As the field of applied linguistics ponders and even embraces the myriad roles technology affords language education, we frame this critical report within the context of the Modern Language Association's 2007 report, along with earlier state-of-the-field Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) pieces (e.g., Blake, 2007; 2011) to consider not only where we've come from but also, crucially, where the field is headed. This article begins with an overview of the field, examining the role of technology and how it has been leveraged over decades of language teaching. We also explore issues such as the goals established by the Modern Language Association (MLA) with respect to shaping technological vision and the role of technology in enhancing the field of language education. We use this critical assessment to offer insights into how the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can help shape the future of language teaching and learning.

The focus in this article is on the evolution of language and technology in relation to multilingualism, in particular on how multilingual provision has developed in tandem with the development of the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). In trying to understand how multilingualism has evolved, it is also necessary to understand how the technical aspects of digital technology as well as the politico-economic dimensions to that technology have changed. Four distinct periods emerge in the development: monolingualism, multilingualism, hyperlingualism, and idiolingualism. Monolingualism covers the origins of the internet and later the WWW as monolingual spaces. This was followed by a long period that charts the slow but gradual development of increased language provision and what I am terming “partial multilingualism.” Multilingualism expanded substantially, potentially limitlessly, with the development of Web 2.0. This has involved the diversification of online spaces to the point of “hyperlingualism.” I argue that we are still in this hyperlingual phase, but alongside it, a new phase is developing, that of “idiolingualism” as a result of mass linguistic customization. In this article, I discuss these phases, paying attention to both their technical and economic contexts, as well as their implications for linguistic diversity online and in wider society.

The expectations of the impact of technology for language teaching and learning have often exceeded the actual results themselves, where emerging technologies are often believed to be more effective than existing ones simply because they are newer, with little consideration of the differences in associated pedagogies (see Bax, 2003; Levy & Stockwell, 2006). Technology is often believed to be inherently motivating for students and linked to the development of autonomy. The realities of technology and its influence on motivation are proving to be somewhat more complex than perceived for both language teachers and learners (Stockwell, 2013). Technology can provide opportunities for motivated learners but is unlikely to lead to motivation or autonomous behavior in many learners unless appropriate pedagogies are applied that capitalize on the affordances of the technologies and include sufficient training in how to use the technologies for language learning purposes (see Reinders, 2018a). At the same time, the role of teachers in the classroom and their attitudes toward their environment and the pressures that they face (Mercer & Kostoulas, 2018) can also impact technology implementation. This article brings together these three interrelated areas and explores how they link to technology: learner motivation and autonomy, teacher psychology, and pedagogical considerations.

This article discusses some of the current research on technology in relation to learner autonomy, outlining major findings on the relationship between technology and learner autonomy in formal and informal learning contexts. Extant literature has discussed both teacher-initiated technology-enhanced formal learning environments and learner-constructed self-directed learning experience in informal learning contexts. Although valuable in the insights it provides into how technology aids learner autonomy, the two bodies of literature have largely been independent from each other, which may constrain our understanding.

In the last 20 years we have moved from a somewhat idealistic vision of the internet to one that is far more nuanced and complex. Disruption and change now surround us in a more uncertain and unpredictable world (Foer, 2017; Greenfield, 2017; Lanier, 2018; O'Neil, 2016). This article examines some of the key changes in the wider world and how they may relate to the use of new technologies in second language learning. This topic is approached from three perspectives that have thus far been relatively unexplored. First, the article looks at digital literacy, a cognate field that has long been motivated by issues and concerns relating to educational technology and the classroom–world connection. Second, it considers the role and use of authentic materials and texts. Third, it contrasts notions of input and output as these terms apply to humans and machines, and as they are used in research on second language learning.

The goal throughout is to highlight the benefits of increased connectivity between the wider world and the world of the language classroom. Through increased awareness and informed debate, it is hoped this will place us in a stronger position to understand and plan for the changes ahead.

In this article we explore the relationship between learner corpus and second language acquisition research. We begin by considering the origins of learner corpus research, noting its roots in smaller scale studies of learner language. This development of learner corpus studies is considered in the broader context of the development of corpus linguistics. We then consider the aspirations that learner corpus researchers have had to engage with second language acquisition research and explore why, to date, the interaction between the two fields has been minimal. By exploring some of the corpus building practices of learner corpus research, and the theoretical goals of second language acquisition studies, we identify reasons for this lack of interaction and make proposals for how this situation could be fruitfully addressed.

This paper will review the role of data mining in research on second language learning. Following a general introduction to the topic, three areas of data mining research will be summarized—clustering techniques, text-mining, and social network analysis—with examples from both the broader field and studies conducted by the authors. The application of data mining in second language learning research is relatively new, and more theoretical and empirical support is needed in the appropriate collection, use, and interpretation of data for specific research and pedagogical objectives. The three examples that we introduce illustrate how new data sources accessible in online environments can be analyzed to better understand the optimal instructional context for corpus-based vocabulary learning (clustering technique), characteristics and patterns of collaborative written interaction using Google Docs (text mining and visualizations), and issues of access and community in computer-mediated discussion (social network analysis). Implications of these new techniques for L2 research will be discussed.

The field of technology and language learning, also known as CALL (computer-assisted language learning), is now a robust area of study informed by research and practice in the fields of language education, computer science, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, cultural studies, and, most of all, applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA). As with any other large field of study, some subareas have become the focus of study, often influenced by advances and research in applied linguistics, while others remain to be explored further; among these is the area of technology-mediated second/foreign language (L2) pragmatics, also known as interlanguage pragmatics. The lack of research in this area is puzzling if one considers that pragmatic competence is one of the essential components of communicative competence and that most of the technologies today exist in the service of communication. This article reviews the efforts so far to explore the connections between interlanguage pragmatics and a variety of technologies and innovations, as well as existing resources to bring L2 pragmatic teaching into the language classroom. It then suggests unexplored areas where technology could be used to aid the development of pragmatic competence and where pragmatic theory can inform SLA research.

In recent years, digital technologies have expanded the possibilities for human interactions in ways that were never before imagined, further complicating the teaching and learning of languages (Taguchi & Sykes, 2013; Thorne, Sauro, & Smith, 2015). Despite this complexity, when approached as meaningful, high-stakes practices, discourses in digital contexts can be highly useful for language learning and teaching. This article synthesizes work related to two digital discourse contexts, specifically hashtags and digital games. Moving away from technology as the vehicle to deliver “important content,” the analysis to follow examines digital discourses as both the content and context to be examined as part of learners’ multilingual experiences. The article begins by situating the discussion focused on digital discourses, reviewing relevant work addressing interactional patterns in each context, and then applying findings to second language teaching and learning. Drawing on empirical work, the article then describes a framework with specific examples for learner exploration of digital discourses as part of their language learning experience. The article concludes with implications for future research and teaching.

Researchers in second language acquisition (SLA) have long debated the nature of human cognition and how it affects second language learning (L2L). On the one hand, and largely dominating the field of SLA, is the cognitive approach, which focuses on the brain as the unit for cognitive analysis. On the other hand, sociocultural theory holds that human cognition is mediated by cultural artifacts. These perspectives present significantly different views on interaction, understanding it as either auxiliary or instrumental in the learning process, or “fundamentally constitutive” of learning (Mondada & Pekarek Doehler, 2004, p. 502). Increasingly concerned with the role of technology in language learning, current computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research demands theoretical frameworks that account for the ecological relationship between learners, the tools they use, and the environments they inhabit. This article raises the issue of how anthropocentric perspectives on technology have permeated the field of CALL until now, inhibiting its development. I suggest the need for CALL to adopt a less instrumental, more determinist (Carr, 2010) view of the role that technology plays in language learning, by engaging in sociocognitive research (Atkinson, 2010) that embraces the transformative power that technology has over cognition.

This article addresses the role that different types of media might play in second dialect acquisition. While many scholars agree that broadcast media such as television have little effect on individual speakers’ language use, research across fields (sociolinguistics, second language learning, laboratory phonology, and phonetics) suggests that high levels of engagement could facilitate dialect learning via mediated speech. I will briefly describe the mechanisms underlying acquisition of new dialect features, discuss how these mechanisms might operate when speakers are exposed to speech via specific types of media, and sketch some avenues for future research.

Intervention studies typically target a focused aspect of language learning that is studied over a relatively short time frame for a relatively small number of participants in a controlled setting. While for many research questions, this is effective, it can also limit the ecological validity and relevance of the results for real-life language learning. In educational science, large-scale randomized controlled field trials (RCTs) are seen as the gold standard method for addressing this challenge—yet they require intervention to scale to hundreds of learners in their varied, authentic contexts.

We discuss the use of technology in support of large-scale interventions that are fully integrated in regular classes in secondary school. As an experimentation platform, we developed a web-based workbook to replace a printed workbook widely used in German schools. The web-based FeedBook provides immediate scaffolded feedback to students on form and meaning for various exercise types, covering the full range of constructions in the seventh-grade English curriculum.

Following the conceptual discussion, we report on the first results of an ongoing, yearlong RCT. The results confirm the effectiveness of the scaffolded feedback, and the approach makes students and learning process variables accessible for the analysis of learning in a real-world context.

Conversational alignment (i.e., the automatic tendency of interactants to reuse each other's morphosyntactic structures and lexical choices in natural dialogue) is a well-researched phenomenon in native (Pickering & Ferreira, 2008) and to a smaller extent in second language (L2) speakers (Jackson, 2018) as confirmed by many highly controlled lab-based experimental studies investigating face-to-face oral interaction. Only a few studies have explored alignment in more naturally occurring L2 interactions (e.g., Dao, Trofimovich, & Kennedy, 2018), some of them extending the context to written computer-mediated communication (SCMC) (e.g., Michel & Smith, 2018).

The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a closer look at alignment in L2 conversations mediated by two different types of SCMC (videoconference vs. text chat). We explored lexical as well as structural alignment in three target languages (Chinese, French, and German) involving interactional partners of different status (L2 peer, L1 peer, and L1 tutor).

Results revealed that lexical and structural alignment are both present and observable in different SCMC contexts. From a methodological point of view, we discuss how different analyses suit the data generated by the affordances of the different SCMC contexts in the target languages and argue for a more dynamic and pervasive perspective on interaction.