Post-pandemic, the number of virtual international experiences through the Department of Global Health at Des Moines University (DMU) has declined from the high of 41 students as traditional international travel has resumed. However, DMU continues to provide virtual international experiences for students who cannot travel abroad due to financial…

In response to COVID-19, educators rapidly pivoted to new and innovative ways of delivering lecture material. The ability to host synchronous lectures on platforms like Zoom gave students continued access to classroom material in the face of an ongoing pandemic. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in exam scores between…

Internationally representative data of middle-aged adults 45 - 65 years old [n(United States) = 2,150; n(Japan) = 2,318; n(South Korea) = 2,800] from the 2012 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies were analyzed to examine the roles of education and literacy in relation to the digital divide. Results from survey-weighted binary…

The teaching and creative movement course incorporates details of physical movements most suitable to be conducted face-to-face. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably changed pedagogical methodologies, forcing this course to be conducted online via the medium of technology. Therefore, this paper explains the challenges and advantages of…

Online collaborative learning for developing English writing skills has been widely recognised for decades as a key approach to enhancing students' learning achievement and experiences through technology. However, it is generally one-way learning. Therefore, the virtual team concept has recently been applied to online learning and teaching to…

Courses: Undergraduate courses in interpersonal communication, nonverbal communication, relational communication, computer-mediated communication (CMC), and intercultural communication, as well as basic communication courses. Objectives: The purpose of this activity is twofold: (1) to demonstrate how nonverbal communication shapes content and…

In recent years, research in multimodality has established the benefits of using multiple semiotic modes like image, sound, and text in digital second language (L2) communication. However, researchers have yet to investigate how L2 learners make meaning through embodied modes--or gestures and facial expressions. Grounded in the social semiotic…

This paper is based on the reflections from a telecollaboration project between English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Turkey and native or non-native speakers of English in the USA. The main purpose of the project was to help the participants to develop their intercultural communicative competence (ICC) via online (a)synchronous…

Purpose: Key word signing (KWS) entails using manual signs to support the natural speech of individuals with normal hearing and who have communication difficulties. While manual signs from the local sign language may be used for this purpose, some KWS systems have opted for a distinct KWS lexicon. Distinct KWS lexicon typically aims for higher…

Student teachers struggle to identify themselves as teachers in their field placement during their student teaching year, and some of the difficulty can be attributed to the change they encounter when they must communicate scientific ideas to students in a language that differs from how they recently learned science at the university level. Using…

This study tackles the question: how is literacy engagement enacted in the context of significant disability? We delve into the complex literacy practices of Kalika, a three-year-old child with Rett syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, to elucidate how she engages with printed text. Rett syndrome leads to near total loss of verbal…

The overarching goal of this design-based research was to explore WhatsApp's potential for facilitating and supporting speaking and pronunciation instruction in an EFL large-class speaking course. More specifically, this paper explored the perceived learning outcomes of WhatsApp-supported pedagogy in large English-speaking classes. Ninety-nine…

Introduction: Developing greater multicultural competence is predicated on developing continual awareness and education about issues relevant to marginalized identities. One way to promote this competence is by engaging in productive intergroup dialogue with individuals representing a diversity of perspectives. Statement of the Problem: Intergroup…

Social-communication deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder often lead to undesirable outcomes in other domains, such as interpersonal relationships, employment, and participation in community activities. Parents may be ideal implementers of interventions to address these deficits when provided with instruction that is efficacious and…

Nowadays, Peruvian physicians commonly give oral medical reports to a patient´s family in English. For this reason, this research seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of an Intervention Program for improving oral skills through role-playing activities, one hand, and, on the other, it aims to discover the kind of motivation, both goals in 40…