Elements in Technology in Second Language Education – serie

This Element explores the innovative integration of microlearning and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in second-language education. Designed for language teachers, teacher trainers, and future educators, it offers research-informed insights and actionable strategies for designing learner-centred, technology-enhanced instruction. The Element introduces the evolution and applications of GenAI in language learning, examines its synergy with microlearning, and presents pedagogical frameworks rooted in SLA theory, cognitive load theory, and multimodal learning. Practical guidance is provided for designing, implementing, and evaluating AI-assisted microlearning tasks, focusing on interactivity, accessibility, and ethical use. The Element also explores GenAI's role in teacher professional development and considers future trends shaping language education. While celebrating the transformative potential of GenAI, it critically engages with the challenges and limitations of emerging technologies. Through a balanced blend of theory and practice, this Element equips educators with the knowledge and tools to navigate and harness the evolving AI-enhanced language learning landscape.

This Element explores the innovative integration of microlearning and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in second-language education. Designed for language teachers, teacher trainers, and future educators, it offers research-informed insights and actionable strategies for designing learner-centred, technology-enhanced instruction. The Element introduces the evolution and applications of GenAI in language learning, examines its synergy with microlearning, and presents pedagogical frameworks rooted in SLA theory, cognitive load theory, and multimodal learning. Practical guidance is provided for designing, implementing, and evaluating AI-assisted microlearning tasks, focusing on interactivity, accessibility, and ethical use. The Element also explores GenAI's role in teacher professional development and considers future trends shaping language education. While celebrating the transformative potential of GenAI, it critically engages with the challenges and limitations of emerging technologies. Through a balanced blend of theory and practice, this Element equips educators with the knowledge and tools to navigate and harness the evolving AI-enhanced language learning landscape.

This Element explores the concepts, benefits, and limitations of the use of AI in language learning, teaching, and assessment. It also looks at AI tools for language teaching and language teachers' roles and competencies required for AI-powered language teaching. In addition, it offers practical ideas for AI-powered language teaching and presents AI-powered language teaching activities based on an AI literacy framework, which highlights using AI creatively, critically, effectively, efficiently, and ethically. The Element examines challenges in AI-powered language teaching and provides teachers with actionable guidelines to overcome the challenges. It guides language teachers and teacher educators on how to develop AI competencies, how to select AI tools, and how to integrate the tools successfully into their teaching practices.

This Element explores the concepts, benefits, and limitations of the use of AI in language learning, teaching, and assessment. It also looks at AI tools for language teaching and language teachers' roles and competencies required for AI-powered language teaching. In addition, it offers practical ideas for AI-powered language teaching and presents AI-powered language teaching activities based on an AI literacy framework, which highlights using AI creatively, critically, effectively, efficiently, and ethically. The Element examines challenges in AI-powered language teaching and provides teachers with actionable guidelines to overcome the challenges. It guides language teachers and teacher educators on how to develop AI competencies, how to select AI tools, and how to integrate the tools successfully into their teaching practices.

Language is integral to human doing, being, becoming and belonging, and its acquisition is naturally distributed in and across activity spaces over time. Different learning experiences form 'a dialectical unity', where one brings the others into existence, and the capacities fostered in one inform and transform those in the others. Thus, connected learning across time and space is fundamental to the coherence, relevance, and meaningfulness of language learning, yet is not given sufficient attention in second language education. Connected learning is particularly relevant in the GenAI era where learner-driven lifelong and lifewide learning is much emphasized. This Element hence conceptualizes the framework of connected language learning with technology, and discusses how the framework could be operationalized and implemented in teaching and learning. It further foregrounds four concepts in this learning framework - agential literacy, interest development, self-regulation support, and identity intervention - and charts out an agenda for research.

Language is integral to human doing, being, becoming and belonging, and its acquisition is naturally distributed in and across activity spaces over time. Different learning experiences form 'a dialectical unity', where one brings the others into existence, and the capacities fostered in one inform and transform those in the others. Thus, connected learning across time and space is fundamental to the coherence, relevance, and meaningfulness of language learning, yet is not given sufficient attention in second language education. Connected learning is particularly relevant in the GenAI era where learner-driven lifelong and lifewide learning is much emphasized. This Element hence conceptualizes the framework of connected language learning with technology, and discusses how the framework could be operationalized and implemented in teaching and learning. It further foregrounds four concepts in this learning framework - agential literacy, interest development, self-regulation support, and identity intervention - and charts out an agenda for research.

Digital technologies are now embedded in language teaching, shaping how instructional work is organised, experienced, and sustained. Research in computer-assisted language learning has generated extensive insights into pedagogical innovation, yet teachers' psychological experience of working under technology-integrated conditions remains insufficiently theorised. This Element positions teacher psychology as a central lens for understanding technology in language education. It introduces a psychological-ecological framework that conceptualises teachers' experience as emerging through ongoing engagement with pedagogical demands within institutional and technological conditions. The Element shifts attention from questions of adoption to how teachers interpret demands, regulate emotional and professional strain, and sustain practice over time. Technology integration is examined as a visible expression of deeper psychological-ecological processes. By centring teachers' lived experience, the Element offers a practice- and research-oriented account of technology-integrated language teaching that highlights professional sustainability.

Digital technologies are now embedded in language teaching, shaping how instructional work is organised, experienced, and sustained. Research in computer-assisted language learning has generated extensive insights into pedagogical innovation, yet teachers' psychological experience of working under technology-integrated conditions remains insufficiently theorised. This Element positions teacher psychology as a central lens for understanding technology in language education. It introduces a psychological-ecological framework that conceptualises teachers' experience as emerging through ongoing engagement with pedagogical demands within institutional and technological conditions. The Element shifts attention from questions of adoption to how teachers interpret demands, regulate emotional and professional strain, and sustain practice over time. Technology integration is examined as a visible expression of deeper psychological-ecological processes. By centring teachers' lived experience, the Element offers a practice- and research-oriented account of technology-integrated language teaching that highlights professional sustainability.

Artificial intelligence-mediated informal digital learning of English (AI-IDLE) is a rapidly emerging subfield of computer-assisted language learning that focuses on autonomous, self-directed second language (L2) English development through AI tools beyond the classroom. Extending the established research agenda on informal digital learning of English (IDLE), AI-IDLE responds to a changing context in which AI technologies and digital platforms with embedded AI functionalities are reshaping the ecology of informal language learning. This Element provides the first comprehensive synthesis of AI-IDLE research and practice, grounded in an integration of proactive language learning theory and cultural-historical activity theory. It examines key antecedents and outcomes of AI-IDLE and, through original case studies, illustrates how learners negotiate resources and navigate diverse sociotechnical environments to engage in AI-IDLE. The Element concludes by outlining pedagogical strategies for supporting AI-IDLE and identifying future research directions for advancing this nascent field.