This article draws on second language theory, particularly output theory as defined by Swain (1995), in order to conceptualise observations made in a computer-assisted language learning setting. It investigates second language output and learner behaviour within an electronic role-play setting, based on a subject-specific problem solving task and the Internet as source of primary information. Students were given a task which includes the collaborative development of a marketing strategy for a chosen product. Data collected consists of the following corpora: emails exchanged between groups, the recorded discussions between each group’s members while engaged in the problem solving activity, oral presentation of the groups’ results as well as the individually written summaries. One area of particular interest is the analysis of the oral L2 output while solving a computer-assisted language learning task. How can the oral interaction be characterised? What kind of conclusions regarding the use of CALL can be drawn from the comparison of the oral interaction and the written output? Another area of interest is the analysis of the written L2 output. Is there evidence of second language acquisition and/or acquisition of content? Can such a CALL setting promote second language acquisition (SLA) and/or acquisition of content? Finally, the study aims to identify whether student-initiated focus on language form can be found. The article answers the questions posed above. Furthermore, the results of this study show that a very high percentage of all communication took place in L2 and occurrences of acquisition of content and language can be demonstrated.

This paper relates to the projected role of the new technologies in university teaching in the light of considerations of cost, context and culture. The author is currently engaged in a study of the successful application of the new technologies in university distance teaching, in North America and countries of the European Union.

This special issue offers a selection of papers presented at the 1999 annual EUROCALL conference, held last September in Besançon, France. Although CALL has a deep rooted tradition in France, EUROCALL’99 was the first large scale international CALL conference to take place in this country. Initiated by the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning and the French speaking CALL journal ALSIC (2000), the conference attracted more than 370 full participants coming from 30 countries.

A multimedia learning environment would appear to benefit from an intelligent tutoring system that draws on didactic expertise, knowledge of the program structure, and knowledge of the learner's previous activities. On the other hand, one may argue against a tutor because of the damaging effects on learner autonomy: the tutor may hamper genuine learning by taking the learner by the hand, whereas what the learner needs is to have sufficient space to move freely through material in an explorative rather than an executive mode, generating her own queries and finding her own solutions. It is argued that tutoring may be a necessary stage on the road to autonomy.

The article provides a description of the ReLaTe (remote language teaching) project, to develop a working demonstrator using a multicast-based conferencing system (Mbone service), for distance foreign language tuition. It covers aspects of technical development for applications over SuperJANET and gives an overview of the trials and evaluation, including how students and teachers adjusted to the system; the advantages and drawbacks of the system; how the system affected learning and teaching in the context of acquisition and delivery of foreign languages. The ReLaTe project is a joint research project between the University of Exeter and University College London, involving the Foreign Language Centre and IT Services (Pallas) at Exeter and the Language Centre and the Department of Computer Science at UCL. The project began in September 1994, with funding from BT and JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) of the Higher Education Council of the UK. mis article covers the work of the project from September 1994 until December 1995.

This paper considers the progressive integration of a web resource in a language degree option centred on language varieties and linguistic variation in French. It focuses on the features introduced by the web environment and how they can enhance the learning experience of the students. It addresses the issue of the language used for teaching and learning with diverse groups of students including a high proportion of non-native speakers of English, varying levels of linguistic competence and different stages of study. The paper also examines web-based facilities supporting interaction and collaboration among members of the learning group (some teacher moderated). The evaluation is based on the results of a survey conducted with the group of students who took part in the pilot implementation in 2000–01 and on module feedback. The last section in the paper points to ways of integrating further the technology within the delivery and the assessment of the module, and of increasing student support and interaction.

Corpus consultation with concordancers has been recognized as a promising way for learners to study and explore language features such as collocations at their own pace and in their own time. This study examined 1.5 million search queries sent to a collocation consultation tool called FlaxCLS (Flexible Language Acquisition Collocation Learning System; http://flax.nzdl.org) over a period of two years to identify learners’ collocation look-up patterns. This paper examines and characterizes learners’ look-up patterns as they entered search queries, clicked on the query formation aids provided by the system, and navigated through the different levels of collocation information returned by the system to support collocation learning. We looked at how learners formulated query terms, and we analyzed the characteristics of query words learners entered, the characteristics of collocations they preferred, and the sample sentences they checked. Our collocation look-up pattern analyses, similar to traditional user query analyses of the web, provide interesting and revealing insights that are hard to obtain from small-scale user studies. The findings provide valuable information and pedagogical implications for data-driven learning (DDL) researchers and language teachers in designing tailored collocation consultation systems and activities. This paper also presents multidimensional analyses of learner query data, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been explored in DDL research.

Summer 1998 was certainly an important one for those of us interested in the use of Teaching and Language Corpora. The third TALC conference was held at Keble College, Oxford, under the more than able auspices of Lou Burnard. Lou had carefully prepared a program of talks which challenged the TALC community, and moved on the TALC debate further.

This systematic review maps the trends of computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) research based on the pedagogy of second language (L2) pronunciation instruction and assessment. The review was limited to empirical studies investigating the effects of CAPT on healthy L2 learners’ pronunciation. Thirty peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1999 and 2022 were selected based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were collected about the studies’ contexts, participants, experimental designs, CAPT systems, pronunciation training scopes and approaches, pronunciation assessment practices, and learning measures. Using a pedagogically informed codebook, the pronunciation training and assessment practices were classified and evaluated based on established L2 pronunciation teaching guidelines. The findings indicated that most of the studies focused on the pronunciation training of adult English learners with an emphasis on the production of segmental features (i.e. vowels and consonants) rather than suprasegmental features (i.e. stress, intonation, and rhythm). Despite the innovation promised by CAPT technology, pronunciation practice in the studies reviewed was characterized by the predominant use of drilling through listen-and-repeat and read-aloud activities. As for assessment, most CAPT studies relied on human listeners to measure the accurate production of discrete pronunciation features (i.e. segmental and suprasegmental accuracy). Meanwhile, few studies employed global pronunciation learning measures such as intelligibility and comprehensibility. Recommendations for future research are provided based on the discussion of these results.

The concept of communicative CALL has tended to suffer from a lack of definition. This article seeks a redefinition of communicative CALL by focussing on the interaction actually produced by learners through the use of software. A framework is proposed for planning communicative CALL which takes the target interaction as its starting point. Classroom research is presented as an example of how the framework could be used in practice, and the interaction produced by one item of software is evaluated.

This paper explores the impact of multimedia audio delivery and recording as a tool in language learning, in comparison with traditional technology. It traces the development of the field, and the experience of MLS Ltd. Two general approaches have evolved: Language Practice and Interactive Communication. These are described, with examples and observations on each type. The paper concludes with feedback and lessons learned from field studies, and pointers to potential future developments.