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The 23rd EUROCALL conference was held in Cyprus from the 24th to the 27th of August 2016. The theme of the conference this year was "CALL Communities and Culture." It offered a unique opportunity to hear from real-world CALL practitioners on how they practice CALL in their communities, and how the CALL culture has developed in local and global contexts. Short papers from the conference are presented in this volume: (1) The impact of EFL teachers' mediation in wiki-mediated collaborative writing activities on student-student collaboration (Maha Alghasab); (2) Towards the development of a comprehensive pedagogical framework for pronunciation training based on adaptive automatic speech recognition systems (Saandia Ali); (3) Digital literacy and sustainability--a field study in EFL teacher development (Christopher Allen and Jan Berggren); (4) Self-evaluation using iPads in EFL teaching practice (Christopher Allen, Stella K. Hadjistassou, and David Richardson); (5) Amateur online interculturalism in foreign language education (Antonie Alm); (6) Teaching Turkish in low tech contexts: opportunities and challenges (Katerina Antoniou, Evelyn Mbah, and Antigoni Parmaxi); (7) Learning Icelandic language and culture in virtual Reykjavic: starting to talk (Branislav Bédi, Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir, Hannes Högni Vilhjálmsson, Hafdís Erla Helgadóttir, Stefán Ólafsson, and Elías Björgvinsson); (8) Investigating student choices in performing higher-level comprehension tasks using TED (Francesca Bianchi and Ivana Marenzi); (9) An evaluation of text-to-speech synthesizers in the foreign language classroom: learners' perceptions (Tiago Bione, Jennica Grimshaw, and Walcir Cardoso); (10) Quantifying CALL: significance, effect size and variation (Alex Boulton; (11) The contribution of CALL to advanced-level foreign/second language instruction (Jack Burston and Kelly Arispe); (12) Using instructional technology to integrate CEFR "can do" performance objectives into an advanced-level language course (Jack Burston, Androulla Athanasiou, and Maro Neophytou-Yiokari); (13) Exploiting behaviorist and communicative action-based methodologies in CALL applications for the teaching of pronunciation in French as a foreign language (Jack Burston, Olga Georgiadou, and Monique Monville-Burston); (14) Mobile assisted language learning of less commonly taught languages: learning in an incidental and situated way through an app (Cristiana Cervini, Olga Solovova, Annukka Jakkula, and Karolina Ruta); (15) Using object-based activities and an online inquiry platform to support learners' engagement with their heritage language and culture (Koula Charitonos, Marina Charalampidi, and Eileen Scanlon); (16) Urban explorations for language learning: a gamified approach to teaching Italian in a university context (Koula Charitonos, Luca Morini, Sylvester Arnab, Tiziana Cervi-Wilson, and Billy Brick); (17) Communicate to learn, learn to communicate: a study of engineering students' communication strategies in a mobile-based learning environment (Li Cheng and Zhihong Lu); (18) Using a dialogue system based on dialogue maps for computer assisted second language learning (Sung-Kwon Choi, Oh-Woog Kwon, Young-Kil Kim, and Yunkeun Lee); (19) Students' attitudes and motivation towards technology in a Turkish language classroom (Pelekani Chryso); (20) Vlogging: a new channel for language learning and intercultural exchanges (Christelle Combe and Tatiana Codreanu); (21) Japanese university students' self-assessment and digital literacy test results (Travis Cote and Brett Milliner); (22) Digital story (re)telling using graded readers and smartphones (Kazumichi Enokida); (23) HR4EU--a web portal for e-learning of Croatian (Matea Filko, Daša Farkaš, and Diana Hriberski); (24) Synchronous tandem language learning in a MOOC context: a study on task design and learner performance (Marta Fondo Garcia and Christine Appel); (25) What students think and what they actually do in a mobile assisted language learning context: new insights for self-directed language learning in higher education (Gustavo Garcia Botero and Frederik Questier); (26) An Audio-Lexicon Spanish-Nahuatl: using technology to promote and disseminate a native Mexican language (Rafael García-Mencía, Aurelio López-López, and Angélica Muñoz Meléndez; (27) The use of interactive whiteboards: enhancing the nature of teaching young language learners (Christina Nicole Giannikas); (28) A pre-mobility eTandem project for incoming international students at the University of Padua (Lisa Griggio and Edit Rózsavölgyi); (29) Can a "shouting" digital game help learners develop oral fluency in a second language? (Jennica Grimshaw, Walcir Cardoso, and David Waddington); (30) Feedback visualization in a grammar-based e-learning system for German: a preliminary user evaluation with the COMPASS system (Karin Harbusch and Annette Hausdörfer); (31) The multimodality of lexical explanation sequences during videoconferenced pedagogical interaction (Benjamin Holt); (32) Automatic dialogue scoring for a second language learning system (Jin-Xia Huang, Kyung-Soon Lee, Oh-Woog Kwon, and Young-Kil Kim); (33) Effects of task-based videoconferencing on speaking performance and overall proficiency (Atsushi Iino, Yukiko Yabuta, and Yoichi Nakamura); (34) Tellecollaborative games for youngsters: impact on motivation (Kristi Jauregi); (35) The Exercise: an Exercise generator tool for the SOURCe project (Kryni Kakoyianni-Doa, Eleni Tziafa, and Athanasios Naskos); (36) Students' perceptions of online apprenticeship projects at a university (Hisayo Kikuchi); (37) The effects of multimodality through storytelling using various movie clips (SoHee Kim); (38) Collaboration through blogging: the development of writing and speaking skills in ESP courses (Angela Kleanthous and Walcir Cardoso); (39) Cultivating a community of learners in a distance learning postgraduate course for language professionals (Angelos Konstantinidis and Cecilia Goria); (40) Task-oriented spoken dialog system for second-language learning (Oh-Woog Kwon, Young-Kil Kim, and Yunkeun Lee); (41) Promoting multilingual communicative competence through multimodal academic learning situations (Anna Kyppö and Teija Natri); (42) Teacher professional learning: developing with the aid of technology (Marianna Kyprianou and Eleni Nikiforou); (43) Quizlet: what the students think--a qualitative data analysis (Bruce Lander); (44) "Just facebook me": a study on the integration of Facebook into a German language curriculum (Vera Leier and Una Cunningham); (45) A survey on Chinese students' online English language learning experience through synchronous web conferencing classrooms (Chenxi Li); (46) Identifying and activating receptive vocabulary by an online vocabulary survey and an online writing task (Ivy Chuhui Lin and Goh Kawai); (47) Exploring learners' perceptions of the use of digital letter games for language learning: the case of Magic Word (Mathieu Loiseau, Cristiana Cervini, Andrea Ceccherelli, Monica Masperi, Paola Salomoni, Marco Roccetti, Antonella Valva, and Francesca Bianco); (48) Game of Words: prototype of a digital game focusing on oral production (and comprehension) through asynchronous interaction (Mathieu Loiseau, Racha Hallal, Pauline Ballot, and Ada Gazidedja); (49) PETALL in action: latest developments and future directions of the EU-funded Pan-European Task Activities for Language Learning (António Lopes); (50) Exploring EFL learners' lexical application in AWE-based writing (Zhihong Lu and Zhenxiao Li); (51) Mobile-assisted language learning and language learner autonomy (Paul A. Lyddon); (52) YELL/TELL: online community platform for teacher professional development (Ivana Marenzi, Maria Bortoluzzi, and Rishita Kalyani); (53) Leveraging automatic speech recognition errors to detect challenging speech segments in TED talks (Maryam Sadat Mirzaei, Kourosh Meshgi, and Tatsuya Kawahara); (54) Investigating the affective learning in a 3D virtual learning environment: the case study of the Chatterdale mystery (Judith Molka-Danielsen, Stella Hadjistassou, and Gerhilde Messl-Egghart); (55) Are commercial "personal robots" ready for language learning? Focus on second language speech (Souheila Moussalli and Walcir Cardoso); (56) The Digichaint interactive game as a virtual learning environment for Irish (Neasa Ni Chiaráin and Ailbhe Ní Chasaide); (57) Mingling students' cognitive abilities and learning strategies to transform CALL (Efi Nisiforou and Antigoni Parmaxi); (58) Taking English outside of the classroom through social networking: reflections on a two-year project (Louise Ohashi); (59) Does the usage of an online EFL workbook conform to Benford's law? (Mikolaj Olszewski, Kacper Lodzikowski, Jan Zwolinski, Rasil Warnakulasooriya, and Adam Black); (60) Implications on pedagogy as a result of adopted CALL practices (James W. Pagel and Stephen G. Lambacher); (61) Exploring the benefits and disadvantages of introducing synchronous to asynchronous online technologies to facilitate flexibility in learning (Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous and Fernando Loizides); (62) A CALL for evolving teacher education through 3D microteaching (Giouli Pappa and Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous); (63) Physicality and language learning (Jaeuk Park, Paul Seedhouse, Rob Comber, and Jieun Kiaer); (64) Designing strategies for an efficient language MOOC (Maria Perifanou); (65) Worldwide state of language MOOCs (Maria Perifanou); (66) A Spanish-Finnish telecollaboration: extending intercultural competence via videoconferencing (Pasi Puranen and Ruby Vurdien); (67) Developing oral interaction skills with a digital information gap activity game (Avery Rueb, Walcir Cardoso, and Jennica Grimshaw); (68) Using WebQuests as idea banks for fostering autonomy in online language courses (Shirin Sadaghian and S. Susan Marandi); (69) Integrating mobile technologies into very young second language learners' curriculum (Gulnara Sadykova, Gulnara Gimaletdinova, Liliia Khalitova, and Albina Kayumova); (70) Investigating commercially available technology for language learners in higher education within the high functioning disability spectrum (Georgia Savvidou and Fernando Loizides); (71) Learning languages in 3D worlds with Machinima (Christel Schneider); (72) What are more effective in English classrooms: textbooks or podcasts? (Jaime Selwood, Joe Lauer, and Kazumichi Enokida); (73) Mind the gap: task design and technology in novice language teachers' practice (Tom F. H. Smits, Margret Oberhofer, and Jozef Colpaert); (74) Language immersion in the self-study mode e-course (Olga Sobolev); (75) Aligning out-of-class material with curriculum: tagging grammar in a mobile music application (Ross Sundberg and Walcir Cardoso); (76) Meeting the technology standards for language teachers (Cornelia Tschichold); (77) Mobile-assisted language learning community and culture in French-speaking Belgium: the teachers' perspective (Julie Van de Vyver); (78) Classification of Swedish learner essays by CEFR levels (Elena Volodina, Ildikó Pilán, and David Alfter); (79) Mobile assisted language learning and mnemonic mapping--the loci method revisited (Ikumi Waragai, Marco Raindl, Tatsuya Ohta, and Kosuke Miyasaka); (80) CALL and less commonly taught languages--still a way to go (Monica Ward); (81) Demystifying pronunciation with animation (Monica Ward); (82) The effects of utilizing corpus resources to correct collocation errors in L2 writing--Students' performance, corpus use and perceptions (Yi-ju Wu); (83) A social constructionist approach to teaching and learning vocabulary for Italian for academic purposes (Eftychia Xerou, Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, and Antigoni Parmaxi); (84) Flip-J: development of the system for flipped jigsaw supported language learning (Masanori Yamada, Yoshiko Goda, Kojiro Hata, Hideya Matsukawa, and Seisuke Yasunami); and (85) "Check your Smile", prototype of a collaborative LSP website for technical vocabulary (Nadia Yassine-Diab, Charlotte Alazard-Guiu, Mathieu Loiseau, Laurent Sorin, and Charlotte Orliac). An author index is included. (Individual papers contain references.)

The 25th European Association of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL) conference was hosted by Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, from the 23rd to the 26th of August 2017. The theme of the conference was "CALL in a climate of change." The theme encompassed the notion of how practice and research in CALL is responding to shifting global circumstances which impact education, including developments arising from economic, political, or environmental change. It cut across areas including considerations for teacher training, competitive educational models, open education, new models for blended learning, collaboration, mobile learning, creative and innovative pedagogy, data analytics, students' needs and sustainability--and crucially, it looked to the future with optimism. The programme was packed with over 200 sessions related to this topic, and it included a large number of workshops, pecha kucha, posters, and symposia. This volume offers a snapshot of this dynamic landscape and contains 60 of the papers presented. This volume reflects the wide variety of topics featured at the conference and the high quality of contributions. (Individual papers contain references.)

The 2016 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (CSC), a joint conference with the Ohio Foreign Language Association, focused on fostering language and culture connections within and outside the language classroom and across the curriculum at all levels. A variety of approaches aimed at improving skills in language, literacy, and critical thinking were highlighted in order to engage students and prepare them for global citizenship in the 21st century. This 2016 report entitled "Fostering Connections, Empowering Communities, Celebrating the World," contains 12 articles that focus on fostering connections between and among language students and teachers, language, culture and content, the language classroom and the world and between K-12 and higher education. Through the integration of meaningful curricula, engaging learning tasks, media and technology, authentic materials, and cultural products in the language classroom, teachers can connect their language classrooms with the authentic lives of their learners. All of these articles underscore the important role of connecting learners with the target language and culture through a variety of means aimed at improving language skills, knowledge and attitudes of language learners in order to prepare them for global citizenship in the 21st century.

The 2014 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages took place in St. Louis, Missouri with the cooperation of the Foreign Language Association of Missouri. The 2014 conference focused on ways in which foreign language teachers, "unlock" or help to open up lines of communication between their students and people who speak a language other than the native language of their students. Foreign language teachers do so not only by helping students to learn how to express themselves through oral and written communication, but also through cultural knowledge of the target culture. For students to become globally competent citizens, they need to know not only how to communicate through oral and written communication; they must also understand the nuances of a culture. An understanding of the products, practices, and perspectives of a culture are equally important to function in a given culture. The CSCTFL 2014 conference featured 28 workshops and more than 170 sessions. Nine of the 17 central states were represented by "Best of…" sessions. Several presenters from the 2013 conference returned to re-present their session as an "All-Star." The sessions and workshop topics represented at the 2014 conference included the connection to Common Core in the foreign language classroom, the use of technology, teaching for communicative competency, lesson planning, assessment, the integration of culture in the curriculum, and the use of literature, art, music, and film in language classes. The articles in this report pertain to developing communicative competency and cultural competency. By focusing on developing communicative competency and cultural competency, foreign language teachers are able to shape their students into citizens who will be globally competent and be able to communicate and interact effectively in a global society. The authors explain how to achieve these goals through the use of technology in teaching, studying abroad, the use of target language in the classroom, and the role of a textbook in the classroom while promoting communication.

The 2008 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a joint conference with the Michigan World Language Association, focused on learning about the diverse backgrounds and needs of today's students and discovering new ways to help them succeed in reaching the goal of language proficiency. A wide variety of workshops and sessions offered practical advice on how to deal with reluctant learners on a variety of levels. Immersion-type workshops and sessions were offered to help participants brush up on their language skills, and participants were brought up-to-date on topics such as foreign language advocacy, advanced placement, technology, assessment, culture, brain-based learning, and much more. In addition to "Best of" presentations from 15 states, the program included several encore presentations from last year's "All-Star" presenters. This volume offers the reader a wealth of research based approaches and strategies to language teaching and learning designed to assist the language educator in creating a learning environment that will motivate and engage all students in the language classroom. These articles focus on best practices representing theory-based instruction designed to optimize language communication skills and cultural knowledge for all learners.

The theme for the 2005 Central States Conference, "Year of Languages," and the title of this volume, "The Year of Languages: Challenges, Changes, and Choices," reinforce the commitment and passion that language educators demonstrate in their profession. Whether teaching in a small rural school or developing innovative programs in university settings, educators in the Central States are meeting challenges and instigating changes with creativity and enthusiasm. This volume celebrates those efforts. The 25 papers herein are organized around five key themes: (1) Year of Languages; (2) Challenges in PK-20 World Language Education; (3) Changes in Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction; (4) Choices to Create Real-World Learning; and (5) Celebrations of Language Learning.

The title, "Making Connections: From the Classroom to the World Beyond", underscores one of the basic principles of language teaching echoed in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) "Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century". Teachers are constantly making connections in their language classes: to their students, to the curriculum, to other cultures, to teaching practices, to other disciplines, and to the global community. These connections are based on an infrastructure of language teaching and learning that involves research, theory, classroom practice, activities, and events. Over the past fifty years the profession has undergone enormous changes brought about by new research in second language acquisition as well as new directions in language teaching and learning. Once isolated from other disciplines, world languages now reaches out to them and incorporates them into the curriculum and into daily classroom activities. Furthermore, e-mail and the internet have added vast new dimensions to language teaching repertoire, enabling teachers to reach out to the global community in ways they were unable to previously. The articles are divided in sections that reflect and elaborate on the concept of making connections: (1) Making Connections to Program; (2) Making Connections to Research; (3) Making Connections to the Classroom; and (4) Making Connections to the Classroom and Beyond.

This short paper reports on the preliminary findings of a study into the use of Online Translators (OTs) by university language students. Students of Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish and their teachers responded to comparative surveys on their respective use and evaluation of OTs for L2 writing in formal language learning contexts. Findings indicate that teachers have little awareness of the range of strategies students apply when using OTs as writing tools. Concerns of OT misuse for cheating or as a replacement for language learning seem largely unfounded. Students, however, perceive a lack of guidance for the appropriate use of OTs. Preliminary findings suggest that teachers need to review their assumptions about students' OT practices and that both students and teachers would benefit from technical and pedagogical OT training. [For the complete volume, "CALL and Professionalisation: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2021 (29th, Online, August 26-27, 2021)," see ED616972.]

There is no doubt that Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and mobile mediated communication are linked as technology continues to transform the way we communicate with each other. Campbell (2019) analyzed how mobile communication evolved into portable devices to form a complete system of mobile media, reshaping the fabric of our social lives via 'sociality' and 'spatiality'. In this short paper, we would like to offer a brief overview of the diverse oral presentations which took place in the joint CMC and MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) Special Interest Group (SIG) symposium at the online conference this year. This short paper will introduce various online apps which are available for free in both computer-based and mobile versions and can be adapted to foreign language learning in various ways. [For the complete volume, "CALL for Widening Participation: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2020 (28th, Online, August 20-21, 2020)," see ED610330.]

Over the past few years, language teaching has progressively evolved from teacher-fronted classroom settings to more complex, learner-centered scenarios, allowing learners to explore authentic contents, work collaboratively, and create sophisticated and socially relevant products. In addition, these processes foster language learning, increase learner engagement, and support the acquisition of competences such as critical thinking and democratic competence. In spite of these positive results, previous research has not always suggested efficient ways to properly manage classroom interaction and potentially enhance learning outcomes. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the potential of cooperation scripts as a means to leverage collaborative work and classroom interaction in complex learning scenarios. In this paper, we report on the first phase of an intervention study that was conducted with 17 university learners of German at the B2-C1 level. Survey results show that most of the students found the addition of the cooperation script to be beneficial when engaging in a complex, game-based scenario. [For the complete proceedings, see ED600837.]

This reflective practice paper presents an excerpt of the outcome of a telecollaboration project between two tertiary institutions in New Zealand and Finland. Twenty-six intermediate students of German in the two countries used a Facebook-group to write about given topics which were part of their final assessment. The posts were a combination of video uploads, audio recordings, and writing which is in line with the multimodal meaning-making theory (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001). The task design was guided by O'Dowd and Ware's (2009) three-layer approach design. The study investigates how students perceive the collaboration using the Facebook group and how the multimodal approach helps the students to develop their digital literacies. The data collected for the study included a mixed-methods approach with pre- and post-questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and Facebook logs. Results show that students learned more about each others' culture and improved their German at the same time. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED590612.]

The Year Abroad (YA) is one of the most valuable parts of our language degree programmes. Here we discuss some of the elements that constitute the assessment Nottingham Trent University students carry out to earn a YA diploma. More specifically we compare the two elements (blog and dossier) that we think contribute most to reflective practice, by analysing examples from students of French, German, and Spanish. Although at this point the analysis remains impressionistic, we compare which of these two elements helps students to reflect more deeply and meaningfully while achieving the YA objectives. The main findings indicate that both types of text help students to reflect on their experience and consequently to develop their Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). Notably, the use of the target language does not appear to determine the level of reflection while the intended audience plays an important part in the style and accessibility of students' work. [For the complete volume, "Perspectives on the Year Abroad: A Selection of Papers from YAC2018," see ED603732.]

New technologies are changing the way of learning foreign languages. However, one of the main challenges for software developers and mobile assisted language learning designers remains the creation of learning environments for students' language immersion in and outside the classroom. This paper describes the design and evaluation of a VR-based mobile app called "Let's date!." The app enables Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) A1 level German language learners to interact with an immersive environment and to practise several language skills. The results have proven that the use of 360° videos based on realistic situations and combined with a conversational agent is suitable to reinforce students' foreign language competencies. [For the complete proceedings, see ED600837.]

This book consists of eleven papers presented at the 1975 Central States Conference. The principal objective of the conference was to examine the trend for human relations, ethnic studies, and bilingual-bicultural education in American education and the new interest in languages not usually taught in the past. The papers include: (1) "We're All Ethnics: Hyphenated Americans, Professional Ethnics, and Ethnics by Attraction," by Lorraine A. Strasheim; (2) "The Analysis of Language and Familiar Cultures," by Nelson Brooks; (3) "Linguistic Diversity in the Classroom," by Geneva Smitherman; (4) "Analyzing French Culture and Interpreting Some of its Manifestations," by Jacqueline C. Elliot; (5) "Analyzing Hispanic Culture: Some Implications for Teaching," by Yvonne de Wright; (6) "A Look at Americans of German Descent," by La Vern J. Rippley; (7) "Newspapers and Magazines in the Second Language Classroom," by Helen L. Jorstad; (8) "Evaluating Cultural Learnings," by Robert C. Lafayette and Renate Schulz; (9) "Sexism in French Language Textbooks," by Betty Schmitz; (10) "Preparing Teachers for Cultural Pluralism," by Margaret Shryer; and (11) "Study-Travel Abroad," by Sue Reynolds. (CFM)

It is impossible to imagine a modern person with higher education who would have never studied one or several foreign languages and would not be familiar with the culture of different countries. Especially in the modern world, in which knowledge of languages serves not only as a way of cognition, but also as a key to self-realization both in one's own linguistic environment and beyond. The borders of countries are in many ways more and more transparent, means of transportation are available, which makes a modern person mobile and active in changing their place of residence and work. Knowledge of a foreign language and understanding of the cultural characteristics of other peoples further erases the barriers to temporary or long-term migration. Consequently, interest in the study of foreign languages grows in proportion to the growth of educational, scientific, commercial, cultural contacts, the desire of peoples and governments of different countries to develop cooperation and interaction. The study of linguistic and cultural contacts and the mutual enrichment of languages involves not only the study of specific socio-historical and cultural conditions of their development, but also the results of their mutual influence and interpenetration. In the process of learning one or more foreign languages, the problem of linguistic and cultural interference arises. The focus of our article is the problem faced by students of language departments. Students, even with a good command of a foreign language, often make mistakes, the cause of which is interlanguage interference - the influence of the native language system on a foreign language or two or even more studied languages on each other. With prolonged «immersion» in the language, the languages being studied begin to influence each other, actively interacting with the native language. Interference can manifest itself in both oral and written speech, as well as at all linguistic levels. In addition, issues of cross-cultural interference play a significant role. This article examines the reasons for the occurrence of language interference, describes its main characteristics and features, provides illustrative examples from European (English, Spanish and others), Slavic (Russian, Polish and others), as well as in the Eastern (Chinese) language. The authors pay special attention to the problem of linguistic interference of students of higher educational institutions emitting two or more foreign languages. They are carriers of the cultural code of their country, their people, but at the same time their cultural characteristics are in close contact with the cultural values of the people whose language they are studying, and their native language enters into a complex interaction with the languages being studied. Any culture is national, its national character is expressed in language through a special vision of the world, respectively, these two phenomena are inextricably linked and it is possible to consider them within the framework of one study. In the course of analyzing the above-described scientific linguistic and culturological problem, the authors come to the conclusion that the study of the culture of the people of the country of the target language is in many respects primary and serves as a superstructure over the study of a foreign language. This methodological approach allows students to avoid both cross-cultural and, in the future, linguistic interference. Teachers are required to be not only teachers of the language, who understand its origins of history and its evolution, but also specialists immersed in the culture and traditions of the country, the language they teach, who know its historical features, the mentality of the people and those key moments that influenced the formation of the linguistic features. [For the complete volume, "NORDSCI International Conference Proceedings (Online, October 11-13, 2021). Book 1. Volume 4," see ED625509.]

The global pandemic and subsequent quarantine measures and restrictions have posed a challenge to the structure and procedure of university summative assessment process. Qualification assessment for Foreign Languages major programs in particular is a strict regimen process that involves different stages (oral and written exams, final project viva, internal and external review). This study seeks to analyze the practices of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University digital qualification assessment for students of European (French, Italian, Spanish, English, German) and Asian (Mandarin, Japanese) Languages major programs, employed in the year 2020 due to quarantine measures. The survey and analysis of different ICT tools is used to translate real life qualification assessment practices into online blended format. The investigation also seeks to identify various groups of applied digital skills and collaboration skills, utilized through qualification assessment process by all parties (students, faculty and referees). Comparative results of ICT tools and practices efficiency for respondents of European and Oriental languages programs are provided. [For the full proceedings, see ED622227.]

This paper presents the prototype of a Mobile Language Learning Environment (MLLE) allowing learners of German at a Japanese university to map classroom learning content onto the pathways of their everyday lives, turning places they come by into mnemonic "loci", and thus changing their daily commute into a learning trail. Even though the evaluation based on learners' self-reports could not confirm the assumption that this type of MLLE supports the use of the loci method for all learners, it allows the conclusion that at least for some learners mnemonic mapping with mobile devices might lead to changes in learning awareness and an expansion of strategy knowledge. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED572005.]

These proceedings contain the papers of the 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2019), held during November 7-9, 2019, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and co-organised by University Degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. The CELDA conference aims to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There have been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a fast pace and affecting academia and professional practice in many ways. Paradigms such as just-in-time learning, constructivism, student-centered learning and collaborative approaches have emerged and are being supported by technological advancements such as simulations, virtual reality and multi-agent systems. These developments have created both opportunities and areas of serious concerns. This conference aims to cover both technological as well as pedagogical issues related to these developments. Main tracks have been identified. However, innovative contributions that do not easily fit into these areas will also be considered as long as they are directly related to the overall theme of the conference -- cognition and exploratory learning in the digital age. The CELDA 2019 Conference received 87 submissions from more than 25 countries. Out of the papers submitted, 48 were accepted as full papers for an acceptance rate of 55%; 15 were accepted as short papers and one was accepted as a reflection paper. In addition to the presentation of full, short and reflection papers, the conference also includes one keynote presentation from an internationally distinguished researcher, Baltasar Fernández Manjón, Director of the e-Learning Research Group e-UCM, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain. [Individual papers are indexed in ERIC.]

This paper presents the prototype of a foreign language learning space, based on the construction of an integrated formal/informal learning environment. Before the background of the continued innovation of information technology that places conventional learning styles and educational methods into new contexts based on new value-standards, environment models of foreign language learning constantly face the necessity to change. A structured environment for foreign language learning can be created only when the learning environment in the real space, which is constructed in many forms outside the classroom, constantly connects with the formal learning environment inside the classroom. This study assumes two axes of a learning environment--formal/informal and real/cyber space--and attempts to integrate them to create a circulating four-dimensional model. Integrating formal and informal environments connects real space, which depends on the physical location and situation, with cyber space, which does not. In this study, sentences written in a foreign language by language learners will be auto-collected and analyzed in cyber space, which plays a great role in students' daily lives. Thus, a 4D foreign language learning environment, which automatically delivers practical knowledge to the learner by a comprehensive analysis of formal and informal learning between real and cyber space, will be constructed. [For the complete volume, see ED578177.]

This paper reports on the potential of Oral Elicited Imitation (OEI) as a format for output practice, building on an analysis of picture-matching and spoken data collected from 36 university-level learners of German as a second language (L2) in a web-based assessment task inspired by Input Processing (VanPatten, 2004). The design and development of OEI for output practice faces two key challenges: learners must be engaged in meaningful language processing rather than in mere repetition of oral stimuli, and the task must eventually provide individualized and qualitative corrective feedback that helps learners to notice gaps between their interlanguage and the target language. Results show that learners attended to meaning and that a commercially available speech recognition tool was able to transcribe learner speech remarkably well. [For the complete volume, see ED578177.]

It is well documented that providing assessment feedback through the medium of screencasts is favourably received by students and encourages deeper engagement with the feedback given by the language teacher (inter alia Abdous & Yoshimura, 2010; Brick & Holmes, 2008; Cann, 2007; Stannard, 2007). In this short paper we will report the results of a case study where students moved from passively receiving feedback to actively entering into a feedback dialogue with their language teachers: screencasts were used not only by the teachers to provide audio and visual feedback to students on their written work, but also by the students themselves to comment in depth on the feedback they had received. Participants in the case study were surveyed at the end of the semester, and we will report on the survey findings as well as discuss the limitations and implications of the case study. The paper will reflect on the potential role of technology in providing feedback, the effectiveness of elicitation feedback in the context of this case study and the students' perception of the usefulness of creating their own screencasts in response to the feedback they have received. [For full proceedings, see ED564162.]

In the last two decades there have been many attempts to integrate all kinds of mobile devices and apps to support formal as well as informal learning processes. However, most of the available apps still support mainly individual learning, using mobile devices to deliver content rather than providing learners with the opportunity to interact with each other. To address this we have designed an app based on a highly interactive, ubiquitous and constructive learning approach. The app is called "Guess it! Language Trainer" and allows learners to share, assess and co-construct their foreign language knowledge. Learning contents are no longer delivered but integrated into versatile tasks. Even though these tasks are being performed individually by each player, the players' interaction with the app performed affects the whole community of learners. The current research paper presents the first results of an ongoing research project using mobile apps to enhance the Foreign Language Learning in a compulsory German language course at a Spanish University. In our paper we will firstly describe a specific app (Guess it! Language Trainer) which has been used to support students' independent language learning outside the classroom. Secondly, we will describe how the app encouraged students to get actively involved in their own learning processes and thirdly, how the teacher can use the information stored in the system to retrace and assess students' language learning. [For full proceedings, see ED564162.]

This volume includes two sections of the 2018 NORDSCI international conference proceedings: (1) Education and Educational Research; and (2) Language and Linguistics. Education and Educational Research includes 22 papers relating to scientific topics in the full spectrum of education, including history, sociology and economy of education, educational policy, strategy and technologies. This section also covers pedagogy and special education. Language and Linguistics includes 13 papers covering scientific topics related to theoretical, literary and historical linguistics, as well as stylistics and philology.

Student and teacher activity in a closed Facebook group for a tertiary German class was observed during a 12-week teaching semester. This was complemented by questionnaires, semi-structured interviews with students, and teacher reflections in a researcher journal. Collected data were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis followed by a deductive Activity Theory (AT) analysis to explore the tensions between student and teacher expectations of the Facebook component of the course. The analysis showed individual variation in Facebook behaviours. A number of students were reluctant to write in the target language, German, reporting that they felt anxious when required to do so. It became evident that students differentiated sharply between their private Facebook interactions and their interactions in the Facebook group. Students adopted the Facebook group as an authentic language platform and continued to use the page after the course had ended. The Facebook group facilitated high quality meaning-focused target language production within the class group, and the participants were overwhelmingly positive towards their Facebook experience. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED572005.]

COMPASS is an e-learning system that can visualize grammar errors during sentence production in German as a first or second language. Via drag-and-drop dialogues, it allows users to freely select word forms from a lexicon and to combine them into phrases and sentences. The system's core component is a natural-language generator that, for every new word the user wishes to attach to the current string (as an extension of this string or as a replacement of a substring), checks whether this tentative attachment is grammatically well-formed or not. On this basis, the system can compute and display online the grammatical structure of input strings in the form of syntactic trees, and identify and diagnose input errors. In the following, we focus on the crucial question of how to present the feedback to the learner. We propose tutored visualizations with animations of pedagogical agents. We briefly report the results of a preliminary user evaluation study in which the participants judged the well-formedness of prefabricated input sentences. The data, collected by means of eye-tracking and a questionnaire, show that L1 learners who are exercising an unfamiliar and error-prone grammatical structure, pay due attention to, and can profit from, this type of visualized error feedback. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED572005.]

This paper reports on the interaction between upper intermediate German as a Foreign Language (GFL) learners in Tokyo and prospective GFL teachers in Berlin in an online videoconferencing environment. It focuses on the way problems in comprehension and production are brought up and solved in the subsequent interaction. Our findings illustrate that our synchronous online medium supports a balanced interaction between Second Language (L2) learners and prospective teachers, the main feature of which is joint utterance construction within scaffolding processes. We will show implications for L2 learning and teacher training. [For the complete volume, see ED571330.]

This paper analyzes the adequacy of mobile chatting via Whatsapp for the enhancement of a type of spontaneous and colloquial written interaction which has a strong connection with oral discourse. This is part of a research project undertaken with Spanish students of German as a foreign language with a beginner's or quasi-beginner's level. The paper presents the context and parameters of this learning experience and the methodology followed. Then, an analysis of the results is undertaken in terms of student response, attitude and participation, and also in terms of the meaning negotiation strategies and language used. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the adequacy of the Whatsapp technology for the practice and improvement of interactive skills for foreign language students at the initial learning levels. [For the complete proceedings, see ED557171.]

The authors present a project that aims at understanding the way language learners write in social media in their every day lives using the target language. How do our students proceed when writing a Social Network Site (SNS) post? What resources do they use for references on word, sentences and text level? By answering these and related questions through extensive collection of empirical data in an analytic learning environment, the design of which is the next step of this project, the authors aim at creating a comprehensive resource that supports different approaches to writing in social media. In the projects' first step, which the authors will lay out in this paper, writing processes of a small number of informants were closely analyzed using experiments, interviews and self-reports. The findings showed considerable differences of resource management between students with different backgrounds in formal learning and revealed a differentiation into "public" and "private" space of informal writing in social media, that influenced students' choices regarding the degree of formal elaboration (with respect to correctness) of their texts. [For full proceedings, see ED564162.]

This paper focuses on the development of videogame-like applications in a 3D virtual environment as a complement to the face-to-face teaching and learning. With the changing role of teaching and learning and the increasing use of "blended learning," instructors are increasingly expected to explore new ways to attend to the needs of their students. In recent years many educational institutions have started integrating into their teaching protocol the use of e-Learning platforms such as Moodle, WebCT, Blackboard or Virtual Worlds (VWs) such as Second Life (SL). The aim is not only to provide students with motivating and meaningful content and media, but also to provide them with attractive learning tools, able to enhance and guarantee a successful autonomous learning process. Nevertheless, based on our own teaching experience over the past years, we would argue that neither traditional e-Learning platforms such as Moodle, WebCT or Blackboard, nor VWs, completely meet the expectations and needs of (our) students with regard to autonomous learning. This is why the purpose of our analysis is to explore further possibilities by designing highly interactive and motivating online learning materials, including the use of videogame-like applications and a specific 3D virtual platform (OpenSim). We thus intend to provide students from the very first stage of their foreign language acquisition process with highly interactive learning environments, not only in the face-to-face learning, but also in autonomous online learning. The latter is considered to be complementary to, rather than different from the dynamics involved in face-to-face learning. Furthermore the paper includes an empirical evaluation of five language learning sessions during which several sets of students played the videogame-like application we had designed for the purposes of our research. (Contains 1 table.) [Support for this research was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.]

This study explores the potential of a feedback environment using simple string-based pattern matching technology for the provision of automated corrective feedback on cohesion problems. Thirty-eight high-frequent problems, including non-target like use of connectives and co-references were addressed providing both direct and indirect feedback. Advanced students of German as a foreign language (L2) (n = 36) received this feedback on summary writing in three subsequent sessions. Their revision activities were analysed for a ratio per 100 words and success rate, and their attitudes towards the feedback were investigated using questionnaires. The results show that automated feedback based on pattern matching has the potential to remedy over- and under-use of connectives and co-reference devices. Furthermore, although participants preferred direct feedback, the revision rate was higher with indirect metacognitive feedback providing grammar explanations. [For the complete volume, see ED578177.]

In a classical instructed language classroom setting, the practicing of communication situations is too often limited to producing isolated phrases and sentences without actually testing their relevance for the intended action. An example is describing and finding a route. In this paper, results of the early pilots with a collaborative virtual language learning environment, especially intended for learner-centered training of oral communication skills, called "Berlin Kompass," are presented. It is a new kind of a holistic and gamelike approach. A multimodal, interactive communication and action environment consisting of authentic Berlin-panoramas enables experiential learning. The communication happens in an immersive context, in which acting, problem solving and description of visual surroundings are trained collaboratively and combined with embodied interaction. The pilots, with around 200 language learners in upper secondary school and at university level, have shown that the authentic situation and the inbuilt multimodal scaffolding of the "Berlin Kompass" system motivates and enables for language learners on different levels to successfully exercise their oral communication skills in the target language. Interesting examples for the remarkable variation in the ways and strategies are given of what the users made use of in order to fulfill the task to reach a tourist attraction. [For full proceedings, see ED565087.]

Papers are presented from a colloquium on the teaching of German in the United Kingdom. Following an introduction by C.V. James, the following papers on the schools are presented: "A General View" by M. Lodge; "A Regional View" by R. Sheppard and G. Turner; "As the Teacher-Trainer Sees Them" by A. Hornsey; "Problems of Organisation" by J. Campbell; "An LEA Perspective" by D.M. Sidwell; and "The Adviser's View" by K. Emmans. Papers on higher education include: "The Universities" by J.L. Flood; "Polytechnics and Similar Institutions" by R. Oldnall; and "The Role of the Language Centre" by G. Seidmann. Papers on further education, commerce, and industry include: "Further Education Colleges" by J. Coutts and "Commerce and Industry" by E.V. Lee. Papers on teacher training include "The Education and Training of Graduate Teachers" by C.V. Russell and "Colleges of Education" by C. Fox. Papers on issues in methodology include: "Teaching Children of Moderate Ability" by D. Richards; "The Importance of Accuracy" by P. Newmark; and "The Compleat Germanist" by J.T. Smith. Papers on publishing and the media include: "The Provision of Teaching Materials for German" by G.D. Morley; "Problems and Prospects in Publishing" by R. Sawers; "The Contribution of the BBC (Schools) by A.A. Wolff; and "New Developments in Broadcast Language Teaching (Further Education)" by E. Baer. Papers on educational visits and exchanges include: "The Study of German in the United Kingdom: The Exchange Factor" by J. Platt and "The Centre for British Teachers in Europe Limited" by T.L. Marsters. (SW)

What are the perceived effects of Telecollaboration (TC), compared to other types of communication-scenarios with peers (i.e. local peers in small groups and Erasmus students abroad)? This is the question this exploratory study tackles within a blended language learning course. The analysis of students' perceptions paints a rather contrastive picture of telecollaboration. While it stays in the shadow of interaction with Erasmus students, it is complementary to local small-group work and does sustain learning. [For the complete volume, see ED571330.]

This article deals with the challenges of data collection from a Conversation Analysis (CA) perspective to researching synchronous, audio-visual eTandems. Conversation analysis is a research tradition that developed out of ethnomethodology and is concerned with the question of how social interaction in naturally occurring situations is organized. In the course of the first cycle of data collection for my PhD research, which was carried out within the L3 TASK project, four methodological issues ("multimodality", "completeness", "authenticity" and "task-based vs. off-task conversation") that result from the particular requirements of CA to data collection were identified. In the following article these challenges and possible solutions are brought to light. [For the complete volume, see ED571330.]

This case study describes the "Bologna-München" Tandem, a cross-border collaboration which began in 2011. The aim of the collaboration is to give students studying Italian at the Ludwig- Maximilians-University in Munich and students studying German at the University of Bologna the opportunity to experience interculturality through interaction with native speakers. The interaction takes place in the classroom through lessons via Skype and during study trips. The "Bologna-München" Tandem combines telecollaboration and student mobility in order to promote a language and cultural exchange as well as an awareness of interculturality. [For the complete volume, see ED571330.]