COIL

Using immersive reader and other text-to-speech tools to bring text to life for readers of all levels Sponsored by CUE SIG and BRAIN SIG

This presentation will report on a COIL project between university students in the Midwest United States and Tokyo, Japan. The project took place over five weeks in spring 2022. The aim of the study was twofold: (1) to gain insights into student choice of technologies and group workflow dynamics to complete tasks, and (2) to better understand student attitudes toward the COIL project. The students in the US (n = 8) were enrolled in a technical communication course, and the students in Japan (n = 11) were enrolled in an English as a foreign language course. Mixed student teams were tasked with creating a 5-minute instructional video for foreign visitors to Japan intended to introduce daily activities such as riding the train or buying items at a convenience store. Data was collected via reflective journals and interviews and coded for theme and sentiment. Generally, findings showed that students used a wide array of tech tools to complete their tasks, and relied on accessible and familiar tools. Furthermore, students generally shared positive attitudes about the project, particularly under the theme of sociocultural aspects of the project such as relationship building and collaboration. Negative sentiment was mostly associated with language and communication challenges.

This presentation will demonstrate the functionality of DripRelease, a plugin that enables teachers to set rolling deadlines for activities in the popular Moodle LMS. These rolling deadlines can be set for various increments of time, e.g. daily or weekly. The number of available activities per time period can be chosen, and their accessibility is set through the plugin making bulk changes to restrict access settings.

The plugin is being designed as a solution to issues highlighted in a research project where a homework course with bi-weekly rolling deadlines was compared to a second homework course with exactly the same activities, but with semester-long access to all homework. Rolling deadlines were successful in fostering incremental completion (as opposed to cramming at semester’s end). This research project was successful in attaining government funding to develop the plugin.

The presenters will explain the rationale and functionality of the DripRelease plugin currently under development. The next hurdle is tackling the issue of randomization, another aspect of the research. This presentation will briefly discuss the next steps moving forward with the DripRelease plugin, give the audience hands-on experience, and outline potential future developments.

This talk compares the self-assessed TOEIC test readiness of three cohorts of university students taking required Freshman English courses. In addition to two days per week of general English instruction, students are expected to develop their TOEIC skills using a required textbook with an online lab component. As teaching modalities have shifted over the past couple years, the researcher used this natural experiment to gauge students’ impressions of their learning. One group (2021) (n=51) received synchronous instruction in TOEIC skills two days per week. A second group (2022) (n=38) received synchronous instruction one day per week and additional guided self-study TOEIC tasks. The third group (2020) (n=42) completed guided self-study TOEIC tasks with no synchronous instruction. Each group of students completed an anonymous survey reflecting on their TOEIC skill development at the end of the academic year. All three groups reported increased test readiness, while none of the modalities emerged as a clear ‘best way forward.’ The results will be discussed and may be of interest to fellow educators and administrators who are making decisions regarding guided self-study versus synchronous instruction in test preparation components of their programs.

This presentation covers the evolution of AI-powered speaking applications used in English language learning, starting with “read aloud” or pronunciation assessment using speech recognition, to listen and repeat using elicited response, to open response questions using speech-to-text, to dialog-based systems using ChatGPT. The accuracy and efficacy of these systems are discussed including the pedagogy that underpins them and how each impacts student motivation. Data from deployments of these applications in universities in Japan will also be reviewed.

Shunsuke Furuyama is the Director of Speech & AI at EnglishCentral, where he oversees the development and implementation of the company's speech recognition, pronunciation evaluation, and conversational AI technologies. He’s worked in EdTech for over 10 years, starting his career at DMM Eikaiwa.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more common to make use of digital technology in the Japanese English language classroom. In this study, we investigated how students actually feel about the use of technologies in the classroom and whether one year of English language learning utilizing such digital technologies as part of a university course impacted on their attitudes toward such methods of learning. Our results revealed no significant change in the students' attitudes toward learning English using digital technologies. However, what was apparent was that students had different attitudes to the use of digital technologies depending on their English proficiency. Students with lower English proficiencies were more positive about learning English with digital technologies while students with higher English proficiencies appeared to prefer paper-based learning materials. We surmised that lower English proficiency students found digital technologies less intimidating and stimulating while higher English proficiency students preferred traditional paper-based methods as a result of experiencing a certain level of success with this style of learning at junior and senior high school. Finally, we looked at what implications these conclusions had for our lower-level and higher-level English CALL classes.

In today’s rapidly evolving world, young people increasingly need to be autonomous learners, capable of setting goals, devising learning strategies, and reflecting on their performance. The challenge educators face is to find the time and means to support their learners to develop these capabilities within the context of compulsory EFL education.

This presentation explores the development of a custom-made Moodle-based web application designed to facilitate learner reflection in EFL classes at a Japanese university. The application enables teachers to guide students in setting goals and self-evaluating, helping to foster a more student-centered learning environment. By leveraging technology, reflection is streamlined, and information is presented in a format that makes sense to modern learners.

The presentation begins with an overview of the situational factors that prompted the creation of the web application. The presenter walks attendees through the application’s main features: guided goal setting, weekly self-evaluation, and goal review history. The key findings from the first phase of a research project are shared, with questionnaire results providing insight into student perception of goal setting, and web application usage data revealing links between the level of difficulty of goals set and students’ self-ratings.

In this presentation, I show and tell about a system for personalizing vocabulary study for groups of students. The system leverages Google products (sheets, forms, and scripts), Excel VBA, and ChatGPT to create an automated, personalized way for students to study vocabulary. The system is set up so that students can study vocabulary that they choose, but it could also be used for instructor-chosen vocabulary. The system begins with students selecting vocabulary to study, ideally from actual written or aural texts. Students input their self-selected vocabulary into an individual Google Sheet or corresponding Google Form. Vocabulary from all students is automatically aggregated in a single Google Sheet available to the instructor. From this point, the instructor can manipulate student vocabulary lists via Excel VBA (or Google Apps Scripts) and ChatGPT in order to create personalized quizzes, reading texts, and example sentences. I will demonstrate how the system works in the presentation, and attendees will see examples of quizzes, reading texts, and model sentences that are created through the system. To conclude the session, I discuss other possible ways the system can be used to support vocabulary study and current limitations or challenges that using the system presents.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has forced the continuous adaptations of teaching and learning in the new normality, with a shift to e-learning distance education where teachers performed multiple functions (Garrison, 2009). Teaching presence contributed significantly to online courses (Wang et al., 2021) and teachers placed more emphasis on teacher-student and student-content interactions rather than student-student interactions (Le et al., 2022). However, little research has been conducted on the practices of teaching presence in e-learning and distance education, an important but under-researched area, in the context of Vietnamese higher education. Adapting Garrison (2009) as a theoretical framework, this paper presents a study into how teachers adjusted their teaching for e-learning and distance education in the new normality.
Employing a qualitative research design (Creswell & Creswell, 2017), data were collected from a semi-structured interview with teachers at a Vietnamese university. Interview transcripts were coded and analysed deductively and inductively using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Results reveal that teachers deployed a variety of teaching practices around three main categories (Garrison et al. 2000) and enacted as an agent of change associated with diverse challenges for their teaching preparation. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Despite several years of Emergency Remote Teaching, students in online language classes remain uncomfortable with the webcam because of privacy concerns and enhanced self-evaluation; what has been called an “all-day mirror” (Bailenson 2021) and the resulting Zoom fatigue. Although previous research has shown the webcam can facilitate social presence in the classroom, which can motivate students (Yamada & Akihori 2007) it can be distracting (Guichon & Cohen 2014). While previous research has shown that students can feel ambivalence towards the camera (Hashimoto 2022, Wiegand 2022) my current research involves university L2 students motivated to appear professional and determined to better understand technology they anticipate using in their future workplaces. Stockwell anticipated (2009) the trainer role would fall on teachers; the majority of university students participating in my research felt they hadn’t enough training in Zoom and were not initially aware of the features that could reduce their anxiety about private spaces (such as blurring or personalizing the background) or increased self-gaze (such as hide self-view). After a number of training sessions, students reported reduced anxiety in the language classroom, the ability to teach the technology to others, and having used the features in other online classrooms.

When an author writes a book, they create a new and unique world. Readers can enter that world, but they don’t typically have the opportunity to interact with its creator. With the aim of increasing students’ motivation to read, a series of online events called Speak with an Author were organized. In each event, a well-known author of graded readers was invited to give a short presentation about the books he or she wrote, including their motivation for writing them. All of the participating authors had been winners of the ER Foundation’s Language Learner Literature award. Over 500 students from around the world attended the free events. The only condition was they read the author’s books beforehand. Most read the books on the Xreading website, but this was not required. After the author spoke, students were then given the opportunity to share their feeling about the book and ask questions directly to the author. In this session, the presenter will discuss the first three Speak with an Author events, including the challenges organizing the events, the feedback provided by both the students and the authors, and finally plans for future events.

The study on students’ feedback literacy in writing skills through online dialogic written feedback is scarce in the Indian higher education context. The present research integrates online written dialogic feedback mechanism with writing classroom instruction in an Indian university. 69 first year undergraduate students participated in the study. The study tries to see the change in the feedback literacy of the students over a period of 12 weeks. This has been done through adopting mixed-methods research. Data collection was done through dialogic written feedback, student questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and original and revised drafts of students. The data was analysed by performing text analysis of the students’ feedback and students’ drafts, quantitative analysis of the questionnaire and qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts. The results indicate that the students manifest improvement in their feedback literacy to some extent in all these aspects but there is a lack of specificity and justification to the feedback points. The study implies that a close analysis of feedback literacy among students can be used to address the concerns related to student engagement in online written dialogic written feedback and could be very helpful in formative assessment of writing skills in higher educational context.

Although there are plenty of excellent listening resources available for a range of teaching situations, in some circumstances teachers may want to create short conversation-style listening exercises for their classes. Such exercises may be useful as a part of a topic introduction (two speakers talk about the lesson topic in a casual conversation) or else as a lead-in for a communication exercise (two speakers model a conversation). Despite the merits of using self-made listening exercises in class, the practicalities of making a recording and limited preparation time may make it difficult for teachers to do this on a regular basis, if at all. However, developments in text-to-speech technology may mean that we have reached a stage where a short written conversation can be converted to a usable listening exercise within a few minutes. In this show and tell, the presenter will outline how he has created conversational listening exercises using text-to-speech tools, share some examples, talk about his experiences of using the exercises in university classes, and invite participants to give their feedback on the samples and share their own experiences.

In this presentation, the speakers identify some advantages to using the Reading Progress feature in Microsoft Teams to improve Japanese university students’ overall reading aloud and speaking fluency in English. In addition, some of the challenges encountered in the first year of using the application are identified. The goal in this first year was to ensure that students read assigned English texts aloud using the Reading Progress feature of Microsoft Teams. Another objective was to encourage more engagement with their foreign language rather than automatically relying on translation applications to understand texts. In addition, learners were expected to improve their fluency and confidence reading aloud and speaking by regularly engaging with English texts. By using Reading Progress, teachers can provide semi- or fully-automated reports, providing students with feedback on their individual struggles to verbalize the text clearly. These could include self-corrections occurring in production, but also pronunciation errors, insertions, omissions, and repetitions. A survey of the learners and teachers was undertaken to verify just how much students engaged with their feedback and how much students and teachers feel this tool has helped towards the goal of improving both their confidence and fluency in reading aloud and speaking.

Speed reading, an important skill for language learning, falls into Paul Nation's fluency strand of language learning. This is because there should be no unknown vocabulary, or at least very little, in the readings. In this way, learners can focus on increasing their reading speed, instead of language-focused activities like vocabulary learning. At a New Zealand university, teachers have been incorporating speeding reading for years. Over the years, Sonia Millett, Paul Nation, and Emmy Quinn have written over 100 graded stories for the speed reading program. Each of these stories has a comprehension quiz which consists of 10 multiple-choice questions. Until recently, these stories were only available in PDF format. This presentation details the newest format for the speed readings. The speed readings have been used to create a mobile app titled 'ESL Speed Readings'. This is a free app and is available for Android and iOS devices. The app comes with 120 stories at four graded levels. Furthermore, for teachers, there is an accompanying learner management system. This system allows teachers to monitor and download their students' progress. The presenter will demonstrate the app and the learner management system, as well as discuss implications for pedagogy.

While English literacy activities have become increasingly multimodal, participatory, and user-oriented, understanding how to exploit the multimodal read-write web for self-expression, issue discussions and critical conversations has become vital for English language learners (hereafter ELLs). The aim of this study was to investigate how a multimodal pedagogy informed by the Knowledge Process framework in the pedagogy of multiliteracies (Cope & Kalantzis, 2015) can facilitate ELLs’ multimodal composing for environmental communication. Through experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and applying, 20 ELLs in an undergraduate course were guided to locate, examine, deconstruct, and produce multimodal texts addressing environmental issues in society. Participants’ class discussions, project proposals, collaborative multimodal ecological texts, final presentations, and interviews were collected for data analysis.
The findings of this study reported that ELLs’ metalanguage in multimodal literacies for environmental communication was developed. ELLs were able to examine multimodal ecological texts using concepts such as modes, rhetorical situations, and message frames. However, when producing their own multimodal ecological videos or texts, creativity and enjoyment were often prioritized over criticality. How creativity and criticality play a role in ELLs’ production of multimodal texts for environmental communication will be discussed.

L2 learners, particularly at beginner and intermediate levels, often struggle with lexico-grammatical accuracy and writing fluency errors, which are fundamental aspects of quality academic writing. Writers must adhere to recognized English grammar conventions (i.e., spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure) within their writing to clearly and accurately convey their ideas, and often academic or career success depends on how well they do so. However, mastering academic writing takes much time and effort, and many writers continue to struggle throughout their schooling and beyond. The purpose of this pilot qualitative case study was to investigate the writing affordances and constraints that the automated writing evaluation (AWE) Grammarly and the web-based machine translation (WBMT) DeepL had on English language learners' academic writing. This study demonstrates how these technologies can be systematically integrated into a learner’s writing process as a tool to support their editing/revising and foster self-directed writing. To conclude, the presenter will share suggestions on implementing AWE/WBMT into any type of classroom activity.

Oxford University Pres

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in language learning has become increasingly common in recent years. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of university students towards the use of AI feedback on their English pronunciation.

A mixed-methods approach was employed, including a survey and focus group discussions. The survey gathered data on students' prior experience with AI technology and their attitudes towards receiving feedback on their pronunciation from an AI system. The focus group discussions provided a platform for students to share their thoughts and opinions on the usefulness and effectiveness of the AI feedback.

Findings suggest that, in general, students have positive attitudes towards the use of AI technology in language learning, with many perceiving it as a useful tool for improving their pronunciation. However, some students expressed concerns about their (perceived) lack of improvement and inability to act upon the feedback provided by the AI system.

This paper presentation depicts a four-year journey of successes and challenges of an annual exchange between a culturally diverse American high school and a Japanese university. Learners from both sides use English as a common language to creatively present cultural, economic, and financial topics. The students in FY22-23 use accessible technology, including Google Slides to create their career Flip videos, Google Form surveys for data collection, YouTube for collaboration, and Google Classroom for interactive webinars. The presenters include information on state and administrative approval processes, privacy protections, and logistical challenges. Participants will learn how available online tools can be used for unique classroom experiences to foster experiential learning, meaningful collaboration, and reflection on cross-cultural biases or stereotypes to become more effective world citizens.

COIL

This study aims to explore the perceptions of EFL teacher educators towards AI tools, particularly Chat GPT, as a resource for developing teaching materials. The research was conducted at a prominent institution of teacher education in Vietnam, using a convergent mixed-methods design. Data were collected through a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview with 37 EFL teacher educators to assess the familiarity and ease of use and participants’ degree of acceptance of AI tools as well as their attitudes towards the potential for supporting EFL material development.
The data analysis provided teacher educators’ insightful experience in emerging AI tools and their mixed perceptions of the deployment of these AI tools in developing their teaching materials to optimise their teaching practice. The results would inform the development of timely policies and practices for the integration of AI tools in future language teaching and learning. The study also highlights the need for further research on the effectiveness and ethical considerations regarding using a variety of AI tools across the EFL contexts. The study has significant pedagogical implications for EFL teacher education programs and contributes to improving the quality compilation, adaptation and design of teaching materials and supporting language learning outcomes.

The COVID 19 pandemic has made teachers and students adjust to different modes of teaching and learning; some classes were conducted fully online while other classes were conducted in a hybrid format. In order to address the transition, some educators conducted the teaching-learning process through modules in an online distance learning (ODL) method. Thus, this study aimed to establish whether the impact of the language tasks influence the oral development of the learners. It also dealt with the use of information gap tasks (IGTs) in different types of speeches such as the impromptu, informative, and persuasive speech in order to improve the speaking skills of ESL learners in the senior high school level. IGTs that involve the use of multimedia tools and applications which assisted learners in completing their tasks were integrated in the modules. Also, these tasks were shown during students’ individual, paired or group interaction and assessments in order to assist students in their language learning process. The study showed how IGTs helped improve the public speaking skills of students. It also exhibited the ways how IGTs provided adequate practice for learners develop their oral communication skills. Sample modules with IGTs will be shown in the presentation.

Vocabulary knowledge is crucial for incidental vocabulary learning through viewing captioned television. This study aimed to evaluate the spoken test format of vocabulary knowledge and its impact on incidental vocabulary learning from captioned television. The research measured the breadth and depth of spoken vocabulary knowledge in 87 minority students learning English as a foreign language in Australia. The vocabulary size test was adopted to assess the breadth of their knowledge. The depth of vocabulary knowledge was through an evaluation of collocational and semantic relationships. The findings revealed that (1) captioned videos facilitate incidental vocabulary learning; (2) there is a strong positive correlation between scores on the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and incidental vocabulary learning from viewing captioned television; and (3) scores on the depth of vocabulary knowledge uniquely contribute to predicting incidental vocabulary learning at the form and meaning recognition level, complementing the predictions made by scores on the breadth of vocabulary knowledge. These results underscore the importance of enhancing the depth of vocabulary knowledge to improve language minority students' incidental vocabulary learning from captioned viewing.

This research describes a real-life projects in developing 21st-century skills within the COIL project. The Georgia-Meisei fieldwork, which focuses on marketing a small café, involved students from Meisei University and the British University in Georgia. These students formed groups to develop web-based applications for language learning, communicating and collaborating in English as a Lingua Franca. The project aimed to attract customers using Georgian wine, and after finalizing the web applications, students held a one-week promotional event. The study employs several conceptual frameworks, including English as a Lingua Franca (Firth & Wagner,2007), Translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2012; Garcia & Wei, 2014), and agency (van Lier, 2010), and uses a qualitative methodology to examine students' development of 21st-century skills, including Ways of Thinking, Tools for Working, and Ways of Working, as well as English language learning. This research demonstrates the potential of authentic, real-life projects as a means of fostering skills that are essential for success in the 21st century. The study's findings could be used to inform the development of future curricula and teaching methods aimed at preparing students for the demands of an increasingly globalized and interconnected world.

How children learn English is always discussed by some researchers and scholars and various methods of language teaching also examined whether plausible or not. This presenter focuses on elementary level students (Young learners) to observe and explore why CALL is useful in class and how these students learn English with CALL through action research (AR). The three students engage in task-based class activities weekly for 70 minutes and their performance tests (speaking and writing) have been analyzed to find out their improvement of communication skills. Especially, some digital educational tools lead them think more and output English actively. In short, they make use of CALL to do homework and to exchange their opinions with classmates outside of classroom. In addition, they can acquire digital device skills so they never hesitated to use the language learning online tools. This presentation explores the activities with CALL get students motivated so they gain confidence in the performance tests (speaking and writing). Overall their communication and language skills improve step by step so this development is one of good results to mention. Students’ works and classroom episodes will be also shown in this presentation.

AI for curriculum design in language learning classes has become a polarizing topic since ChatGPT was released. One the one hand, AI can provide personalized learning experiences for students based on their individual needs, which can improve learning outcomes. It can also help teachers save time by automating tasks such as grading and providing feedback. However, there are also concerns about the use of AI in education, such as the potential for bias in the algorithms used by AI systems, which can perpetuate existing inequalities in education. A further concern is the potential for overreliance on AI, which could lead to a reduction in the role of teachers and human interaction in the classroom. Additionally, the use of AI for curriculum design raises ethical questions. This presentation will present the results of survey and interview qualitative based research of Japanese university English language teachers into the use of AI in language learning curriculum design. Results will demonstrate that although there are concerns about its use, teachers are overwhelmingly in favor of using AI for curriculum design. This presentation will conclude with a discussion on the reasons why language teachers should embrace this technology and use it to their advantage.

While technology is amalgamated into educational settings, to use of computer-assisted translation (CAT) as one kind of learning assistant in education contexts is receiving attention. The study introduces one computer-assisted translation (CAT) app, Termsoup, as a way to help learners make a connection between different disciplines or subject areas in ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses. The study will discuss how the app was employed in a Tourism English course. The app also allows the creation of a corpus and the study will explain how this was done as a way to review student writing and cultivate learners' autonomy. With the aid of CAT, the study hopes to foster learners’ autonomy and enhance students’ ESP writing skills in other disciplines in the future.

We often wonder what kind of information we need in multimedia materials. This presentation deals with the question using examples from gloss studies. Studies have examined what kind of glosses are helpful for learners to pick up words as they read a text with glosses. Studies have shown that glosses with text and pictures are more effective than text-only (Akbulut, 2007; Ramezanali & Faez, 2019). The dual coding theory (Sadoski & Paivio, 2001) explains the phenomenon: we learn something better when it is coded both verbally (text) and non-verbally (pictures). On the other hand, other studies have indicated that text-only glosses are better than or equal to text and pictures (Acha, 2009; Boers et al., 2017). This is based on the split attention hypothesis (Mayer & Moreno, 1998). When the information is presented through one channel, such as through the eyes, attention is split between text and picture. As a result, learners get distracted by the two types. Text-only produces better results since learners can focus on just one type. The presenter wishes to open the discussion on how to dissolve the discrepancy between the two theories and hopes to bring a better understanding of multimedia uses.

Keynote: Giles Goddard

Building on experience teaching the transcription of early modern Japanese texts in a Japanese university, this show and tell presentation will explore different ways to implement the use of digital tools in the classical (early modern) Japanese classroom. The presentation will cover tools for study, tools to help decipher texts, and the growing body of AI-powered transcription tools such as Miwo and Minna de Honkoku focusing particularly (though not exclusively) on educating students in how to transcribe and decipher early modern Japanese texts. Critically reflecting on the use of these tools and their limitations, the speaker will seek to illustrate that the use of digital tools is highly beneficial in the classical Japanese classroom.

While technological advances such as Virtual Reality (VR) can assist educators in the classroom, ensuring that the pedagogical underpinning informs the design of learning activities is of the essence. (Stockwell, 2019) Even though VR allows users to see and interact with virtual environments providing a sense of presence (Allcoat & von Mühlenen, 2018; Steffen et al, 2019) that presence needs to translate into active learning. Furthermore, it is important to consider the affordances of VR (Minocha et al. 2017) so that it will aid students in the acquisition of intercultural literacy. For this study, the researchers will utilize VR to construct a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course in which students in Japan and the US will need to evaluate the complex concept of harmony (wa 和) and its prevalence in Japanese culture virtually visiting two Japanese gardens, one in Tokyo, and one in Florida. In this hands-on interactive workshop, while the researchers will demonstrate how they have successfully created and implemented virtual exchange collaborations, utilizing VR to contribute to students’ acquisition of intercultural literacy, the participants will contribute and exchange ideas by developing active learning activities with VR for their classrooms.

While technology has often been given “black box” status, where it is expected to be able to contribute to enhanced motivation, more active engagement in learning activities, and enhanced autonomy (Stockwell & Reinders, 2019), language teachers ought to reflect on their beliefs in the use of technological tools, the role of technology in ELT, and the technology-based practices in real classroom contexts. This study investigated Taiwanese EFL teachers’ perceptions of the usability of the two well-known vocabulary learning platforms, Quizlet and Memrise, in terms of their technical and pedagogical usage in ELT classrooms. The factors that influence EFL teachers’ perceptions and practice of technological tools in ELT classrooms were also explored. The rudimentary survey and the follow-up semi-structured interview were administered in this study. The results show that most of the EFL teachers embrace the potential and the strength of the two computer-assisted vocabulary learning (CAVL) tools, having enjoyable experiences and some of them also propose some practical techniques to integrate CAVL tools in ELT classrooms. The pedagogical implications are discussed in this study.

Languaging is viewed as a pivotal site for second language (L2) learning (Swain & Watanabe, 2012). However, studies have revealed that languaging in computer-mediated L2 collaborative writing (CW) often shows minimal learner engagement (e.g. Rouhshad & Storch, 2016). These findings highlight the need to identify strategies for implementing computer-mediated L2 CW tasks. This study investigates the impact of pretask modeling on languaging in synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated L2 CW tasks.
Participants were 37 EFL college learners from two junior writing classes, which were assigned to pretask modeling (PM) and non-pretask modeling (NPM) group. Both groups participated in two computer-mediated L2 CW tasks, one completed via text-based synchronous CMC (SCMC) and the other via text-based asynchronous CMC (ACMC). The PM group received pretask modeling that demonstrated elaborate languaging in content, organization, and language; the NPM group received no such modeling. Learner interaction in the two CW tasks was analyzed for languaging episodes, which were categorized as content-, organization-, and language-related episodes and analyzed for resolution and level of engagement (Storch, 2008). Results are used to inform our understanding of the impact of pretask modeling on languaging in synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated L2 CW.

This presentation speaks for ‘newbie’ teacher researchers who venture to embark on a challenging but rewarding adventure in 3D multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) such as Second Life (SL). Taking an autoethnographic approach, I illustrate how I plunged into SL teaching and research as a newbie, honed my skills in order to design SL-enabled, task-based lessons, documented what was going on and tackled ‘anything-could-happen-in-SL’, and critically reflected on the pitfalls in the virtual sessions and savoured the a-ha moments. Specifically, I unpack how teachers can also conduct research in SL, guided by pedagogically-sound, research-informed principles as in technology-mediated task-based language teaching. For instance, I exemplify how I developed a TBLT syllabus by capitalising on the unique 3D affordances that allow for real-world simulation, authentic communication, and a sense of telepresence and copresence. I also demonstrate how practitioners can carry out research in their virtual teaching by gathering multimodal data generated by SL, student task performance, ongoing participant observation, and a researcher journal. I end my presentation with lessons learned from this 3D MUVE trajectory, evidenced in my research outputs and hands-on resources for attendees to take away.

In the internet age, the proliferation of fake news is a global concern (Lazer
et al., 2018). Despite the growing number of computational techniques for identifying digital news articles as untruthful based on their textual features, concerns about machine-based solutions have arisen. To complement the insufficiency of machine algorithms and gaining a clearer picture of the linguistic features in fake news, this study investigated the use of lexical bundles in illegitimate news by establishing a corpus of 100 false news texts obtained from the crackdown of stock promotion schemes in the United States in 2017. A total of 55 four-word lexical bundles were identified and analyzed through adapting and adopting the taxonomy devised by Biber et al. (1999). The findings reveal that (1) these identified lexical bundles are dominated by NP-based expressions and (2) referential bundles account for over half of the 55 instances, followed up an additional subcategory (i.e., subject-specific lexical bundles) of medical or financial vocabulary. It is hoped that these findings may shed some light on the recognition of misinformation and draw the attention of readers to some implicit features of untruthful journalistic language.

The adoption of online teaching in higher education has been facilitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and thus pedagogical innovation has also become a priority in learning and teaching. While learners start to adapt to online learning which has a myriad of benefits, education practitioners may be facing on-going challenges of creating engaging and effective learning experiences for the learners. This presentation aims to explore various approaches to pedagogical innovation in online teaching, the challenges of adopting those approaches, and the solutions to it.
Pedagogical innovation is defined as placing a deliberate effort to bring new elements into a given context, with the purpose of enhancing students’ learning experience through interaction and interactivity (Béchard, 2000, as cited in Walder, 2017). It includes the use of online apps, online discussion forums, and collaborative document editors, which benefits collaborative learning, leading to improved student engagement, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills (Carvalho et al., 2020). Walder (2017) also found that pedagogical innovation could increase student engagement, motivation, and satisfaction, as reported by the professors. Pedagogical innovation does not only improve students’ learning, but it can also enhance professors’ teaching practices and professional development.

Chatbots have shown potential in language learning. The purpose of the research was to explore the effects of SimBot, a virtual chatbot with ASR rating feature, on EFL elementary school students’ English pronunciation. A total of 23 students practiced English speaking with SimBot individually in meaningful conversation scenarios once a month for four months. Students’ dialogue recordings were rated by researchers in four categories including vowel, consonant, word stress, and overall intelligibility. Students’ pronunciation errors were further classified into four categories namely consonant dropping, consonant substitution, over correction, and vowel mispronunciation. Each student’s pronunciation errors were tabulated to observe students’ pronunciation learning trajectory. Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that participants improved in the consonant category. Moreover, of the four errors category, only consonant substitution did not improve. The researchers speculated that it might be difficult for ASR to detect the differences between consonant sounds such as the liquid consonant /l/ and /r/ (the major errors in consonant substitution), thus resulting in students not noticing errors when they practiced speaking with SimBot. This research revealed English pronunciation errors that commonly made by Taiwanese EFL elementary school students and pointed out the limitation of using ASR in English pronunciation learning.

This study explores the role of live transcripts in online synchronous academic English classrooms. The study adopted a 2x2 factorial design, with the two factors being learner proficiency (high vs. low) and availability of live transcription (presence and absence). The participants were 129 second-year Japanese university students from four synchronous classes taught on Zoom by the same teacher under an academic English reading course. Learning outcomes in this study were evaluated according to the course syllabus through grades and participation in class activities. A questionnaire consisting of nine Liker-scale questions and a comment box was administered to explore participants’ perceived usefulness of, perceived ease of use of, and perceived reliance on live transcripts. Results showed that live transcripts as a special type of captions were not effective in promoting the grades of learners of either proficiency. However, it significantly improved the activity participation of lower-proficiency learners, but not that of higher-proficiency learners. Questionnaire results showed that there were no significant differences between learners of two proficiencies in their perceptions towards live transcription. Participants reported innovative uses of live transcripts such as screenshots with transcripts for notetaking purposes.

To prepare students for future challenges and enhance their language learning, educators must find innovative ways to incorporate CALL tools in the classroom to promote the 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for project-based learning encourages students to develop creative solutions to real-world problems, fosters critical reflection, and helps students develop social and intercultural skills, leading to a collaborative classroom experience. By incorporating multimedia resources, including AI language generators, vlogs, and animations, students can be taught to responsibly use these tools to generate ideas and visually represent their complex solutions, thus enhancing their 4C competencies. This workshop will specify how to design scaffolded projects incorporating the SDGs for intermediate to advanced level students using free CALL tools that can be effectively integrated in both virtual and face-to-face learning settings, namely ChatGPT, CapCut and Powtoon. Participants should bring their devices so they can participate in guided tutorials, hands-on practice and experiment with these tools in micro-projects. Assessment rubrics, worksheets and student exemplars will be shared. Finally, there will be a discussion on participants' experiences and ideas for prospective projects using these CALL tools.

The study investigated the needs and abilities of students taking an English pronunciation course in a blended learning (BL) environment. The students' opinions toward this course and their anxiety about English pronunciation were also examined. The participants were 72 first-year English teaching major students at Udon Thani Rajabhat University. The instruments consisted of a questionnaire of needs, an ability test, a questionnaire about the students' opinions, and a questionnaire about the students' levels of anxiety. The instruments were developed by taking into account both validity and reliability. The findings were as follows. Firstly, the students indicated the highest scores for needs on word stress (= 4.36) and sentence stress (= 4. 24). Secondly, the scores for word stress in the post-test were significantly higher than those in the pretest (Pre: = 0.43; Post: = 0.80), and the sentence stress scores in the post-test were significantly higher than those in the pretest (Pre: = 0.44; Post: = 0.80) after implementing BL for word and sentence stress development. Thirdly, the participants were highly satisfied with studying the English pronunciation course in a BL environment (= 4.25). Fourthly, the student's anxiety levels significantly lowered (Pre: = 3.24); Post: =3.19).

In this post-pandemic era, utilizing technologies for self-directed learning has become inevitable. Internet-based resources are popular for language learning, and many focus on specific skills. Additionally, research has shown the benefits of situated learning with technology. For example, Huang (2016) implemented an app for learning situational English vocabulary with encouraging results. However, for situational English conversations, most online materials are presented in one direction, such as videos or texts displayed on webpages with audio aids. Therefore, providing interactive materials to support self-directed learning of situational English conversations is needed. To achieve this goal, this study developed two modes of materials, a website and an app.
This study aims to explore the effectiveness and attitudes of 138 Taiwanese non-English-major students using the website and/or the app for self-directed learning of situational English in four scenarios. Data was collected through pre-/post-situational conversation tests, questionnaires, and a self-reported reflection. The findings showed that students improved their performance after using the interventions and found the self-directed learning approach provided a stress-free learning environment. The students also suggested design improvements, including increasing the number of scenarios and improving interface aesthetics.

Our institution required us to reorganize the curriculum for general English classes. We were requested to use assets already available to us, in particular Moodle (LMS). The aim was to provide similar outcomes for students with different teachers, and we were expected to provide evidence of the development of our students’ oral and aural abilities.

We will discuss the development of our new curriculum and its evolution from the Preparation/Discussion/Reaction Method to a Moodle-integrated curriculum as it exists today. We will cover our decision to style the template of our LMS in an a la carte manner where teachers are provided with a menu of items from which they choose what they use. We designed our template in order to give teachers control and variation among their syllabi, while meeting certain standards laid out by our curriculum.

Our session details the reasoning and development of our curriculum, the considerations given to teaching staff, the deployment of the pilot courses, and the implications for future development through Action Research. This session would be of interest for those who might develop LMS integrated curricula, and those who work under such curricula and desire insights into the development process.

There has been growing research interest in the affordances of games as a medium for language development. Studies have explored how specific game mechanics influence language development from both a cognitive and sociocultural perspective (Peterson, 2016). A number of papers have analysed the language learning potential of games in laboratory-based studies or, alternatively, explored how incidental language learning may occur in the “digital wilds” (Thorne, 2008). However, microgenetic examples of what it takes to learn with a videogame as a self-directed learner remain scarce.

In this presentation, I introduce the results of a longitudinal study of an individual language learner as they attempt to learn Japanese with a digital game. I analyse the learner’s engagement with the game, the amount of time spent gaming versus learning, the development of their language proficiency, as well as any potential pitfalls of learning in this way. I will also introduce the tools used for engaging in this example of self-directed game-based learning including online dictionaries, game streaming services, and spaced-repetition software. Implications for classroom implementation are discussed as well as calls for potential future research in this area.

Living in a global village, learners of English should not only master the target language but also care about what is happening in the world. To achieve this goal, a Zoom-based news circle project has been designed for and implemented in my Freshman English course for Taiwanese university students of non-English major, who have long been criticized for lacking global awareness and knowing very little about international affairs and world problems. Similar to literature circles that require participants to read and discuss literary texts in groups, news circles would have the students read online news articles instead, and discuss at a Zoom meeting what has been read with their group members, each of whom plays one of the six roles developed specifically for the discussion of issues related to the news. A mixed methods study was conducted to investigate the students’ responses to this project. The major findings show that the students thought positively of the project in terms of improving English language skills and critical thinking skills, raise global awareness, increasing interest in reading and discussing international news, and understanding the necessity of communicating and working with the other world citizens to help solve world problems.

Since the pandemic, there has been an emphasis on enhancing pre-service teachers’ ability to teach English remotely through video conferencing and interactive technologies (Sarini Dewi, 2021). The Ministry of Education in Taiwan initiated a Bilingual Digital Instruction Program in 2022 and subsidized universities to train pre-service teachers to design lessons and teach elementary school students English through Microsoft Teams. To provide high-quality online teaching, the purpose of this study is to construct a teacher training model for online English teaching through an investigation of 23 pre-service English teachers’ online teaching practices and the lessons designed for 3rd-6th grade learners with CEFR Pre-A1 to A1 English proficiency levels. The pre-service teachers taught two to five students each for three hours per week for ten weeks in the fall of 2022 and in the spring of 2023. The lesson plans and the online teaching recordings were evaluated by four experienced English teachers using the “Bilingual Curriculum Design and Instruction Checklist (Tien & Chen, 2022).” Both qualitative and quantitative data are analyzed, and a model of teacher training is proposed highlighting online teaching techniques, digital material designs, and applications of reading progress AI grading for young learners.

Podcast has been widely used in language learning and it has become a trend in teachers’ professional learning. Cherry Seed, a local Taiwanese 40-minute Podcast, was developed by two elementary school English expert teachers in 2020. Topics shared in Cherry Seed vary from classroom management, effective instructional strategies, picture book instruction, and other related hot issues. This case study used audiences’ interviews, online comments, and traffic of Cherry Seed to explore Taiwanese elementary school English teachers’ professional learning through Cherry Seed. This study reached the following major findings. First, based on the traffic of Cherry Seed, “effective instructional strategies” was considered to be the most popular topic, followed by “classroom management.” Second, elementary school English teachers gained professional learning through the 40-minute broadcast and received hands-on and practice implication. They could put what they learned into practice immediately. Thirdly, elementary school English teachers were inspired by various guest speakers’ sharing and gained confidence in their own teaching. Suggestions on designing effective Podcast for English teachers’ professional learning were provided.

This practically-oriented presentation will describe the use of spreadsheets for speaking and writing classes. Throughout the presentation, we will demonstrate and discuss the facility and effectiveness of using spreadsheets in language classes to foster (1) language learning (2) ICT user skills, (3) employability skills, (4) critical thinking skills, and (5) active learning. Multiple examples will be demonstrated for how to: (1) transmit feedback to learners, (2) compile grades based on class and homework activities, and (3) post them in an any-time-anywhere viewable space where students can submit or amend assignments. Since Google (and MS) Forms are often used with spreadsheets, peripheral explanations will be provided where needed about effective forms and spreadsheets integration.

Data based on the teacher’s field notes, descriptive statistical results from a ten item questionnaire (n = 436) and open-end comments solicited from student participants will be presented.

This presentation introduces a new university English course with a high proficiency requirement (IELTS 7+). For this academic literacy skills course incorporating research using the university library’s electronic databases to find and evaluate sources for academic writing and speaking tasks, the course designers recognized that some high-proficiency students would have extensive experience with finding, citing, and referencing sources while other students would have little to no experience. The main content of this presentation will focus then on activities created to bridge the gaps in students’ experiences and to introduce current issues and problems encountered when researching topics online. In addition to traditional academic literacy skills like those covered in the CRAAP test, or evaluating an online source by evaluating its Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose, the course introduces skills like lateral reading in browsers across sources to verify information. In lessons evaluating sources, students view online examples of aggregators, churnalism, and predatory journals. Another area covered in the course is how to correctly cite sources in multimodal assessments (e.g., an e-magazine). The session ends with a discussion questioning what academic literacy skills are needed for our 21st-century learners conducting research online.

For the 21st century teacher, digital authoring tools, such as H5P and Moodle, are an increasingly viable means of creating learning content. Evaluation of such tools is an important way of generating evidence to inform course design. Despite there being extensive literature on evaluation frameworks for learning materials and e-learning systems, there is a lack of research on frameworks that combine features of learning materials and e-learning evaluations. Such an approach would allow evaluation to include both learning and functionality from the perspectives of both learners and teachers. The proposed presentation will discuss the creation and use of a framework to evaluate digital learning materials created using both H5P and Moodle to develop speaking in an EFL course for low-proficiency learners at a Japanese university. It will show how the framework allows teachers to evaluate a tool in relation to learning, such as input and interaction types, and non-learning aspects, such as usability, functionality, accessibility, and analytics. Description of the refinement of the framework through its use will show attendees how to approach a context-specific evaluation of an authoring tool, and how this evaluation can help teachers create learning materials best suited to their needs.

The recent development of ChatGPT and other AI systems promise to revolutionize the production of teaching materials for the language classroom. These AI systems have the ability to produce sophisticated and focussed outputs ideal for an unlimited number of classroom activities.
Better understanding of effective prompts (a phrase used as input to the AI tool) will help the language instructor utilize such systems in the classroom. Here we investigated what makes an effective prompt through the construction of a well-formed premise or story thus providing a guideline for use of AI systems. Ineffective prompts can be attributed to the failure of 'human imagination', and thus we further investigated prompts that are outside the box and do not follow standard human thought processes.
We will also introduce a collaboration platform where language instructors can share effective ChatGPT outputs/prompts for applications in their teaching materials.

This session is more gaming focused and will be a continuation of the keynote interview.

This presentation will demonstrate a short in-class activity that targets a key area of weakness in many IELTS students’ speaking skill. Normally, students tend to fall back onto well-practised simple short sentences rather than demonstrating the full range of their ability. Exam students tend to be overly concerned about grammar accuracy whereas exams like IELTS reward attempts at higher level grammar even if inaccurate. In this project 28 IELTS students followed a twenty minute protocol that uses self-recordings via smartphone, guided discovery, models and examples to encourage them to give better and more complex responses. Over the weeks the target language goals were increased to stretch their abilities and build experience. The number and type of grammar forms used were measured and tracked showing that this technique is effective at training students to fulfil a higher level band score. This activity is suitable for teachers preparing students for any similar speaking exam and attendees will receive copies of the worksheets and digital forms used for the activity.

The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has become deeply integrated into modern life. ChatGPT, a free AI conversation tool that uses machine learning algorithms was released in November 2022, and developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI. This practice-oriented workshop begins with an overview of ChatGPT, followed by the challenges and limitations of AI education (AIEd). These challenges include issues such as cheating, lack of emotionally intelligent responses (Gallacher et al., 2018), and incorrect output (Fryer et al., 2019). In contrast, numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of integrating chatbots in language classrooms (Hassani et al., 2016; Keerthiwansha, 2018; Muhammad et al., 2020). Jeon (2022), categorizes these benefits as pedagogical, technological, and social, while Huang et al. (2022) groups them according to their promptness, customization, and utility. The majority of the workshop will be hands-on, allowing participants to explore ChatGPT's capabilities in areas such as motivation, reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and material design. To attend, participants need a computer and an account, which they can create for free at https://chat.openai.com/chat#. The presenter’s goal is to help educators feel comfortable incorporating new and innovative technologies like ChatGPT and recognize their critical role in language learning.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were predicted to equalize learning for all; however, fifteen years later, MOOCs still have an average completion rate of 10%. MOOC Camps are one way to help support learners' completion of MOOCs. Join this presentation to learn about the free English language and professional development MOOCs provided by the U.S. State Department as well as the 'what' and 'how' of facilitating MOOC Camps.

This presentation highlights the difficulties that COVID-19 has created for educators, particularly for teachers, and it looks at creative teaching methods and tools that might help. The lecture notably highlights the use of Google Sheets and Docs, including examples of how these resources may be used to prepare classes, monitor student progress, assist with student presentations, and evaluate writing through group projects. The adaptability of these tools is underlined, along with the possibility that they may improve educational results and deal with the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) of the contemporary educational environment. The presentation focuses on the significant contribution of technology to education and provides helpful guidance on how to modify these resources to fit students' evolving needs in the age of AI.

Poodll

Although immersive VR has become a trend, few studies investigate how teachers learn how to incorporate immersive VR into lesson planning. This study investigates how pre-service teachers learned to implement immersive VR- Immerse program into their EFL speaking lesson planning. A total of fifty from a northern university in Taiwan participated in this four-week learning workshop. Participants first learned how to use the VR headsets to do basic moves, and then they were grouped into six teams and prepared an English lesson plan by incorporating the Immerse VR app. They also video-taped two short clips, one of teachers’ account and the other one is the demonstration video from students’ using Immerse VR app. In the third week, they were required to show their lesson plan, demonstration videos and completed a survey, followed by the focus group interview in the fourth week. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed, including pre-service teachers’ surveys, demonstration videos, lesson plans and classroom observation data. The results show that pre-service teachers generally liked the use of immersive VR in planning English speaking lessons, although some difficulties, such as being unable to add new items and feeling nausea happened.

This study aims to investigate the impact of engagement with eight young native English speakers on the attitudes of English learners towards using English in both face-to-face and online settings. The author conducted the research to prepare for Society 5.0 and examined the students' attitudes towards speaking English while interacting with native speakers once a month from April 2022 to January 2023. The 30-week program emphasized higher-order thinking skills and English proficiency by integrating ICT and human interactions. Using PeerEval software, the native speakers evaluated the students' presentations and provided feedback to improve their abilities. Assignments were shared via the group line. The participants (n=41) took the TOEIC pre- and post-test, which showed an improvement of 71 points to 639 (SD, 115). Finally, the progress of the participants' cross-cultural sensitivity and 21st-century competencies was measured by comparing pre- and post-questionnaire responses. After two semesters of observation, the activities changed students' perceptions of cross-cultural communication, presentation skills, and alternate worldviews, reducing foreign language anxiety.

This study seeks to explore the use of cross-platform mind-mapping software by undergraduate students and the factors that influence their choice of devices and time when using mind-mapping techniques as a pre-writing strategy to improve their academic writing skills. The participants of the study were 71 Japanese first-year students in three classes who were taught about computer-assisted and mobile-assisted and traditional mind mapping techniques embedded in their digital devices and textbook for fifteen weeks. This mixed-methods research employed pre- and post-treatment surveys, along with focus group interviews as research instruments. The findings suggest that students made informed decisions about their device choices and technical training time based on their learning styles, technology affordances, pre-writing strategies, and application fees, which had diverse impacts on their motivation and engagement.

This study presents a case study of a course on language usage in Japanese society which included a virtual exchange. Ten undergraduate students learning Japanese in the US and five undergraduate students learning English in Japan had asynchronous exchanges using VoiceThread and synchronous exchanges using Zoom to discuss Japanese culture, social concepts, and language usage in Japanese society. During asynchronous exchanges, students took turns to speak each other’s languages, but they were free to choose the language during synchronous exchanges. Pre- and post-exchange questionnaires were administered to assess the outcomes of virtual exchange with respect to language learning motivation, intercultural competence, and students’ development as a global citizen. In addition, students wrote learning reflection essays which were analyzed qualitatively to identify emerging themes of their experiences. Results of quantitative analysis of questionnaires indicate that students perceived benefits of virtual exchange for language learning, increased language learning motivation, and developed as a global citizen who respects and learns from cultural differences and feels interconnectedness with people of different cultures. Qualitative analysis of essays revealed that students experienced transformative learning. They came to appreciate their own differences which they previously viewed negatively, and this appreciation extended to diversity in general.

As mobile learning technology continues to develop, it has become a widespread and personalized method for learning English vocabulary in a communicative environment. However, this approach has its drawbacks as the learning process can become fragmented and inhibits student use of acquired vocabulary. In this study, suggestions are made based on research on Japanese learners' conceptions of mobile learning, the current status of mobile learning of L2 vocabulary, and effective strategies for English acquisition and learning in a mobile environment to improve learning efficiency, enhance learning depth and improve thinking ability.

Most studies on peer-review within ESL/EFL classrooms focus on pairs, some triads, and some small groups (Chang, 2016). Studies on larger groups of up to six have revealed opportunities for and increased reliability in feedback (Tuzi, 2004) but are few in number. Few studies focus on whole class peer review. With regard to mode of feedback, many studies investigate the effectiveness of using Google Docs for peer-review within an ESL/EFL classroom, but mostly within traditional pair formats (Saman & Rahimi, 2017). As such, there exists an opportunity for investigation into students’ attitudes towards various types of peer-review, including whole-class, as well as the utilization of Google Docs within the feedback process. The presenters will share the results of a year-long research project within two writing-intensive university EFL courses, in which various peer-review formats were employed, as well as both handwritten and Google Docs feedback. The presentation will focus on the students’ attitudes towards the various types of peer-review as well as their mode of feedback preferences. Attendees will leave inspired to be creative with peer review in their writing-intensive courses.

Using technology offers educators and learners an abundance of opportunities. As the online learning environments of 2020-2022 ease into a face-to-face future, teachers need to re-evaluate their technological usage, from selection through methodology to evaluation. Through dialogue, we discuss the recent excitement over technology in educational practice. We reflect on how the variety of usages and how it is matched by the variety of issues. Teachers face limitations in their own technological skills, knowledge and comforts; students’ access and familiarity; and institutional guidelines and provisions. Questions also abound regarding why and whether students benefit from, or even desire technology as a pathway for learning.
This duoethnographic research uses a dialogic method to “interrogate and reinscribe [the] previously held beliefs” and experiences of two digital-native teachers’ experiences (Norris & Sawyer, 2012). Their experiences address Kansai-based secondary and tertiary education contexts and their experiences and observations of technology use and its potential drawbacks. Through this discussion, they aim to suggest when a low- or no-tech approach might be more effective. The project aims to re-evaluate how technological integration can improve working conditions, learning environments, and understanding of student needs.

This presentation will demonstrate how Microsoft Teams can be used as an LMS (learning management system). Teams in not a full-fledged LMS, and the presenter will explain the reasoning for switching from Moodle to Teams. Workarounds for getting the functionality expected of an LMS out of Teams will be provided. This will include an explanation of how to make a dashboard using Microsoft OneNote pages; and how Bookwidgets, an external online content creation tool, can be integrated with Teams to make up for the limited types of learning activities available within Teams. The strengths of Teams, such as its notification system, feedback features, and grade transparency, will be discussed. Weaknesses, notably the lack of an attendance feature and its limited gradebook, will also be addressed, and a possible solution to these issues will be suggested. This presentation may be of most interest to educators whose students already have Microsoft 365 accounts and who are looking for a free LMS option.

Of the four skills, speaking is most commonly associated with fluency. However, fluency in the remaining three skills is also worth focusing on. Extensive reading does not necessarily result in fluency improvements as some students slowly decode the language, stopping at every second word, rather than reading fluently. For reading fluency specifically, activities such as having students read aloud among each other in class have been used to practice reading fluency, although these activities are limited by how much in-class time can be allocated to them. The ReadAloud activity in PoodLL addresses these problems by allowing the automation of assessment of reading fluency. Using ReadAloud, students are presented with a text that they can optionally hear read by a TTS voice, practice line-by-line, and then record themselves reading and submit the recording for assessment. The recordings are then assessed by an AI and a grade is given based on the number of correctly recognized words and a fluency target of words-per-minute. The teacher can then review the grades and override them if necessary. This presentation will showcase how ReadAloud was implemented at a university to give students more opportunities to improve their reading fluency.

Containing forty interviews of immigrants from various countries residing in Japan, the Database of Immigrant Narratives (DIN; www.icnresearch.net) was created in 2022 to provide substitutional intercultural encounters through which learners gain the opportunity to encounter individuals to whom they lack physical access. Each interview provides: 1) immigrant cultural background information, 2) immigrant motivations for relocating to Japan, 3) challenges involved in transitioning to Japanese society, and 4) future aspirations. Grounded in pedagogy from the field of Narrative Medicine, classroom application of the DIN begins with learners researching the cultural backgrounds of interviewees following video encounters; however, unlike curricula focused on gaining information-based understandings of culture, the primary objective of the DIN involves assisting learners engage in perspective taking to consider how they would act and feel in culturally diverse situations. Through empathic immersion into immigrant narratives, learners deepen their understanding of who immigrants are, where they come from, and why they choose to live and work in Japan.
In addition to introducing the concepts underscoring the DIN, this presentation outlines its use in a third-year seminar class for English majors at a private Japanese university.

This is no denying the fact that the present age is an age of multimodal literacy. In this age of multimodal literacy, responsible teaching and learning require exploring data beyond verbal material. Therefore, responsible teaching calls for responsible learning more than ever as the availability of knowledge is not limited to verbal texts only. This paper explores the use of social semiotic theory, Halliday's theory, and Kress and Van Leeuven’s theory of multimodality in understanding and teaching multimodal English language texts such as ads. The selected ads are taken from YouTube. Pictorial illustrations, Audio, Writing, Music, Movement, Gestures, Facial expressions, and Colors are taken as multimodal resources to explore the data. The study demonstrates that social semiotic theory can provide insights into the complex meanings of multimodal texts and facilitate English language learning for non-native speakers. This functional approach to language teaching in multimodal literacy highlights the potential of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to support learners in navigating various forms of data in language acquisition.

Technological advancement has informed translation studies in both research and teaching in recent years. Previous studies examining the adoption of digital approaches to translation studies have provided useful pedagogical suggestions for translation teaching. In an era of digitalization, translation students must not only acquire the traditional components constituting translation competence, such as bilingual competence, strategic competence, textual competence, research competence and specialized knowledge. Trainee translators must also be equipped with competence to use digital tools in their translation practice. This paper will demonstrate the effectiveness and importance of training translation students with digital literacy by using a web-based parallel corpus as an example. The paper will report the result of our study on how parallel corpus could enhance students’ translation competence. Results of students’ translation tests, surveys regarding their perceptions of the parallel corpus, and semi-structured interviews with focal participants will be discussed in relation to the effectiveness of translation training. It is hoped that the study can shed some lights on the development of translation teaching which explores the integration of digital applications and better prepares our students for future challenges faced by digital advancement.

Transforming the teacher’s role from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side” (King, 1993), a flipped curriculum is not merely an online course, self-paced assignments, or collection of self-study materials, but rather a carefully crafted curriculum that shifts the bulk of content and assignments on the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy outside of the classroom, and focuses in-class time on reaching higher levels of thinking with the guidance and support of the teacher. Compared with traditional classrooms, a flipped approach creates more opportunities for student engagement, increases student autonomy and motivation (Campillo-Ferrer & Miralles-Martínez, 2021), and allows for further student collaboration. In this presentation, participants will be guided through flipping using three easy-to-remember principals. Participants will leave equipped with resources to further enhance their students’ learning experiences and maximize classroom time.

With the landscape of gaming constantly changing, new avenues for game-based language learning are ripe for exploration. One such style of game that has gone understudied is the social deduction game, a game incorporating collaboration and competition as core, intertwined gameplay elements. This style of game, with its complex outcomes, social interaction and information exchange, has potential as a tool for language practice appropriate for intermediate learners beginning to develop complex language skills. In order to assess the viability of social deduction games, an experiment was carried out involving 5 middle and elementary school aged Japanese-speaking students playing the game Among Us using English alongside a Japanese-speaking English “coach”. Over the course of 10 weeks, the students showed increased motivation and enthusiasm, as well as an overall increase in complex language use, including use of sentences with multiple modifiers, embedded sentences and questions, and other use of language beyond a simple subject-verb-object construction. Their speech also demonstrated valuable insights into the nature of the Japanese-English interlanguage in language learners, reinforcing previous observations about the order of grammar acquisition and new evidence of the interpretation of complex structures between the languages.

With emerging technologies, such as machine translations and artificial intelligence, advancing at a rapid pace, language teachers are constantly under pressure to update their knowledge and skills in technology. Despite various online tools and training programmes currently available for language teachers, not much is known about how they are actually making use of such resources. The current study therefore set out to understand how language teachers are learning about technology for instructional purposes. Using multiple data collection methods, involving a wide-scale questionnaire which received a total of 482 responses from in-service language teachers in 78 different countries, in-depth interviews with 31 of the questionnaire respondents, and a post-interview questionnaire, the study sheds light into the ways in which language teachers are currently expanding their knowledge and skills in technology. The findings suggest that instead of relying on formal courses, many teachers were regularly learning through various informal means of learning, including reading blogs, journal articles, and email list messages, searching the web, watching videos, and participating in online teacher communities. Through this study, the current challenges for (CALL) language teacher education are identified, and implications for teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and policymakers are also suggested.

During the pandemic, speaking time in university classrooms was often reduced to as little as 15-20 minutes per class. I assigned weekly speaking homework in my English-speaking classes to address this problem. The goal was to improve their English speaking skills by reading aloud a short section of text as many times as necessary before submitting a recording of their voice. The students were instructed to treat the activity like a speech contest to encourage focussed practice, with only the teacher as an audience. Students received weekly grades via an e-learning platform with personalised feedback for ongoing improvement. This method offers a promising approach for future speaking classes facing similar speaking time constraints. This project is still in its early stages, and formal data has yet to be gathered. However, numerous students reported spending a lot of time practising with the goal of improvement. Furthermore, the weekly speaking tests appeared to improve the students' general English speaking skills over the semester. This online assessment method effectively solved the problem of limited speaking time in the classroom.

Language learners’ shyness and inhibition in speaking a target language have been a major problem at all levels of education in Asia (Liu, 2018). While well-researched in traditional face-to-face settings, few studies have investigated this problem in online settings which have become more commonplace. Recent studies on utilizing online platforms with avatars in English language classes have suggested that language learners are more inclined to be fully engaged in online activities where some degree of anonymity is assured (Melchor-Couto, 2016). However, studying the relationship between the effectiveness of avatar-assisted communicative activities and students’ perceived degrees of speaking inhibition is still nascent.
This study examines if and to what extent pseudo anonymity provided by avatar-assisted interactive language activities help students develop speaking confidence and enthusiasm. Student reflection and teacher observation were employed as means of data collection. The findings showed that students’ and the instructor’s participation as an avatar, and the creation of a lively and informal online environment were highly beneficial in overcoming students’ inhibition in speaking out loud. This presentation will also discuss some major benefits students are provided and challenges they are faced with in online classes when doing communicative activities.

This presentation examines the relationships between foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) among learners in a compulsory communicative English course at a Japanese university, with a focus on the effects of a move to a hybrid learning environment (HLE) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking a mixed-methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative data were analysed and findings compared to those of a similar study conducted on students enrolled in the same course in 2019. Analyses suggest that learners experienced more enjoyment than anxiety in their English classes and that this enjoyment was linked to positive attitudes towards English as well as higher self-reported proficiency relative to peers. In comparison to the pre-pandemic data the emotional responses of learners, in terms of both FLE and FLCA, seem somewhat muted, however not to the extent found in studies conducted on students in a fully online learning environment. This suggests the HLE may have been effective at mitigating the loss of emotional resonance which has been associated with screen mediated learning. Sources of FLE and FLCA reported by learners as well as the pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed.

Task-based, communicative approaches to language teaching have established a well-earned footing at Japanese universities, but the enthusiastic rejection of outdated teaching methods occasionally risks underemphasizing the importance of continued vocabulary acquisition. CALL offers a solution to this problem by providing autonomous, asynchronous, personalized vocabulary learning outside of class. The proposed poster focuses on exploring the use of a paid, gamified vocabulary acquisition site, WordEngine (no affiliation to the presenter), as a possible solution to the underemphasis of vocabulary acquisition in Japanese universities. The poster presentation will cover three main aspects: the user interface, the experience as an instructor, and students’ engagement. First, the user interface will be explained and demonstrated on multiple devices for participants to experience firsthand. Second, the presenter will draw on several years of experience assigning WordEngine, setting up student accounts, and retrieving results for grading. Finally, displayed student usage data and questionnaire results will provide insights into student experience. Participants will gain knowledge of WordEngine's pros and cons, an understanding of instructors’ responsibilities, and insights into students' engagement with the site.

The integration of technology into language education has become increasingly important, leading to the development of more active and effective "learner-centered" teaching methods. As language teachers must continuously learn about the latest technologies and incorporate them into their lessons, this presentation will showcase two video projects implemented in English classes for undergraduate students at a private university in the second semester of 2022. The purpose of the paper is to present a case study on the effectiveness of these digital tools in achieving language education goals and to discuss the results of the implementation, including any encountered problems and suggestions for improvement based on a post-event survey. This research aims to explore the potential of project-based language learning and how it can be enhanced through the use of technology.

The authors present the outcomes of an investigation into the use of speech-to-text (STT) technology in gamified elicited imitation activities for English language learning. Using a customized English learning app on their mobile phones, participants completed short to moderate in-app imitation exercises. The STT technology provided individualized feedback on each attempt, which encouraged error correction and repetition. The experiment was conducted over 5 and 20 hours of treatment time and compared to two control groups with comparable non-digital time periods. The number of pauses, syllables, utterance time, phonation time, and speech rate were measured in order to calculate speed fluency and breakdown fluency. The study was separated into two sections. The first section characterized the speech patterns of low- and intermediate-level speakers in terms of speed and breakdown fluency. Section two assessed the effect of STT technology on speed fluency and breakdown fluency at 5 and 20 hours of treatment time in comparison to the two control groups. This study contributes to our understanding of the efficacy of advanced mobile features such as speech-to-text and voice recognition in interactive English learning activities, particularly in terms of their impact on speaking fluency.

The term English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is commonly understood to mean programs in which students study academic courses at overseas universities through the medium of English. However, students of a Second Language (L2) who have reached the IELTS or TOEFL threshold for participating in academic study overseas may still struggle to fend for themselves when they go abroad. This poster reveals some of the reasons behind the problems faced while offering a possible solution.
Research interviews carried out with Japanese students in the UK revealed that their problems of adjustment were compounded by factors beyond the classroom. Questions focused on the preparation students had undertaken in Japan and to what extent the British courses aligned with their expectations. Findings unveiled a number of areas where better use of technological resources could have assisted. In particular, they point to the need to embrace advances in video chat (e.g. FaceTime) and video conferencing (e.g. Zoom) for the home institution to keep regular track of student progress. Results indicate that more can be done to replace ‘loose’ asynchronous email exchanges checking on student well-being with a more hands-on and dynamic system of synchronous video chats.

Using movies to learn English or other languages can be a rewarding and entertaining process, but students may require guidance in finding effective methods as even keen students may lean too much on subtitles. In this presentation, a project will be discussed wherein university-level Japanese students were required to choose an actor and scene from a film that they wanted to mimic and thoughtfully work through the process to do so, taking care to focus on aspects such as intonation and shortening words. Students needed to transcribe all the lines from their chosen actor in the scene, and then analyze the dialogue closely for performance quirks, including quickening pace, rhythm, and volume. Students then recorded their performance and submitted said recording alongside the original scene for evaluation. The teacher modeled the activity in Japanese first, illustrating weaknesses in relying too much on subtitles, and providing visual feedback by presenting the scene through edited slides along with his recorded performance. This presentation will describe strengths and weaknesses in the project, student outcomes, and reflections on how to improve the project. Recommendations for what technology or apps to use for each step of the project will also be included.

In Rod Ellis's (2008) influential typology of corrective feedback (CF) on L2 learners' writing, under "Strategies for providing CF" he lists Direct CF, Indirect CF, Metalinguistic CF, Unfocused and Focused CF, Reformulation, and Electronic Feedback. At the time, this classification of electronic feedback into its own category was no doubt justified because it had yet to become mainstream, and it led to a simpler typology.
Today, such a typology can no longer be justified. Various kinds of feedback, including those listed by Ellis, can be delivered by traditional or by electronic means and using a range of different tools. Based on the author’s experiences leading a Kakenhi project on corrective feedback, this paper surveys these options and examines the practical and theoretical implications of delivering feedback electronically. One such implication is that the disadvantages of metalinguistic CF can be partially mitigated by delivering feedback online, and a felicitous partial merging of feedback categories may occur thanks to the affordances of online tools.

There’s nothing to fear about ChatGPT except the fear of not being able to detect it. What is ChatGPT? It was introduced last November and is the ‘talk of the town’. However, at the time of writing there were few if any published studies in major databases describing it. The New York Times recently describes it and the AI brains that make it up as “want(ing) to be alive” and based on “technology that relies on complex neural networks that mimic the way humans use language” (Solis, 2023). The author of this study is an EFL lecturer in charge of two creative writing classes at a major foreign language university in Japan. He analyzed some of the non-fiction submissions from students in the second semester of last year using AI detection tools such as Writer and discovered some alarming results: several of the students had likely used AI to write key critical essays to get top scores. Here, the author describes the results of his analyses of past writing classes and how to best use ChatGPT in future classes to help students write better fiction and non-fiction; the hope is to neither fear nor avoid it.

Digital Game-based Language Learning (DGBLL) is a branch of Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL) that entails playing digital games to learn a language, utilizing game elements inducive to motivation and learning. The field has two avenues; commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games are created solely for entertainment, while serious games are developed with the purpose of educating. Studies have indicated the positive effects of DGBLL applications. Nevertheless, DeHaan et al. (2010) found that interactivity, the control of gameplay through controllers, negatively influenced vocabulary recall because of its added mental effort requirements while participants who watched performed better. Other studies have further addressed game interactivity and learning but predominantly consist of serious games, and the potential of watching OTS gameplay for language learning purposes remains underexplored. Watching gameplay has several potential advantages over traditional media learning, such as its growing popularity and the potential for communicative interaction between viewers and streamers. In this presentation, I will discuss the preliminary findings of a 5-week long experiment testing interactivity of a Real-time Strategy (RTS). A mixed-methods approach was taken to solicit participants' vocabulary recall, perceived mental effort, and motivation. The presentation will conclude with implications for future DGBLL research.

Presenting in an additional language can be daunting for language learners. Students often alleviate the challenge of the task by reading a script. However, this can be problematic as scripts often exacerbate problems with delivery, such as monotonic intonation, staccato speech, errors with stress, and pronunciation errors with bound morphemes when inflecting nouns and verbs. Due to script reading being accepted practice in many disciplines, prohibiting their usage is not necessarily an ideal solution. This presentation presents Pronunciation Scaffolder (ver 3.0)—an online tool which automatically annotates scripts using size, colour and symbols. We first describe the development of the tool and describe its main features: pausing, intonation, content word, word stress, and annotation of “ed”, “s” and “th” sound variations. We then present the findings of an exploratory case study in which first year computer-science major university students use the tool to practice a short text. Data were collected from video recordings, screencasts, and retrospective interviews. Multiple sources of data enabled triangulation of which features of the tool were considered most useful and identify areas of further development for subsequent versions of the tool.

Out of necessity, many institutions implemented virtual study abroad programs to fill the void created by the pandemic. But what is happening to those programs now, as travel restrictions are being lifted and in-person courses can be resumed? This presentation will introduce a novel virtual study abroad ESP program for AI engineering students and discuss why the coordinators intend to keep the program in its online-only format even as COVID-related restrictions decrease. Furthermore, the presenter will discuss the development of at-home (AH) supplementary lessons designed to support students outside their online classes. Results from quantitative and qualitative analyses of student attitudes toward the online course and supplementary classes, as well as gains in proficiency, will be discussed. This presentation will interest teachers and coordinators of online and in-person study abroad programs.

While generative AI models have become famous for their ability to produce text, the underlying transformer model can also be used for other tasks. This presentation will examine the viability of using OpenAI's automatic speech recognition (ASR) system Whisper in L2 research. While there has been an increase in the use of models like OpenAI’s Whisper for transcribing L1 speech (e.g. Lin, 2023; Seyedi et al., 2022) using ASR with speech produced by L2 English learners can be difficult due to factors such as pronunciation errors, disfluencies, and atypical grammatical constructions (Wang et al., 2021). The presenters examine the error rate in 100 samples of L2 generated texts recorded in the classroom. These include 50 presentations, with only one speaker, and 50 discussions, between two to four speakers. The resulting transcripts were compared against the professionally transcribed versions along with a cleaned version of the transcript that was checked for errors. While the results show that the accuracy of automated transcription comes close to the professional translation, the presenters will highlight areas where ASR based translations struggle and best practices for recording and cleaning transcriptions when using models such as Whisper for transcribing L2 presentations and discussions.

The pandemic has been a reaction watershed for online and in-person teaching of spoken English communication, the focus of this paper which examines the reactions of teachers and students to the enforced online teaching that defined the period 2020 to 2022. A hundred students and teachers were surveyed to determine and compare their views on the two modes of instruction. Their situations and viewpoints varied considerably. The reasons behind the various groups’ reactions to the questions posed also needed considering carefully before attempting any analysis of the data that they provided. While there were many opposing opinions, several clear factors emerged as potentially significant. These points will be presented and discussed in some detail. The findings may impact the way we teach in future by indicating some major differences between what teachers offer and what students want, as the two things are rarely the same. Quantitatively, the feedback arising pointed to a preference for in-person teaching. At the same time, there were also clear benefits seen in online English. Perhaps the most significant findings were the respondents’ most widely recurring affirmation of one common aspect of both online and in-person teaching which this talk will conclude with.

This present study identifies the most frequently used lexical bundles in argumentative essays written by L1 English and L2 Taiwanese undergraduate students and compares the use of high-frequency lexical bundles between these two groups of writers. Drawing student-produced argumentative essays from the ICNALE (International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English) (Ishikawa, 2013), we established two sub-corpora: ICNALE-TW with 400 essays produced by L2 writers from Taiwan and ICNALE-EN as a comparable dataset with 400 essays contributed by native speakers. Based on the structural and functional taxonomy proposed by Biber and his colleagues (Biber et al., 1999), the forms and functions of four-word lexical bundles used by L1 and L2 students were manually annotated. The findings reveal that among the top 100 lexical bundles identified from the two sub-corpora, 16 lexical bundles are shared by L1 and L2 student writers and that through structural and functional analyses, both L1 and L2 writers’ lexical bundles exhibit a similar tendency, consisting mostly of verb phrases and stance related expressions. The findings presented in this study may have pedagogical implications with respect to the instruction of formulaic language in academic writing at the tertiary level.

In Japan, university students join a faculty member’s lab to undertake a thesis research project. In the lab, students learn how to conduct research, review literature, take and analyze data, and communicate their research results orally not only with their supervisor but also with their lab members. Some university professor’s labs in Japan, regardless of the professor’s nationality, conduct their lab research activity and all communications in English. Students who join a lab where English is the Lingua Franca, seize this opportunity to learn lab-based English (English for specific purposes, ESP) in their academic major. In this presentation, a Tokyo Institute of Technology’s (Tokyo Tech) Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Professor explains how he manages his international, multi-disciplinary lab using various computer-aided apps to communicate, store data, and manage thesis research projects with bachelor, master, doctoral, and research exchange students. In addition, students learn engineering thinking that is a unique style of thinking that engineers use for system analysis and decision-making. Post-graduation and lab exit survey data will be presented on the students’ feedback on what they learned in the lab.

Guessing from context is a widely accepted and favored strategy when learners encounter unknown words. Training can improve the process, but it is unclear which method may facilitate a more successful rate of guesses. In this study, three training methods for guessing from context were explored: Digital Book reading (DBR), strategy training (ST), and contextual clue training (CC). The participants were 99 first-grade students at a national university who received one of the trainings for 30 minutes a week over five weeks using Zoom. The students in the DBR group used Xreading to read books online, while ST and CC students answered ten guessing questions in breakout rooms. Their guessing ability was measured before and after the training using the Guessing from Context Test, which analyzed three dimensions of guessing: part of speech identification, contextual clue discovery, and meaning inference. The results showed that each guessing skill can be trained through instructions, but no clear evidence was found to determine the most effective method. Further analysis will be conducted based on the questionnaire results collected at the end of the survey.

Memes are the “lingua franca” of the internet (Milner, 2016), and there is a small but growing body of research using memes with EFL learners (Harshavardhan et al, 2019). In this talk, I share some of my own practical experiences using memes in Japanese university classes. Students find and share memes, as well as creating and sharing their own. The values and potential pitfalls of this are discussed practically, and some preliminary data about students’ reflections and experiences of using memes are presented to begin a discussion on the potential place that memes might have in the EFL classroom. Initial response show that students found making their own memes to be a rewarding experience that gave them a connection to participatory culture (Jenkins et al, 2009).

Harshavardhan, V., Wilson, D., & Kumar, M. V. (2019). Humour discourse in internet memes: An aid in ESL classrooms. Asia Pacific Media Educator, 29(1), 41-53.
Milner, R. M. (2016). The World Made Meme: Public Conversations and Participatory Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., Clinton, K., & Robison, A. J. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

When the scope of an English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum stretches beyond the limited confines of lessons intended to bolster basic language skills, then games can be powerful tools to help non-native English speakers engage with and potentially comprehend curricular content more deeply. Careful selection and integration of commercial digital games into EFL curricula may encourage these deeper levels of engagement by providing concrete examples of curricular content in a simplified structure which the students can both interact with and improve their in-game strategies for. This research presents findings from a seven-week EFL curriculum for majors in business administration at a Japanese university which utilized the social deduction game Among Us (Inner Sloth LLC, 2018) and a point system with parallels to the Flood-Dresher Prisoner’s Dilemma to provide instruction on strategy development in competitive situations. The results suggest that this game-based curriculum effectively demonstrated crucial tenets of strategy development within a Prisoner’s Dilemma by eliciting the dominant strategy of non-cooperation.

Having a sustained wellbeing mentally and physically could be beneficial to English teachers but the extent to which online platforms can make contributions in this aspect still needs more research, particularly into English teachers whose first language is not English. This study reports on a case study examining how Vietnamese teachers in the private sector perceive the unofficial community of practice established through online platforms and its contributions to their wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were carried out and textual analysis was performed thematically based on the transcribed data. As a person’s wellbeing should not be perceived individually, the findings are discussed using Bronfenbrenenr’s Ecological System framework (1979) where wellbeing is comprised of different layers varying from individual to societal levels. It has been found that the unofficial community of practice established on online platforms in this study not only helped the teachers overcome several professional obstacles, it also contributed greatly to their wellbeing. It is hoped that the results can be a useful resource for language teachers and institutions in terms of how to make good use of SNS platforms to help sustain teachers’ wellbeing and professional development more effectively.

Although digital storytelling is not a new pedagogic approach to language teaching and learning, recent advances in mobile device technology have made it much more accessible to educators and learners alike. This presentation will detail a case study conducted to explore the feasibility of creating digital stories in analog classrooms. Students who participated in this study worked in small groups to film, edit, and share high quality digital stories about the cultural assets and areas of interest in their hometowns using their personal smartphones. The case study described in this presentation took a mixed methods approach combining classroom and fieldwork observations, survey data, and in-depth interviews to analyze students’ opinions and perceptions of using their mobile devices to create digital stories. The data from this approach was also used to assess the extent to which the project contributed to language learning, collaborative practices, and the enhancement of participants' community awareness. The results showed that students created informative and engaging digital stories that met or exceeded language learning goals, and that community awareness increased significantly. This presentation will serve as a guide for educators who are interested in incorporating elements of digital storytelling into their teaching practice.

Drilling, as a language-learning activity, has fallen out of favor over the past few decades, but it is finding support in Skills Acquisition Theory (DeKeyser, 2007) literature and as falling within Butzkamm and Caldwell’s (2009) generative principle of language development.
When drilling was last in vogue, modern technologies and language learning tools had not developed. Now, tools such as spreadsheets and simple text-to-speech generators like that within the Quizlet application can be combined to produce almost limitless pattern practice opportunities that can be carried out by an individual using tools they already carry with them.
This presentation will show how a spreadsheet was developed which could produce double-sided Quizlet flashcards, drawing on both randomity and strict adherence to grammar-pattern rules. Drills using these flashcards, which fostered automaticity, were assigned to first-year non-English major students with tremendous results.

This study investigates the extent to which students could enhance their phonological awareness using student-created Anime. Students created Manga using an online comic creator. Manga incorporates formal English for narration and colloquial expressions in speech bubbles, enabling students to practice using different registers. As conversations in speech bubbles are visible, they may assist students in seeing how sounds change in different speech styles. Students created audio recordings of the dialogs, enabling them to adopt the speaking style of the characters and use appropriate expressions and phonological modifications for a given context. Students transformed the Manga into Anime by incorporating the Manga and sound files in a PowerPoint slideshow.
Forty-seven university students created health-information Manga. They made Manga using colloquial expressions found in Manga books and on the Internet. These expressions were shared with others by co-editing an online dictionary. After brief instructions on English phonology, students were encouraged to speak differently when role-playing characters and reading narrative texts in making Anime. A phonologist analyzed deletion, assimilation, and intonation in the pretest and the final assignment. The students had clearer intonation when they played Anime characters, but they avoided some native-like pronunciation in virtual conversations.

This presentation will cover the adaptation of an existing survey of flow into Japanese and validation efforts after conducting the survey after four different deliberate vocabulary study scenarios: word study while reading, a gamified smartphone quiz application, two-sided word cards, and an augmented reality (AR) task. A total of 677 survey responses were collected from 192 participants from three different sites after each activity. The survey data were subjected to Rasch analyses to gather validity evidence to support the hypothesis that the instrument would be capable of detecting differences in flow-state markers between the word card and the AR scenarios. Though a small number of the participants did not display good fit to the expectations of the Rasch model, the majority of the participants displayed good fit, and the items displayed good to excellent fit. Unidimensionality as well as appropriate person and item separation were observed. When participant logit scores were compared on the basis of vocabulary scenario, a statistically significant difference of increased flow markers was observed favoring the AR scenario as compared to word cards. This presentation showcases the process of developing, piloting, and diagnosing a survey as well as its application and findings.

This presentation will explore the impact of student-produced podcasts on affective engagement in a university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course. The project involves students creating their own podcasts, which provides a unique opportunity for them to apply their language skills in a creative and authentic context. The presentation will highlight the results of a questionnaire administered to students to assess their perceived affective engagement in the project.

The questionnaire data reveal the students' perceptions of the impact of podcast production on their language learning, including their motivation, confidence, and autonomous learning. The presentation will also examine the role of the classroom methodology, specifically the procedures and techniques used in the project, on student affective engagement.

Additionally, the presentation will provide insights into the challenges and solutions encountered during the implementation of the project, such as technical difficulties and assessment considerations. It will also highlight the pedagogical benefits of using podcast production as a teaching tool, including the development of intercultural communicative competence and learner autonomy.

Keynote: Keiko Ikeda

How can instructors motivate, or re-motivate, students in an EFL setting using CALL? More specifically, what can be done to increase intrinsic motivation in the classroom? This study aims to answer that question through an explorative case study of students in blended-learning curriculums at a Japanese university. The study describes a method of raising student confidence through an increase in language practice time which can lead to more confident and better motivated learners by giving them successes they can refer to as proof of their ability to both learn and use English. This study utilized CALL recording and monitoring functions to facilitate conversations among the students. These small speaking activities, coupled with computer-based pronunciation training activities, helped students build confidence as they learned to converse in English, while having the safety net of individualized help and feedback from the instructors. Results suggest that the use of CALL can facilitate student interactiveness during F2F class. In addition, students with lower motivation and aptitude seemed to benefit from these F2F speaking and conversation activities that were enhanced through CALL. The data in this study is from teacher observations, test results, and questionnaires.

This presentation reports on the development of software that enables EFL learners to perform simple analyses of texts in order to build personalized word lists, which can be stored in a cloud system for review. It will begin by providing a pedagogical rationale for the system by surveying previous literature. This will be followed by a demonstration of the software, its capabilities, and how it was developed. The programming language used is primarily Python, and makes use of open-source Python libraries, Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) and Pandas. The text-analysis tool draws on data provided by several commonly used word lists, as well as custom lists developed within the researcher’s university in order to provide learners with information about words that they encounter in texts. After learners have decided on the vocabulary they wish to review, they are able to store these words in a spaced repetition system (SRS) for efficient review. While variations of similar tools exist already, the combination of text analysis tools with an SRS provides learners with a convenient and flexible way to develop personalized vocabulary lists. It is also unique in that it is aimed to suit Japanese EFL learners in tertiary education.

Video technology has the potential to improve opportunities for students to benefit from feedback that is essential for learning. However, previous studies have all dealt with videos of tutors, rather than videos of students’ performances. This study explores whether video technology contributes to the quality of feedback on students’ oral language performance and investigates how language teachers perceive contemporary technology with regard to student education. Participants in the study were eight incumbent teachers involved in language education. The interview data suggested that the teachers seemed to be very positive about using video technology as a tool for feedback. The technology not only allowed for evidence-based accounts which served as a means to enrich the quality of feedback, but also enabled them to highlight specific aspects of oral performances and create feedback that is conducive to understanding. The findings of this study showed that technology-enhanced evidence-based feedback will be able to provide an important supplement to written feedback, adding one more mode for an effective feedback process.

Telecollaboration has been shown to improve perceived intercultural competence (e.g., de Castro et al., 2018; Lázár, 2014) and language competence (e.g., Casañ-Pitarch et al., 2020) and is a way to motivate students to use their second language. In the current study, the researchers used telecollaboration to connect students at universities in the US (third-semester Japanese language learners) and Japan (third-year English majors in a seminar course) to complete a game development project. The purpose of this collaboration was to provide opportunities for both sides to communicate in their second language, act as cultural informants, learn about other cultures, and increase their intercultural competence. We collected students’ perceptions at the beginning, middle, and end of the collaboration via online surveys.

In this presentation, we will explain the background to this collaboration, provide the discussion prompts, and describe the game design project. Based on student surveys, we will discuss the students’ perceptions of the project and their intercultural and language learning. Based on both the students’ and our own insights, we will discuss the successful aspects of the collaboration, aspects that led to difficulties, and ideas for improving future collaborations.

Maker Education, an educational approach that focuses on hands-on project-based learning, has been shown to be effective in nurturing soft skills in contexts such as schools, community centers, and libraries. Maker Education projects can range from technical, such as disassembling electronics or making robots, to arts and crafts. Researchers have noted its effectiveness for language learning, as it situates language in an immediately relevant context (see Dubreil & Lord, 2021). However, little research has investigated the use of Maker Education projects that utilize technologies such as 3D printing, programming, and electrical engineering in a language learning setting. Accordingly, this presentation will explore the implementation of a Maker Education for Language Learning (MELL) approach based on core constructs derived from established Maker Education frameworks and their effects on learners' language and content knowledge. Participants (N = 171) participated in a Maker Education electronics repair activity and immediately completed a reflection about their experience. The reflections were analyzed and coded for evidence and alignment with the core constructs and parsed through natural language processing tools to explore their linguistic complexity and lexical specificity. Analysis showed strong support for MELL's capability to encourage soft skills development while promoting specialized vocabulary acquisition.

When language educators talk about implementing virtual reality in a classroom to enhance the learning experience, it can be fraught with problems such as VR headset expenses, student discomfort, and cyber-sickness. Once such hurdles are surmounted, how does one begin? How does an educator use VR to create the positive transfer of skills desired?

In this presentation, the presenters will demonstrate that learning vocabulary and skills from virtual reality is possible and testable outside VR with students in a classroom. Using the article “Getting your Game on: Using Virtual Reality to Improve Real Table Tennis Skills” (2019) as a model, the presenters will illustrate a method of using materials at hand to test for positive transfer from virtual reality to actual reality with examples from seventeen volunteer students at Kochi University of Technology. To conclude, the presenters will explain in detail what types of games and applications work well for a positive transfer of skills and why such applications are better than others.

We report on evidence of pragmatic development in L2 email writing in a computerized diagnostic language assessment (C-DLA) administered to a group of Japanese English L2 learners (n=20). The pragmatic aspect of English L2 email writing is often a challenge for learners who are expected to appropriately vary their language choices according to contextual factors, such as their relationship with the receiver, and the purpose of the communication. Assessments consisted of the writing of four emails, based on given scenarios related to participants’ academic and daily lives. The C-DLA automatically identifies instances of pragmatic failure and provides individualized, immediate feedback to the learner. Following the graduated prompt approach to feedback, feedback increases in explicitness until an identified problem can be resolved by the learner. Task administration was carried out twice, with a two-week delay between the two. Evidence of pragmatic development was indicated by i) a decrease in identified instances of pragmatic failure both within and between administration sessions; and ii) a decrease in the level of feedback explicitness required to allow participants to successfully resolve pragmatics-related problems identified by the programme.

The cognitive, affective, and language-learning benefits of preparation for and participation in domestic and international student conferences such as Model United Nations (MUN) are well established. More clarity is needed however regarding what types of educational scaffolding are best suited to preparing learners with lower levels of English proficiency for success in these types of events. In this talk, the presenter outlines an action research project involving English-medium online intercollegiate student conferences for Japanese university students. The starting point for developing observation and interview protocols was the theoretical frameworks of Learner Engagement, Willingness to Communicate, and Self-Determination Theory. This presentation will focus specifically on data related to how CALL elements such as Flipgrid, Padlet, ZipGrade, Adobe Spark, Moodle, and Google collaboration apps can promote competence and confidence in university EFL learners at lower proficiency levels preparing for these online intercollegiate student conferences. The presentation concludes with initial attempts at compiling a list of practical approaches and effective tools to guide teachers and their learners in these contexts.

The pandemic caused upheavals in tertiary education, but the silver lining is that many universities now offer makeup lessons online. However, this convenience carries the same baggage as before: students participating in Zoom classes report a loss of motivation, and some reportedly "ghost" classes, appearing in name only. Under these conditions, how can teachers maintain student interest, attention, and participation, especially in large classes? One way is to periodically elicit student answers via DM (direct chat messages). We can elicit a variety of answer types, including multiple choice and short answers. DM is low risk: students' answers are invisible to the others, so no student sticks out. Some students report that DMs are motivating because they know teachers see their name alongside their answers. DM questions can be planned beforehand or used spontaneously. Most importantly, chat transcripts can be saved, preserving records of students' participation. The presenter has created an Excel sheet into which teachers can paste this chat transcript to instantly provide quantitative data on each student's participation. This tool includes a section to score contributions, too. This presentation includes a demonstration of of how to analyze the chat transcript for quantitative and qualitative participation data.

The Capability Approach (CA) is a framework that can be used to evaluate the well-being of individuals and the arrangement of societies in terms of the freedom that people have to do and to be what they desire to do or be. Using responses to a learner satisfaction survey, this presentation evaluates the effectiveness of an online system that offers workplace-based language training for recent migrants to the U.S.A. through the lens of a technology-augmented CA. This presentation will give a brief overview of the CA framework and its applicability to CALL. Then it will present data showing how the technology (both software and hardware) interacted with employment practices, language proficiency, course design and the wider socio-technological context around the creation of the training course as conversion factors that influenced learners’ abilities to convert the course into valued capabilities. Learner responses also showed how the technology influenced whether learners were able to develop their language skills in ways that were meaningful for them, by enabling them to succeed in education, employment, or social settings, and how it enabled them to share such capabilities with others in their networks, such as family or friends.

Virtual reality (VR) is said to be beneficial to language learners in that it can potentially enhance motivation, engagement and learning outcomes. Reviews of past research indicate that most studies conducted in this area are one-shot case studies with a small number of students spanned over a short period of time and that their interventions are focused on only certain areas of language learning such as acquiring vocabulary. There are not yet a sufficient number of studies which have rigorously and longitudinally investigated the impact of VR integration on language learning. To fill this research gap, the presenters have launched a quasi-experimental study lasting eight weeks in which they aim to compare changes in students’ engagement and language learning outcomes under two remote flipped learning conditions, on Zoom and in VR. The course is designed to prepare Japanese students to do small talk in English effectively. The control (Zoom) group study was completed in early 2023 with 32 participants (19 females, 13 males) and the experimental (VR) group study will be implemented in 2024 with approximately the same number of participants. In this presentation, the findings from the first phase of the study will be reported and discussed.

At JALT CALL 2022 the presenters displayed their plan to run a seven-day, 49-hour intensive English course as a single megagame called Watch the Skies. In this session they will show the outcome and discuss the design, development and implementation of a course for 18 non-English major students. The game is a UN-simulation featuring humanity’s first contact with an alien civilization. Teams cooperated and competed to improve their relative standing as they roleplayed nations dealing with an existential crisis. The core components of the course were communicative activities that were adaptations of existing games or gamified versions of speaking activities such as negotiations and debates. Activities awarded game points and influenced the story outcome. Throughout the week nations spent resources in the form of stability, military, economy, and science points to accomplish goals and earned resources and points by performing well. The course used a collaborative storytelling (roleplaying) framework to maintain interest and make thematic decisions compelling. Students were evaluated on their performance during the activities and in the end-of-session presentations. Participants will learn the fundamentals of Game-Based Language Learning (GBLL) course design and practices for structuring courses as thematic games.