Call for Papers
Over the past few years, demand has increased for high-quality online learning in all subject areas including English language, communication, literature, culture, and teacher education. Creating successful online courses for English and other languages presents unique challenges because students must work with complex content expressed in texts, in processes that require their attention and engagement over extended periods of time: Students read and evaluate written, spoken, and multimedia texts; they analyze the rhetorical and linguistic features of text; and they create their own complex projects using digital tools. Throughout these learning processes, students need constructive feedback on their understanding, thinking, analysis, and communication. English courses designed to meet these needs demand learning environments with activities that both capture students’ interest to sustain their engagement and support their steps toward clearly articulated and achievable goals. In face-to-face classes, teachers engage students with contingent decision-making in dialogic processes fueled by common interests and the desire to share, teach, and learn. The sustained and fluid human connection of face-to-face courses is at least partially and often dramatically eclipsed in online English courses by distance and the medium of communication. Course designers are challenged to discover how the affordances of the technology, which does not replace teachers’ and students’ physical presence, can offer novel opportunities for learning.
The theme of the 2022 Technology for Second Language Learning (TSLL) Conference, “Learning English Online: Research for Course Design,” will provide a forum for researchers, teachers, and course developers to explore the past, present, and future contributions of research to the design and evaluation of online learning in English and other languages. Abstracts proposing papers related to the theme are invited for a conference to be held in hybrid format at Iowa State University on October 14-15, 2022. Topics of particular interest include the following:
- Design and evaluation of tasks that take advantage of specific language-related affordances of technology such as access to databases, multimedia production, speech recognition, natural language processing, biometrics, and virtual reality for English and other languages
- Design and evaluation of tasks and projects that prompt students to reflect on learning, provide scaffolding for course projects, and require search, analysis, and evaluation of online materials
- Design and evaluation of special-purpose databases of particular historical content, genres of language use, or other content to be used as data for course assignments
- Theory, research, and design for online courses in language teacher education
- Theoretical perspectives and research needed for making principled course design decisions such as the ideal distribution of synchronous and asynchronous activity in online learning
- Research reporting results from qualitative and quantitative investigations of online learning that can guide future planning such as design for effective feedback practices, learner collaboration, teacher and student workloads, and teacher presence in online language teaching
Types of Invited Sessions: Abstracts are invited for four types of sessions. Please note the abstract requirements and evaluation criteria for each type of submission.
Individual Papers: Formal presentations making a scholarly contribution of original knowledge to the field. Presentations will be 15 minutes with five minutes for discussion. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words including references. The abstract will be evaluated based on the fit of the topic to the conference theme, apparent scholarly contribution of the work to the field, and the clarity of the abstract in explaining the contents of the presentation.
Colloquia: Several presentations on a single theme to be presented in a 90-minute block of time. Typically, colloquia include four or five presentations with an introduction to the topic and possibly followed by a commentary, but the proposers can design the session as they see fit. The abstract should be no more than 700 words including references, and each contribution should be included in the abstract. The abstract will be evaluated based on the fit of the topic to the conference theme, the coherence of the multiple abstracts in developing the colloquium topic, the apparent scholarly contribution of the work to the field, and the clarity of the abstract in explaining the contents of the session (including the timing for each presentation).
Posters: Presentation of a scholarly contribution in which visuals play an important role (e.g., demonstration of a short video, interactive software, report of empirical research with graphic models and data displayed in tables). Poster presenters will be assigned an hour during the conference when their poster will be available to conference participants. Presenters should plan a short description to provide visitors, who will then engage in discussion about the poster. The abstract for a poster should be no longer than 200 words including references. Posters are a good opportunity to present interactively with a small audience eager to learn about the poster topic. The abstract will be evaluated based on the fit of the topic to the conference theme, apparent scholarly contribution of the work to the field, and the clarity of the abstract in explaining the poster contents.
Work-In-Progress: Presentation of a research project at the planning stage and discussion with participants. Work-in-progress sessions will be assigned a period during the conference when the presenter will be available for conference participants to visit with. A work-in-progress session is great for connecting with others with similar interests and getting feedback on research ideas. The abstract will be evaluated based on the fit of the topic to the conference theme and the clarity of the abstract in describing the research purpose and the idea for conducting the research.
Submission: The site for submissions is now closed (May 31st, 2022). Decisions on submissions will be returned by July 15, 2022.
Modality of presentations: The conference will be held in hybrid format. Presentations are planned for in person and remote delivery depending on the wishes of the presenter. Presenters can make a decision about their desired format at least ten days prior to the conference. Presentations delivered in person at the conference venue may also be streamed live. Opportunities will be scheduled for interacting with both in-person and remote presenters during sessions outside the presentation schedule. All presenters must register for the conference. There is no registration fee.
Conference Committee: Ella Alhudithi, Jeanne Beck, Katherine Challis, Carol A. Chapelle, Elena Cotos, Mahdi Duris, Sebnem Kurt, Hwee Jean (Cindy) Lim, Febriana Lestari, Maryam Saneie Moghadam, Jim Ranalli, and Andrias Susanto