Technology has influenced not only our everyday lives, but our education systems and the opportunities for teacher development. The introduction of information and communications technology has presented new training platforms to respond to the needs of the workforce. While traditional institutions have greatly impacted teachers, there are now…

With smartphone saturation at 100% among Japanese university students, educators are developing new and innovative ways to bring them to the forefront of learning, ensuring students are as engaged with their technology in their formal learning as they are with their informal learning. Smartphones of today are small, portable, have high spec…

As students are becoming avid online media consumers and creators, participatory culture has shifted the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to one of community involvement (Chan & Herrero, 2010, p. 10). Taking into consideration the challenges and opportunities derived from the integration in formal settings (secondary and…

The emergence of Web 2.0 has created diverse opportunities for continuing professional development in the area of language teaching. This article begins by presenting how the pedagogical model implemented in an online postgraduate programme integrates the Personal Learning Environment and Personal Learning Network (PLE and PLN) concept and…

As seen in previous chapters of this volume, student involvement in the proPIC Europa project differed at each partner university. For some, engagement rewarded students with formal credits towards a Master's programme. For others, the project offered an opportunity to experience another education system and broaden their knowledge of mobile…

In order to discern how reflective practice functions in an interactive context, this chapter offers an initial approach to understanding how pre-service teachers construct and represent their teacher identities, using a series of interactions designed to stimulate joint reflection in the framework of the proPIC project. The analysis focuses on…

The Slovak language is one of the less commonly taught languages, and its learners worldwide have few options in terms of its study and practice. One of them, however, is the www.e-slovak.sk e-learning platform provided by the Studia Academica Slovaca Centre at the Comenius University Faculty of Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia. This article…

E+VE-SFI (Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange -- Spain, France, Ireland) is a higher-education VE between students from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA), and the University of Limerick (UL). Its primary aim is to develop the speaking skills of undergraduates enrolled in foreign language programmes. Running over a…

In this article, Naouel Zoghlami draws on needs analysis as a fundamental approach to inform the design of a professional English curriculum at the Cnam, a unique French research institution of higher education dedicated to lifelong learning. While needs analysis is still not widely used in the development of English for specific purposes programs…

Crowdsourcing not only opens new perspectives within the general concept of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), but also raises questions about ethics, motivation, and fair contribution. Technology offers platforms such as Duolingo, Bussu, and Babbel for learning languages with active contribution of the learners. Such applications reach…

Ireland's new strategy for foreign language education, "Languages Connect," identifies the establishment of Mandarin Chinese as a curricular language as a key goal for the coming years. Within the curriculum specification for Mandarin at Junior Cycle (ages 12-15), "using digital technology is identified as a core component: the…

Undertaking a Virtual Exchange (VE) project for the first time is supported by introductory online training and mentoring offered through the European Commission's Erasmus+ programme, and can be a source of teacher Professional Development (PD). This study based on Exploratory Practice (EP) describes aspects of the planning and implementation of…

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an area of language education that has been advancing during the last years due to increased social and professional mobility. Despite this, as shown in the related literature, the area of ESP Teacher Education (TE) is deprived of attention by researchers; as a result, many ESP educators in different…

This paper gives an overview of nine different Virtual School Garden Exchange (VSGE) projects. In VSGEs, learners from primary or secondary schools with school gardens exchange virtually on their garden experiences and related topics, using digital media like emails, photos, films, or videoconferences. In this manner, the global perspective of…

This chapter will introduce Action Research Communities for Language Teachers (ARC), a project funded by the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) of the Council of Europe (2015-2018). The project aims to make action research techniques widely available to language teachers across Europe and to provide them with development opportunities…