CALICO Journal Volume 31, No. 1
In the first article, “Affordances of Web 2.0 Technologies for Collaborative Advanced Writing in a Foreign Language”, Carola Strobl investigates whether online collaboration can yield a positive effect on academic writing in a foreign language. The research is distinctive in that it explores peer feedback and collaboration among advanced level L2 learners.
Digital gaming has become the focus of significantly more research in recent years. Claire Ikumi Hitosugi, Matthew Schmidt, and Kentaro Hayashi’s paper, “Digital Game–based Learning (DGBL) in the L2 Classroom: The Impact of the UN’s Off-the-Shelf Videogame, Food Force, on Learner Affect and Vocabulary Retention,” uses a mixed methods design in an examination of learners of Japanese as a second/foreign language.
The role of virtual learning environments is the subject of Elena Martin-Monje’s paper, “Integration of Web 2.0 Tools in a VLE to Improve the EFL Spanish University Entrance Examination Results.” Utilizing a quasi-experimental design with EFL learners using Moodle, Web 2.0 based materials (e.g., forums, collaborative glossaries, social repositories with annotated past papers, podcasts, social bookmarking, a wiki, and a blog) were analyzed alongside learners’ use of traditional EFL resources.
In “Second Language Teachers’ Identity Development through Online Collaboration with L2 Learners,” Keiko Kitade explores how Japanese student teachers play a tutor role in providing feedback on content and language in their own L2 online postings. Drawing on sociocultural and genetic theoretical frameworks, the study asked two primary research questions: What contradictions emerge during online activities? and How do the contradictions relate to student teachers’ identity development?
Shenggao Wang and Camilla Vásquez continue the turn towards the use of Web 2.0 in non-English contexts in their paper, “The Effect of Target Language Use in Social Media on Intermediate-level Chinese Language Learners’ Writing Performance.” The results of the quasi-experimental study with two groups of learners, one utilizing Facebook and the other traditional forms of writing, suggested that the Facebook group produced more, while there was no significant difference in terms of quality.
Mobile learning has been one of the most significant areas of research across education over the last fifteen years. Language learning has proved to be a particularly important area for research with a number of innovative applications being developed. Jack Burston’s paper “The Reality of MALL: Still on the Fringes” provides a thorough and critical literature review of the field and highlights a number of key challenges if MALL research is to advance.
