Alice Gruber

University of Applied Sciences Augsburg

In diesem Beitrag werden die Möglichkeiten der KI mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Schreib- und Sprachassistenztools für den Fremdsprachenunterricht und -erwerb dargestellt. Die Potenziale und Herausforderungen solcher Tools für Fremdsprachenlerner:innen werden skizziert und die Nutzung von KI-Tools im Fremdsprachenbereich wird aus fachdidaktisc...

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated significant changes in foreign language education, forcing teachers to reconstruct their identities and redefine their roles as language educators. To better understand these adaptations and perspectives, it is crucial to study how the pandemic has influenced teaching practices. This mixed-methods study focused on...

Social virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool to enrich foreign language (FL) learning processes in collaborative settings. Given the importance of situated, contextual, and interactional learning practices in FL learning, social VR has attracted the attention of language educators. Despite its potential, it has received little attention in resear...

Mentored online intercultural interaction offers foreign language learners the opportunity to develop different competences, including intercultural, linguistic, and digital competence (O’Dowd, 2021). Such virtual exchange (VE) projects typically involve computer-mediated communication via, for example, Zoom. However, the use of high-immersion virt...

Virtual Reality (VR) offers language learners a valuable environment for practicing language skills and other aspects essential for language development, interaction, and negotiation of meaning. For example, speaking practice in VR using avatars can reduce speaking anxiety and increase users' sense of agency. Social spaces in VR present possibiliti...

Many language learners lack the motivation to read complex texts. Because high-immersion Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly reported to be highly motivating, the goal of our study was to compare English as a Second Language (ESL) learners’ (N=79) motivation while reading a story with subtitles in VR (experimental group) versus reading the same st...

We are excited to bring you this Special Issue of the Journal of Virtual Exchange, the third volume to publish articles resulting from the International Virtual Exchange Conference (IVEC) 2021. This special issue features two research articles and one practice report presented at IVEC 2021. Each manuscript underwent a double-blind review, followed...

A major challenge for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) professionals is how to address the learning needs of diverse learners for whom a monolithic, native‐normed version of English is no longer always useful or appropriate. Research in Global Englishes (GE) has noted many teachers' resistance to the adoption of a more “pluri...

Didactic chats in online and blended-learning contexts

International comparative curriculum research is becoming more important in a globalised world. However, up-to-date comparative studies of international foreign language education policies are still rare. This study compares current modern foreign language curricula in England with that in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia in Germany at Key Stage...

This paper reports on a study investigating the use of digital devices by language students at universities in New Zealand, Sweden and Germany. The study also examines the use of social media for learning a foreign language in an institutional context, using survey results from language students in the three countries. Based on an online survey (n=...

The 2021 EUROCALL conference engaged just under 250 speakers from 40 different countries. Cnam Paris and Sorbonne Université joined forces to host and organise the event despite the challenging context due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Originally programmed to be held on site in the heart of Paris, France, the EUROCALL organising team and executive com...

Teaching Language Online: A Guide for Designing, Developing and Delivering Online, Blended, and Flipped Language Courses Victoria Russell and Kathryn Murphy-Judy New York, NY, and Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis £120.00 ISBN 9781138386983 (Hardback) 328 pages 2021

This autoethnographic study investigated the dynamics of five one-on-one tutoring sessions conducted in high-immersion virtual reality (VR). A lower-intermediate, adult learner of German practiced her foreign language speaking skills in VR with a tutor guiding and assisting her. Both the learner and the tutor visited various VR locations, which off...

This study examined intermediate students English as a foreign language (EFL) perception of their plurilingual and pluricultural competence, via online interaction and mediation through a virtual exchange project. Virtual exchanges are a means for inter- and intracultural development, language proficiency, and personal growth and transformation. Re...

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the EUROCALL society succeeded in holding the 28th EUROCALL conference, EUROCALL2020, on 20-21 August as an online, two-day gathering. The transition process required to make this happen was demanding and insightful for everyone involved, and, in many ways, a logical consequence of the core content and purpose of EURO...

Die mündliche Produktion kommt im Fremdsprachenunterricht oft zu kurz. Durch interaktive Videos und Virtuelle-Realität-Szenarien kann die Redezeit der Lernenden erhöht werden. Dieser Beitrag berichtet über den Einsatz von interaktiven Videos und einem VR-Szenario und diskutiert die Tools aus sprachdidaktischer Sicht. Die Ergebnisse der Studierenden...

This study investigated how the sense of presence and the plausibility illusion of high-immersion virtual reality (VR) impacted students' public speaking anxiety when presenting in a foreign language. In the study, the students gave eight presentations in a VR classroom while using a high-immersion VR headset. The students' virtual audience resembl...

p>This mixed method case study explored globalization and complex relationships through a virtual exchange project between students from Germany and Colombia in upper intermediate level English classes. We believed by providing a space for online conversation, written collaboration and discussion, students would enhance their plurilingual and pluri...

This study investigated how the sense of presence and the plausibility illusion of high-immersion virtual reality (VR) impacted students' public speaking anxiety when presenting in a foreign language. In the study, the students gave eight presentations in a VR classroom while using a high-immersion VR headset. The students' virtual audience resembl...

Since the beginning of the Digital Revolution in the 1950s, the influx of rapidly evolving technologies has posed a challenge to those trying to keep pace. This challenge is compounded by ever changing terms which can lead to confusion, including concepts related to virtual environments, virtual worlds, and virtual, augmented, or mixed realities. A...

It is widely assumed that the British are poorer modern foreign language (MFL) learners than their fellow Europeans. Motivation has often been seen as the main cause of this perceived disparity in language learning success. However, there have also been suggestions that curricular and pedagogical factors may play a part. This article reports a rese...