Advances in CALL Research and Practice – serie

Game-Based Approaches to CALL features contributions that explore approaches to teaching world languages and cultures that are both computer-assisted and game-based. As the intersection of games and learning constitutes a pedagogical subgenre unto itself, this volume focuses on four key elements of game design and game studies that will shape the future of not only the games industry, but of computer-assisted practices of all kinds, especially CALL. The elements include: player/student agency, which is the theory defining the future of player/student-centred design; serious games, the genre expanding the pedagogical potential of game design; eXtended Realities (XR) and AI storytelling, wielding the technologies shaping the future of the game-based classroom; and multimedia theories of learning and empirical game-based research – case studies at the intersection of CALL and game studies.Maximizing the learning potential of constantly evolving modern technologies, the contributors to this volume offer a transformative perspective for students, professors, researchers, and practitioners of linguistics.

Since the Advances in CALL Research and Practice book series was launched in 2016, the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has seen rapid pedagogical developments, as learners across all grade levels have benefited from online learning. During the recent COVID pandemic, abrupt and extensive migrations to emergency online teaching exposed social trauma, isolation, and inequities emerging with CALL. While teachers and learners with access to computer-based technologies will continue to use them extensively to support language learning moving forward, the need to recast CALL as a humanitarian project which amplifies diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) seems greater now than ever before.This volume reimagines CALL as a vehicle for elevating the DEIA practices of language teachers and their students. It proposes that interinstitutional partnerships (i.e., those that involve knowledge and resource sharing across more than one institution) and transnational collaborations (i.e., those that include stakeholders located across national borders) are crucial for this purpose. It highlights a variety of CALL projects that have been collaboratively developed by stakeholders who are located at different institutions across the world, working with different languages. While the featured projects have varied aims–including curriculum development, virtual exchange, software development, and teacher professional development–collectively they advance our understanding of the ways that CALL and accessibility (DEIA) are purposefully and inextricably linked.

With the expansion of online language learning opportunities, language teachers and learners are presented with an increasingly diverse range of tools to facilitate language learning in various contexts. However, CALL researchers and practitioners often have limited knowledge about the effectiveness of online language learning primarily due to a lack of research on online language learning outcomes and on valid assessment measures. Despite the challenges in assessing language learning online, the editors of this volume believe the wide range of online language learning opportunities has brought new tools and methods to both strengthen assessment and inform pedagogical decisions in online language teaching. In terms of assessment, technology first provides researchers and practitioners with more options to document learners’ language use in different contexts and their progress over time. The instances of learners’ actual use of language will complement any achievement and proficiency measures of language learning outcomes. Moreover, the use of technology motivates researchers and practitioners to re-conceptualize assessment of online language learning. More importantly, technologies make it possible for the assessment to be incorporated for the purpose of learning (e.g., adaptive learning) and teaching (e.g., technology-mediated dynamic assessment and teacher intervention). Assessment Across Online Language Education examines these challenges emerged in online language teaching and learning, explores the new opportunities for language teachers and learners, and provides suggestions for future research on assessment and learning in online language education.