This design-based research study investigates the instructional moves employed by novice online tutors to provide form-focused feedback to Belorussian college-level English language learners during written interactions in an online asynchronous language course. The investigation focused on the amount and effectiveness of implicit and explicit…

Using the lens of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, activity theory, and Engeström's activity systems analysis, this qualitative study explores students' experiences in the context of a sixteen-week transpacific collaboration between seven students at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and seven students from Shandong Normal…

The purpose of the study is to investigate how pre-service teachers adopt YouTube technology into their microteaching as part of their assignments. The participants were twelve Taiwanese pre-service teachers in a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages graduate program. They enrolled in a Second Language Writing course and worked in groups…

This study is aimed at identifying reading strategies of beginning learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) with and without a pop-up dictionary and at determining if learners retain the reading comprehension gained from using the dictionary. Beginning CFL learners at a Midwestern university answered questions about their reading strategies…

In this study, dynamic assessment is employed to help understand the developmental processes of two university Spanish learners as they produce a series of past narrations in a synchronous computer mediated environment. The assessments were conducted in six weekly one-hour chat sessions about various scenes of a Spanish language film. The analysis…

The article shows the results of a research project designed to improve the results in the English section of the Spanish University Admission Examination, or PAU, Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad (EFL-PAU henceforth). Using a quasi-experimental methodology relevant data was collected from both groups during a whole academic year just before…

The sociocultural perspective of second language teacher education (L2TE) (e.g., Johnson, 2009), unlike the traditional one, values the importance of teacher development through actual teaching practice. Student teachers' (STs) initial beliefs should be challenged and reconstructed by taking into account particular teaching contexts. This…

This quasi-experimental study examined whether there was any difference in the quantity and quality of the written texts produced by two groups (N = 18) of intermediate Chinese language learners. Over one semester, students in the experimental (E) group wrote weekly updates and comments in Chinese on a designated Facebook group page, while…

In the past decade, a new wave of writing assessment has evolved as a result of advances in computer technology, highlighting the potential of automated writing evaluation (AWE) in the L2 writing curriculum (Warschauer & Ware, 2006). Today's innovative AWE programs offer ESL instructors promising solutions for providing immediate feedback…

Although distance language education has been widely adopted in university learning, very few researchers to date have looked at off-screen behaviors of second/foreign language learners in their physical environments while they engage in synchronous (real-time) online courses. This study examined one focal student's off-screen behaviors while…

This action research study evaluates the effectiveness of a CALL Learner Autonomy (CALL LA) course at a Japanese university. The "C course" blends face-to-face instruction and independent study in a CALL environment. It aims to enhance learners' autonomous use of CALL in the acquisition of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). In…

In this paper we outline an approach to learner preparation that provides a framework to effectively structure a collaborative and cooperative student research assignment using a wiki site as a writing platform. While students are familiar with posting pictures and videos online, they may not be aware of how to effectively integrate text and…

Recognizing how essential communication technologies have become to language learners, the TESOL Technology Standards Task Force set three goals for learners (Healey et al., 2011): 1) demonstrating skills in technology for a multilingual world, 2) using technology appropriately and ethically, and 3) using and evaluating technology for language…

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…

The qualitative study reported in this article explored the use of technology for language learning in a third-year French class at a public university in the Midwest of the USA. To address the need for a more holistic study of technology for language learning (Basharina, 2007; Thorne, 2003), an Activity Theory framework was employed to…