This collection of papers, consisting of 39 delegate contributions and three keynote articles from “New directions in telecollaborative research and practice: the second conference on telecollaboration in higher education” hosted by Trinity College Dublin in April 2016, offers a window on a rapidly evolving form of learning. Telecollaboration is used in many formats and contexts, but has as a defining feature the ability to unite learners from classrooms around the world in meaningful computer-mediated tasks and activities. This cross-disciplinary overview discusses telecollaboration in support of language and culture, teacher training, student mobility, and other disciplines and skills from a range of analytical perspectives. It will be of interest to anyone working in HE as an educator, researcher, educational designer, mobility officer, decision maker or administrator.

The book presents theoretical considerations as well as the results of empirical research on the existence of “directed motivational current” (DMC) experiences among Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in order to provide insights into how a DMC is triggered and launched, and to explore whether the key characteristics of DMCs could be detected in language learners' experiences in Iran. Although Dörnyei et al. (2016) claimed that language learners who experience a DMC may have an amalgamation of several positive emotions, they did not present any evidence of whether these feelings exert any impact on learners' willingness to take part in language learning situations (willingness to communicate (WTC)), their confidence to use their L2, their self-perceptions, and the extent to which they independently try to learn English inside and outside the classroom context (language learner autonomy). This book extensively studies DMCs in an EFL setting and examines how such experiences affect language learners' WTC, self-concept, language learner autonomy, and self-confidence.

Virtual Exchange (VE) is of great import to language and culture teachers and researchers but is also gaining popularity in other fields. However, around the world and in the Asia-Pacific region in particular, the number of exchanges is not high and the quality of those that exist needs to continue to improve. It is essential that the latest research and best practice can be disseminated to ensure VE develops further. In this edited volume, various researchers and practitioners provide firsthand perspectives, well-researched accounts of current situations, ideas for future exchanges, and areas in need of further development. We hope it will be of use to the VE practitioner and researcher alike.

Despite the contributions language centres across the globe have made to language education and higher education in general, few publications have a specific focus on research work produced by language centre faculty. The purpose of this reviewed, edited volume entitled Tertiary education language learning: a collection of research, consisting of eight chapters, is to fill some of this gap by giving insights into the type of research conducted in various fields of applied linguistics in a university language centre context. The volume may be of interest to university language centre practitioners and researchers, university policymakers and administrators, general language practitioners, teacher trainers, and university curriculum academic bodies. The editors hope that the present publication will be viewed as a valuable contribution to the literature and a worthy scholarly achievement.

This book brings together contributions on learner autonomy from a myriad of contexts to advance our understanding of what autonomous language learning looks like with digital tools, and how this understanding is shaped by and can shape different socio-institutional, curricular, and instructional support. To this end, the individual contributions in the book highlight practice-oriented, empirically-based research on technology-mediated learner autonomy and its pedagogical implications. They address how technology can support learner autonomy as process by leveraging the affordances available in social media, virtual exchange, self-access, or learning in the wild (Hutchins, 1995). The rapid evolution and adoption of technology in all aspects of our lives has pushed issues related to learner and teacher autonomy centre stage in the language education landscape. This book tackles emergent challenges from different perspectives and diverse learning ecologies with a focus on social and educational (in)equality. Specifically, to this effect, the chapters consider digital affordances of virtual exchange, gaming, and apps in technology-mediated language learning and teaching ranging from instructed and semi-instructed to self-instructed contexts. The volume foregrounds the concepts of critical digital literacy and social justice in relation to language learner and teacher autonomy and illustrates how this approach may contribute to institutional objectives for equality, diversity and inclusion in higher education around the world and will be useful for researchers and teachers alike.

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become a pervasive teaching model in recent higher education. The implementation of EMI programs requires changes in university teaching methods since most lecturers need to adapt their contents and the way they teach them to successfully work in foreign language environments. The rapid proliferation of such programs has resulted in concern among teaching staff, who have felt pushed towards teaching their subject content through a non-native language with little or no previous training. As a result, many recent studies have highlighted the importance and urgency to train teaching staff in terms of language proficiency and the appropriate teaching methods, techniques, and strategies to be applied in EMI lessons. Teacher Training for English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education is an academic research publication that provides comprehensive research on effective approaches and experiences in teacher training for EMI at universities both in terms of language skills and teaching methodologies and that analyzes the design and development of comprehensive teacher training programs that successfully engage these EMI programs. It has profound implications for the development of the international profile of higher education institutions as it provides information on how to train highly-qualified lecturers to successfully teach students from different nationalities. Featuring a wide range of topics such as assessment, curriculum design, and learning styles, this book is ideal for pre- and in-service teachers, language specialists, content specialists, administrators, deans, higher education faculty, researchers, practitioners, curriculum designers, policymakers, academicians, and students.

This book illustrates new virtual intercultural practices for language learning from primary to tertiary education and highlights the transversality of these practices throughout the language curriculum. The current English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) perspective sets the framework as a possible vector of cultural exchanges in a variety of contexts, and from which the different authors coming from Europe and all over the world present their studies. The book deploys diverse educational exchanges within a wide range of technological tools and with varied approaches to the intercultural dimension in language learning. Through these virtual exchanges, different languages and educational cultures come together to create emerging communities of practice co-constructed for the limited time-space of the collaborative projects. This volume opens a dialogue with researchers from different backgrounds and theoretical and methodological perspectives as technology can no longer be apprehended without its purposeful human and semiotic meanings and, conversely, human and semiotic meanings can no longer be apprehended without Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Going beyond strict polarised views on the technology or humanistic approaches, this book presents a more nuanced, interrelated stance and will appeal to researchers, scholars, post graduate students, and teachers in applied linguistics, language learning and teaching, education, information studies, cultural studies, and intercultural communication.

This collection of short papers is an outcome of the third conference on virtual exchange in higher education hosted by the Pedagogical University in Krakow in April 2018. Following the focus of the conference on virtual exchange in service of social inclusion and global citizenship, the papers collected in this volume offer first-hand insights into theoretical and practical considerations on the most recent stage of this rapidly developing form of learning. The publication will be of particular interest to academic educators, researchers, administrators, and mobility officers planning to implement virtual exchange in their unique academic contexts.

By exploring the experiences of pre- and in-service teachers, as well as the design and implementation of study abroad programs developed specifically for them, this volume highlights the potential of international learning in promoting teachers’ global and critical understandings of their roles as educators in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. Recognizing teacher study abroad as a unique strand within the wider foreign education literature, Study Abroad for Pre- and In-Service Teachers emphasizes how it can be conceptualized, theorized, and implemented as part of initial and continuing teacher training. Chapters consider study abroad programs and teaching practices in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and in Indigenous communities, and document the transformative learning experiences which impact the way teachers think about learning, teaching, and identity. Together, the chapters foreground the personal and professional advantages of teacher study abroad and provide key insights to inform design and programming for sustainable, impactful teacher study abroad which supports teachers in building intercultural competence and enhances their capacity to serve students of varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This volume will appeal to researchers, scholars, education abroad facilitators, and teacher educators with an interest in international mobility, multicultural education, culturally responsive pedagogy and study abroad. In addition, pre- and in-service teachers will find the book of value.

This book provides a comprehensive critical account of tandem learning, charting it evolution from its origins in European educational settings to modern programs offering new perspectives on the approach’s role within higher education. Taking stock of the ways in which increased globalization has produced new linguistic and sociocultural realities, the volume begins by looking back at the development of tandem learning over the last several decades, growing out of a need to create more opportunities for L2 learners to communicate in their target language. The book then examines the different learning objectives and learning outcomes of tandem learning arrangements, moving toward a discussion of tandem learning’s potential role in shaping language policy and the unique challenges involved in implementing tandem programs at higher education institutions. The final section of the book brings the previous discussions together to consider new tools and technology and the ways in which they can better equip language educators to implement tandem learning in their own practice. Highlighting tandem learning’s potential to promote multilingual and multicultural learning on a global scale, this volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers in intercultural communication, language education, multilingualism, and applied linguistics.