Language teachers are working in a world which has changed in the past decades in fundamentally disruptive ways, through profound changes in the role that networked computers play in everyday life and through the social and demographic shifts brought on by an increasingly globalized society, bringing together more than ever before people from…

There has been a substantial increase in recent years in the interest in using digital games for language learning. This coincides with the explosive growth in multiplayer online gaming and with the proliferation of mobile games for smart phones. It also reflects the growing recognition among educators of the importance of extramural, informal…

With today's rapid developments in digital technologies, technical obsolescence can occur much faster than in the past. Who would have predicted five years ago that Adobe's Flash would have seen the rapid decline it has experienced as a development environment? Using open, internationally accepted standards for materials development is…

Robert Goodwin-Jones opens his discussion with the thought "If you want to attract attention to a new online course, the foolproof strategy today is to label it a MOOC, a massive open online course." The hype surrounding MOOCs has resulted in substantial interest--from the general public to university presidents--in online learning, as…

Culture has long been seen as a fundamental component of language learning. While its importance is universally recognized, there is no consensus on what the term encompasses, how culture should be integrated into language instruction, or on what role technology can and should play in that process. In this column, we will be looking at the latter…

Anyone in the United States who wants to learn Spanish can easily find local instructional options. Opportunities abound as well for maintaining one's Spanish: all-Spanish television stations, widely distributed print media, and an abundance of native speakers. Learning opportunities and resources for other commonly taught languages (CTL) such as…

Five years ago in the February, 2007, issue of LLT, I wrote about developments in digital video of potential interest to language teachers. Since then, there have been major changes in options for video capture, editing, and delivery. One of the most significant has been the rise in popularity of video-based storytelling, enabled largely by…

In Western countries today, instructed language learning in higher education normally includes use of the Web: as a resource in face-to-face classes, as an equal partner in instructional delivery in hybrid courses, or as the primary teaching and learning environment in distance learning. Most often today this is enabled through use of a learning…

Using computers to recognize and analyze human speech goes back at least to the 1970's. Developed initially to help the hearing or speech impaired, speech recognition was also used early on experimentally in language learning. Since the 1990's, advances in the scientific understanding of speech as well as significant enhancements in software and…

Using computers to help students practice and learn grammatical constructions goes back to the earliest days of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). With the coming of the Internet age, CALL began to focus more heavily on the new capabilities of group connectivity and computer-mediated communication. More recently, a gathering consensus has…

Creating effective electronic tools for language learning frequently requires large data sets containing extensive examples of actual human language use. Collections of authentic language in spoken and written forms provide developers the means to enrich their applications with real world examples. As the Internet continues to expand…

Trends in the use of the Internet in recent years, collectively coined Web 2.0, have precipitated changes in modes and uses of writing online. Blogs and social networking sites provide new opportunities and incentives for personal writing. This reading-to-write culture requires use and development of language skills. The challenge for language…

The new era of mobile computing promises greater variety in applications, highly improved usability, and speedier networking. The 3G iPhone from Apple is the poster child for this trend, but there are plenty of other developments that point in this direction. Previous surveys, in LLT, and by researchers at the UK's Open University, have…

Ever since the PLATO system of the 1960's, CALL (computer assisted language learning) has had a major focus on providing self-paced, auto-correcting exercises for language learners to practice their skills and improve their knowledge of discrete areas of language learning. The computer has been recognized from the beginning as a patient and…

Online reading is evolving beyond the perusal of static documents with Web pages inviting readers to become commentators, collaborators, and critics. The much-ballyhooed Web 2.0 is essentially a transition from online consumer to consumer/producer/participant. An online document may well include embedded multimedia or contain other forms of…