This special issue offers a selection of papers presented at the 1999 annual EUROCALL conference, held last September in Besançon, France. Although CALL has a deep rooted tradition in France, EUROCALL’99 was the first large scale international CALL conference to take place in this country. Initiated by the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning and the French speaking CALL journal ALSIC (2000), the conference attracted more than 370 full participants coming from 30 countries.

In this paper, E. Esch and C. Zähner argue that the learners themselves are the key agents in the construction of new language learning environments. Learners differ in their ability to import new elements – such as ICTs – into their model of what constitutes an appropriate language learning environment. It is argued that accessibility, autonomy, ‘reflectivity’ and interactivity are conditions which must be met if ICTs are to become truly relevant to language learners. The way these principles have been guiding the development of the network-based language learning environment installed by the Language Centre of the University of Cambridge is described.

This article outlines the nature of the FirstClass computer conferencing program and considers its effectiveness in helping to develop a computer-based learning environment in modern languages at the University of Ulster. A wide range of different transactions is outlined and surveys of staff and student reactions are assessed. Their positive responses demonstrate that FirstClass is effective in establishing such an environment, enable us to draw encouraging lessons from our experience and indicate exciting possibilities of immediate further development.

This article investigates the use of computer-mediated communication technologies in the context of teaching German by distance mode in Australia. More conventional delivery modes such as audiocassettes and printed study guides were augmented by electronic support mechanisms. Students were able to access their study guides, timetables and assignment tasks online and communicated with their course convener as well as with fellow students via a bulletin board and an internal email system set up for the course. The article reports on the extent to which students used these facilities rather than more conventional modes of communication (fax., telephone, written submission of assignments), on how students managed the set tasks and what difficulties they encountered.

The Internet allows the language learner myriad opportunities to consult authentic sources and to practise using the target language with native speakers and other learners both synchronously and asynchronously. The current paper describes the design, development and implementation of language learning activities using text-based virtual reality or MOO (Multi-User Domain Object Oriented) in conjunction with the World Wide Web. The underlying purpose was to promote active, autonomous learning behaviours by enabling geographically distributed language learners to work with native- and non-native speakers of the target language on an engaging and motivating task with a concrete and meaningful outcome.

This article describes an exchange project carried out by foreign language classes in the University of León, Spain and the University of Northern Michigan, USA. The two groups integrated videoconferencing technology into a task based exchange in order to make students more aware of how they viewed their own and the target cultures. In the course of the project learners also experienced some of the challenges of inter-cultural communication. The development of the project is described and examples of intercultural learning are looked at. Some guidelines for the use of videoconferencing in such intercultural exchanges are also suggested.

This paper presents the results of a study that demonstrates an effective use of the Web as a tool to increase motivation and thus promote reading and writing skills in Spanish as well as a deeper sense of the culture of the Spanish speaking world. In the study, thirty students of second year Spanish at the University of New South Wales were required to prepare an itinerary for a trip to a Spanish speaking country of their choice using the WWW as the only resource. In general our findings regarding improved language skills were consistent with the literature: an increase of vocabulary, more use of references, more student initiated interactions and greater interactivity in the classroom amongst students were observed. There was, however, one aspect, linguistic accuracy, in which improvement was not greatly noted. The data collected confirms that a task-oriented Web based course can increase the motivation of students, improve the scope of their reading, and enhance their perception of the target culture, all with a great effect on range of language explored, learned and re-processed, but a much lesser effect on the accuracy of written language produced.

The Centro Virtual Cervantes (http://cvc.cervantes.es) is the Internet-based branch of the Instituto Cervantes, the official Spanish institution commissioned to disseminate the use and study of Spanish language and culture around the world.

Since its creation in December 1997, the CVC has rapidly become one of the most important reference sites devoted to Spanish language and culture on the WWW, having reached an average of over 100,000 visitors a month. This increasing number of visitors is primarily due to the great variety of resources available at the CVC website, which attract both professionals and the public in general. These include announcements of cultural events under Actos Culturales, the four discussion forums, each of which focuses on a specific topic, and the language classroom, Aula de Lengua, designed for both teachers and learners of Spanish.

The CVC front page enables direct access to the entire contents which are well structured, and organised in a very user-friendly manner. The central part is dedicated to current cultural events and is therefore constantly up-dated. The sections included are listed on the left and right hand side of the main menu page.

This article presents briefly the advantages and disadvantages of reusing natural language processing (NLP) tools in the CALL context. The issue is addressed through the description of GBGen, a sentence generation system. The abstract semantic representation used as input for the generator is described, as well as the actual generation process, from a deep structure to a grammatical sentence through transformations and the application of morphology. The possible didactic value of such a tool is then evaluated and the outline of a CALL scenario given. Finally, proposed adaptations of the generator for the CALL context are discussed.

The concept of authenticity first appeared with the development of the communicative approach. More recently, in the field of educational measurement, authentic assessment methods have been proposed. Although adaptive testing seems to be the most important application of computers in language assessment, these tests are usually not authentic. Since many real world tasks are accomplished with computers, these may be used for authentic direct testing. Computers may be also used in semi-direct testing as a way to enhance the context. Finally in authentic assessment, computers may be used as a tool to process the data when the learners use them to organise their portfolio. Using the computer, test developers can also create better authentic tests.

EUROCALL continued to operate from the Language Institute at the University of Hull, through the small team working at the CTI Centre for Modern Languages, consisting of June Thompson, Jenny Parsons, Fred Riley and Kylie Baxter. Sadly, Kylie moved to another post at the end of 1998, but we were fortunate to secure Julie Venner in her place to act as EUROCALL membership secretary.

The third bi-annual CSCL (Computer Support for Collaborative Learning) conference took place at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California and was by European standards a huge conference, but apparently by American standards it was considered to be small. It was my first attendance at an International conference in the USA and I was quite overwhelmed by the size and beauty of the Campus at Stanford, but also by the very smooth organisation of a conference where everything, from registration, payment and paper submission to the publication of all papers was done on-line. The theme of the conference was ‘Designing New Media for a New Millennium: Collaborative Technology for Learning, Education and Training’.