This paper has a dual aim: to situate functionalities among the complex of factors that help shape online interactions and to explore the heterogeneity of audio conferencing and its implications. Following a critical discursive synthesis of the treatment of variables in the literature, attention focuses on the distinctive and diverse characteristics of synchronous audio environments. The existence of a synchronous-asynchronous dichotomy is questioned and the effects of a number of differences are highlighted. As a further illustration, the paper next undertakes a comparison of Lyceum and Wimba Voice Direct. The main features of the two environments are introduced and a detailed analysis of their text and voice chat facilities is carried out. In the last section the benefits of text-based CMC are revisited through the lens of voice chat technology. It is concluded that the benefits of CMC appear to have been overstated and that no general claims can be made about voice CMC, but that collectively, well documented studies could provide a useful source of information on the level of contingency of particular findings.

This study examines the potential of learner-learner interaction through Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC) to focus learners’ attention on form. Focus on form is operationalized through Language-Related Episodes (LREs), instances where learners turn their attention to formal aspects of language by questioning the accuracy of their own or each other’s language use. The study also compares two task types, jigsaw and dictogloss, with respect to the number and characteristics of LREs. Ten adult intermediate ESL learners from an intensive English language program in the US worked together in dyads to carry out one jigsaw and one dictogloss task in an SCMC environment. Tasks were controlled for content and were presented in two alternative orders. The dictogloss in this study generated more LREs than the jigsaw. LREs were also qualitatively different across task types. Jigsaw LREs were implicit and did not result in incorrectly solved outcomes, whereas dictogloss LREs were explicit and resulted in correctly solved, incorrectly solved, and unresolved outcomes.

There is a growing recognition that learning is increasingly taking place on the move and located beyond educational environments, ‘in the gaps of daily life’ (Sharples et al., 2007). And yet, language learners have mostly been perceived as being fixed in particular contexts, whether in the educational environment, abroad, or in their homes and communities. As several authors have pointed out (Castells et al., 2007; Okabe & Ito, 2006; Sharples et al., 2007), mobile devices allow learners to capitalize on the multiple sites that they travel through, whether they be public or private spaces, formal or informal ones, and reflect on their social practices and their learner selves. This paper investigates whether such a context-sensitive and social-oriented approach to Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) can be applied to the language learning context and how it is manifested. In order to carry out this investigation, we will be drawing on literature on the development of identity in second language learning (Norton, 2000; Kramsch, 2006; Phipps, 2007) and the use of ethnographic approaches to data collection and interpretation. We will be reporting on two case studies, involving learners of Icelandic and Serbian/Croatian, conducted over two years at a UK university. The paper concludes that the use of mobile technology enables language learners to use these devices as ‘a prosthesis of the self’ (Kress & Pachler, 2007) which allows them to explore the perception of their L2 selves in a variety of day-to-day scenarios.

The ultimate goal of CALL teacher education is to enable L2 teachers to integrate CALL technology into their classroom with confidence and knowledge. As a way to achieve this goal, an increasing number of studies have paid attention to the integration of CALL technology into the teacher education program and into the classroom. Nonetheless, there is little specific research into L2 teachers’ integration of technology into the classroom in relation to their prior technology education. As a means of better understanding the complexity of L2 teachers’ integration of technology into the classroom, this paper proposes a spherical model of such integration by reviewing and synthesizing the relevant literature. Drawing on this model, the paper emphasizes the importance of CALL teacher education with regard to L2 teachers’ integration of technology into the classroom. Next, it discusses how the model can contribute to future research on such integration.

The present study investigated Japanese students’ EFL vocabulary development through e-mail interactions with a native English speaker (NS), with primary focus on students’ imitation of new words. According to sociocultural theory, learners can internalize new linguistic knowledge by imitating an expert’s expressions to create his/her own utterances. This study, therefore, specifically examined whether (1) students could imitate the new vocabulary items provided by the NS tutor, and (2) they could retain these items at the end of the project. An examination of the e-mail log showed that students did imitate and use some of the lexis provided by the NS. The results of the post-test also revealed that some of the imitated words were subsequently retained. However, there were some words that had been learned without imitation. The questionnaire survey and the students’ interview comments indicated that students memorized a considerable number of new words provided by the NS by repeatedly reading them in e-mail text, as well as in other learning contexts, such as regular classes and independent study, through noticing, retrieving, and generating the meaning/form of each word (Nation, 2001). The study concluded that vocabulary learning via e-mail takes place not only by a single process such as imitation, but also by a combination of various processes functioning in an integrated manner.

Collocations are of great importance for second language learners, and a learner’s knowledge of them plays a key role in producing language fluently (Nation, 2001: 323). In this article we describe and evaluate an innovative system that uses a Web-derived corpus and digital library software to produce a vast concordance and present it in a way that helps students use collocations more effectively in their writing. Instead of live search we use an off-line corpus of short sequences of words, along with their frequencies. They are preprocessed, filtered, and organized into a searchable digital library collection containing 380 million five-word sequences drawn from a vocabulary of 145,000 words. Although the phrases are short, learners can browse more extended contexts because the system automatically locates sample sentences that contain them, either on the Web or in the British National Corpus. Two evaluations were conducted: an expert user tested the system to see if it could generate suitable alternatives for given text fragments, and students used it for a particular exercise. Both suggest that, even within the constraints of a limited study, the system could and did help students improve their writing.