Spell checkers are a standard feature of many software products, however they are not designed for specific language learners’ errors. After a brief review of the state of the art, we describe the system’s architecture and interfaces. Then we describe our error typology and detail the techniques used to retrieve words and to order proposals appropriately: alphacode, phoneticization, ad-hoc, capitalization, apostrophe, and word separation error methods. Proposals are sorted by a score depending on the method(s) used to retrieve them, on the expected lexical category, gender, number and person, and on the string proximity with the unknown word. Then the test results are presented: a list of individual words containing errors was submitted to the alphacode and phoneticization methods; a corpus of authentic learners’ errors was gathered and analyzed. Finally we conclude the paper with some limitations of the system and ideas for future research.

This paper discusses a framework for designing online tasks that capitalizes on the possibilities that the Internet and the Web offer for language learning. To present such a framework, we draw from constructivist theories (Brooks and Brooks, 1993) and their application to educational technology (Newby, Stepich, Lehman and Russell, 1996; Jonassen, Mayes and McAleese, 1993); second language learning and learning autonomy (Benson and Voller, 1997); and distance education (Race, 1989; White, 1999). On the one hand our model balances the requirements of the need for control and learning autonomy by the independent language learner; and on the other, the possibilities that online task-based learning offer for new reading processes by taking into account new literacy models (Schetzer and Warschauer, 2000), and the effect that the new media have on students’ knowledge construction and understanding of texts. We explain how this model works in the design of reading tasks within the specific distance learning context of the Open University, UK. Trayectorias is a tool that consists of an open problem-solving Web-quest and provides students with ‘scaffolding’ that guides their navigation around the Web whilst modelling learning approaches and new learning paradigms triggered by the medium. We then discuss a small-scale trial with a cohort of students (n = 23). This trial had a double purpose: (a) to evaluate to what extent the writing task fulfilled the investigators’ intentions; and (b) to obtain some information about the students’ perceptions of the task.

The acquisition of new vowel sounds is one of the most challenging tasks for the adult learner of a second language. It is also an aspect which requires a great deal of time and individual attention. Learners of English are particularly hampered by the irregular orthographic representation of vowel sounds. This paper reports on research in progress into the development of an application to provide learners with real time feedback on their vowel production. This process includes the calculation and plotting of formants on a graph using the PRAAT programme. The patterns which result are highly reminiscent of the traditional vowel chart, which in turn reflects articulation, i.e. articulatory changes are reflected on the graph. This application can provide feedback on both pure vowels and diphthongs. Some of the difficulties and obstacles which as yet prevent it from being a tool which can be used by the learner autonomously will also be outlined and discussed. Foremost amongst which are: the question of speaker normalisation (how to compensate for the difference in values between male, female and pre-pubertal speakers) which may be resolved by way of statistical elaboration of the formant data; and the methods used to isolate the vowel sound from the rest of the signal.

The current study is an approximate replication of Gray and DiLoreto’s (2016) study, which proposed a model predicting that course structure, learner interaction and instructor presence would influence students’ perceived learning and satisfaction in online learning, with student engagement acting as a mediator between two of the predictors and the outcome variables. Using mixed methods, the current study investigated whether Gray and DiLoreto’s model would be able to explain the relationships among the same variables in a computer-assisted language learning environment. A mediation analysis was conducted using survey responses from a sample of 215 college-level students, and qualitative analysis was conducted on the survey responses from a subsample of 50 students. Similar to Gray and DiLoreto’s study, positive correlational relationships emerged between the variables. However, the model proposed by Gray and DiLoreto did not fit our data well, leading us to suggest alternative path-analytic models with both student engagement and learner interaction as mediators. These models showed that the role of course organization and instructor presence were pivotal in explaining the variation in students’ perceived learning and satisfaction both directly and indirectly via student engagement and learner interaction. Moreover, qualitative analysis of students’ responses to open-ended questions suggested that from students’ perspectives, course structure was the most salient factor affecting their experiences within online language learning contexts, followed by learner interaction, and then by instructor presence.

This study explores the integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in informal digital learning of English (IDLE) practices, focusing on its potential to enhance language learning outcomes and addressing the technological challenges language teachers face in utilising AI-based tools to facilitate second language acquisition. Based on the research context of IDLE and holistic learning ecology and drawing on the theoretical frameworks of technological pedagogical and content knowledge and social cognitive theory, we performed a mixed-methods investigation with an empirical experiment to assess the effectiveness of GenAI followed by semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that the GenAI-mediated IDLE practices effectively improve college students’ oral proficiency in English from both technological and humanistic perspectives. However, results also indicate that the GenAI conversational partner alone is not adequate to provoke continuous extramural GenAI-mediated IDLE practices. We discuss the theoretical and pragmatic significance of GenAI-mediated IDLE in educational equity and reformation.

This paper discusses the findings of an extensive survey of approaches to language teaching and learning via the WWW. Its aim was to find exemplars of best practice in stand-alone courses, integrated mixed-model courses (Web/CD-ROM/face-to-face), and interactive exercises for the development of all four language learning skills. The findings suggest that, in some languages, resources are already so plentiful that it would be more economical to integrate the best of them into existing courses and to focus energies on global co-operation in the production of new high quality materials.

Manning argued that exploratory teaching is well suited to learning with computers, as it increases the learners' autonomy and motivation. The main thrust of this paper is to evaluate the merits of exploratory teaching of grammatical rules as opposed to the more traditional explicit or implicit approaches. It provides a brief description of tests carried out on a group of learners of French in the UK, working on gender agreement rules, using a specifically designed CALL program and presents and analyses the results of the testing, which favour the Exploratory approach.