Evolving technologies for language learning

Abstract

This column traces the evolution of electronic resources for language learning over the past 25 years, focusing on the arrival and transformation of the “world wide web”, the dramatic changes in mobile technologies, and the movement towards commercial and all-in-one solutions to online learning. In the choice and use of learning materials and approaches, I argue for the consideration of current research in second language acquisition (SLA), with particular importance being studies on sociocultural/pragmatic and multilingual practices, the application of usage-based and complex dynamic models of language learning, and the evidence of the viability of informal language learning. Those developments inform an ecological approach to computer-assisted language learning (CALL), which stresses the openness and unpredictability of the process through the organic interplay between learner and environment. The column concludes with a plea for a greater role for second language development as a vital contribution to the development of global citizenry.