Most previous studies in blended learning simply involved on-site and online instruction without considering students' control of their own learning in these two different modalities. The purpose of this study was to investigate how college students with English reading difficulties integrate their conceptions of and approaches to blended learning…

This study investigated the effects of the construction and development of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) on a small user population at a public university in Malaysia. The study was based on a three-month Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and language learning course offered to the undergraduates of the university. One of the…

Vocabulary knowledge is of fundamental importance to reading comprehension, and many students lack the vocabulary knowledge necessary to facilitate learning to read. A study was conducted to determine the effects of an individualized, online vocabulary program on picture vocabulary test scores. Elementary summer school students (N = 43), entering…

The flexible language learning system we have devised at our university combines different elements: individual work on a virtual learning environment, pair-work and counseling sessions. The implementation of the system involves a new conception of the different "actors" roles. Teachers become tutors or counselors with new specific…

This case study focuses on the feedback that is provided by tutors to learners in the course of synchronous online teaching. More specifically, we study how trainee tutors used the affordances of Visu, an experimental web videoconferencing system, to provide negative feedback. Visu features classical functionalities such as video and chat, and it…

This study examines the effects of educational technologies on the attitudes of both the instructors and the students. The results indicate that there is a discrepancy between the students' awareness of the instructors' goals for using new technologies and the importance instructors placed on computer assisted language learning (CALL). The data…

This study measured the impact of asynchronous computer-assisted language learning (CALL) approaches on high and low achievers' vocabulary retention and recall of English as foreign language learners. Fifty participants were assigned into two homogeneous groups. Both groups covered eight expository passages, which included "Select readings:…

This article proposes an instructional design model for blended learning writing courses for English language learners (ELLs). It will do so by combining the main points of the cognitive load, activity, sociocultural, and transactional distance theories to present four tenets essential for optimal learning for ELLs: structure, environment,…

This case study paves the way for a research and development project aiming to design a desktop videoconferencing platform specifically dedicated to synchronous language teaching. It starts by defining a model of language pedagogy adapted to distance and taking into account the affordances of videoconferencing for language teaching. It then…

Previous studies have emphasized the relationship between students' engagement and learning performance, and yet the context in which students and the teacher interact to engage each other has been ignored. In order to engage college students who are learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of a big class, this study developed a…

Blog use may offer instructors a helpful tool for teaching writing at the tertiary level in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) classrooms. This article reports on a quasi-experimental study regarding the effect of blog-centered writing instruction on students' writing performance. Fifty intermediate English students at a Turkish…

This study explored the attitudes of students and teachers toward the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in a foreign language teaching and learning context. The study also investigated possible factors affecting teachers' and students' attitudes toward IWB technology. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to 458 students and…

Despite holding advanced language qualifications, many overseas students studying at English-speaking universities still have difficulties in formulating grammatically correct sentences. This article introduces an "independent open learner model" for advanced second language speakers of English, which confronts students with the state of their…

The research on text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC), while generally acknowledging the potential benefits afforded by the medium's capacity for extensive self-repair, has done little in the way of exploration of the nature of such text. Indeed, until quite recently, output logs have been favored almost exclusively at the…

This article describes the development and evaluation of a computer-assisted language learning approach which integrates a finite state dialogue engine with an animated pedagogical agent. The design of the request game is theoretically motivated by interlanguage pragmatics and Long's Interaction Hypothesis. The tutoring system creates a venue in…