from Part III - External and Social Factors
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2026
This chapter begins with a brief overview of the historical connections between the fields of second language acquisition (SLA) and computer-assisted language learning (CALL). We trace the development of this field from its primarily cognitive origins to the social turn in the early 2000s and to the affective turn, with its more recent emphasis on the learner and teacher’s psychology. The latter has led to an increased recognition of the roles of individual learner differences in second and foreign language learning and the investigation of technology on learners’ motivation, emotions and self-regulation of learning both inside and outside of the classroom. The complex interaction between learner-internal and -external factors (including the mediating role of technology) has led to a view of language acquisition as a complex dynamic process, and this is increasingly evident in research on technology-mediated learning. In our synthesis, we classify recent developments into four distinctive, yet interrelated strands: technological developments, theoretical and conceptual developments, pedagogical developments, and methodological developments. In particular, we illustrate these developments with examples of technological and pedagogical innovations used for language learning such as Language MOOCs, augmented and virtual reality, big data, learning analytics and artificial intelligence.
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