Technology-Mediated Language Learning

Technology-mediated language learning today encompasses multifaceted issues connected with the role of digital technologies in mediating opportunities for language learning. Such opportunities arrive when teachers assign digital learning materials and tasks in a face-to-face classroom, when language programmes develop online courses that include computer-mediated interactions, and when language learners seek opportunities for study, help, and social interactions on their own. Each of these three uses of technology has arisen within a particular milieu of research and practice in applied linguistics. However, today the three intersect in dynamic and complex ways. Moreover, the areas and their intersections converge with aspects of second language studies including instructed second language acquisition, language assessment, learner autonomy and motivation, as well as informal language learning. This chapter examines the practices, issues, findings, and challenges in each of these three interconnected areas, beginning with the classroom, where the study of computer-assisted language learning has its roots in the middle of the twentieth century.