An exploratory study conducted at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada between 2007 and 2009 investigated language learning with mobile devices as an approach to augmenting ESP learning by taking learning outside the classroom into the real-world context. In common with findings at other community colleges, this study identified inadequate…

This paper first provides an overview of factors that constrain ultimate attainment in adult second language (L2) pronunciation, finding that first language influence and the quantity and quality of L2 phonetic input account for much of the variation in the degree of foreign accent found across adult L2 learners. The author then evaluates current…

This study aims to verify the effectiveness of English language materials using mobile devices for business people in terms of the effect on motivation, overall learning performance, and practical performance in real business situations. We compared the use of materials developed from business English for a sales department in a company…

In this study, two study methods for the support of acquisition and retention of 10 vocabulary items were compared; one method used representative picture cards and the other a CALL interface. Seventy-one first-year Japanese university students comprising two classes participated in the study. The students studied a practice set of 10 vocabulary…

Wikis, as one of the Web 2.0 social networking tools, have been increasingly integrated into second language (L2) instruction to promote collaborative writing. This paper reports on a case study involving 35 university students at the beginning level who contributed to wiki pages over a period of 14 weeks. The affordances and constraints of using…

This action-research project was designed to assess how the use of video as a central instructional component impacts features of cross-cultural competence among adult ESL students. The study was conducted in a college-level intensive English language program in North America. Findings suggest that students' deeply embedded beliefs and values…

Second language (L2) reading comprehension is generally facilitated by both native language and L2 glosses. However, CALL learning opportunities are still not as common as they should be, and, therefore, the present meta-analysis contributes further evidence supporting the inclusion of more CALL experiences in reading contexts. The present study,…

Teaching foreign languages at distance is now becoming widespread; so is the need for evaluating online language courses. This article discusses an example of a framework that was applied to evaluate an online English as a foreign language (EFL) course at a Middle Eastern university. The development of the framework investigated areas of interest…

CALL evaluation is important because it is the most efficient means to prove CALL effectiveness. While both learning process and learning outcome should be investigated in empirical evaluation, the precise relationship between the two needs to be examined closely. Only by doing so can we identify useful CALL design features that facilitate…

Replacing face-to-face teaching with online instruction in higher education will become an increasingly attractive strategy for reducing instructional costs. Research on the effectiveness of online instruction, however, is sparse. The purpose of this paper is to present findings of a 2-year study that examined learner outcomes within the context…

The use of PowerPoint presentations for explicit instruction of grammatical structures is increasingly encouraged at the university level. Some teachers are still reluctant to use this technology because they are not convinced that more benefits can be derived from their use than from the conventional use of textbook and blackboard. On the other…

This paper examines the difference in learning outcomes between two groups of students, one of which used the "French Tutor," a multimedia package, and the other a textbook to learn the formation and use of two French past tense verbs: the perfect and the imperfect. Unlike the textbook, the "French Tutor" included visual…

This study investigates the effect of a CALL application designed to enhance speaking and listening in Mandarin Chinese on advanced students' verbal skills, learning attitudes, and self-efficacy. A pretest/posttest experimental/control-group design with intact classes was employed to minimize treatment diffusion. Over the course of 14 weeks,…

This study compared a story-based video instructional package, with a feature-length film as its focus, to a text-based program. It explored the effectiveness of each approach to enhance the listening and grammar performances of intermediate-level college French students. Twenty-seven students at two institutions participated. A pretest-posttest…

Based on recent studies, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been considered a tool to aid in language learning on account of its distinctive interactional features. However, most studies have referred to "synchronous" CMC and neglected to investigate how "asynchronous" CMC contributes to language learning. Asynchronous CMC possesses…