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The application of artificial intelligence chatbots is an emerging trend in educational technology studies for its multi-faceted advantages. However, the existing studies rarely take a perspective of educational technology application to evaluate the application of chatbots to educational contexts. This study aims to bridge the research gap by taking an educational perspective to review the existing literature on artificial intelligence chatbots.

This study combines bibliometric analysis and citation network analysis: a bibliometric analysis through visualization of keyword, authors, organizations and countries and a citation network analysis based on literature clustering.

Educational applications of chatbots are still rising in post-COVID-19 learning environments. Popular research issues on this topic include technological advancements, students’ perception of chatbots and effectiveness of chatbots in different educational contexts. Originating from similar technological and theoretical foundations, chatbots are primarily applied to language education, educational services (such as information counseling and automated grading), health-care education and medical training. Diversifying application contexts demonstrate specific purposes for using chatbots in education but are confronted with some common challenges. Multi-faceted factors can influence the effectiveness and acceptance of chatbots in education. This study provides an extended framework to facilitate extending artificial intelligence chatbot applications in education.

The authors have to acknowledge that this study is subjected to some limitations. First, the literature search was based on the core collection on Web of Science, which did not include some existing studies. Second, this bibliometric analysis only included studies published in English. Third, due to the limitation in technological expertise, the authors could not comprehensively interpret the implications of some studies reporting technological advancements. However, this study intended to establish its research significance by summarizing and evaluating the effectiveness of artificial intelligence chatbots from an educational perspective.

This study identifies the publication trends of artificial intelligence chatbots in educational contexts. It bridges the research gap caused by previous neglection of treating educational contexts as an interconnected whole which can demonstrate its characteristics. It identifies the major application contexts of artificial intelligence chatbots in education and encouraged further extending of applications. It also proposes an extended framework to consider that covers three critical components of technological integration in education when future researchers and instructors apply artificial intelligence chatbots to new educational contexts.

While most language departments of the university offer service-learning (SL) subjects based on language teaching, such as “Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Local Schools” and “Serving the Community through Teaching English,” this paper aims to argue that teaching students to teach language(s) is yet to be the best strategy to serve the service recipients.

SL is widely understood as an experiential learning pedagogy that integrates academic focus, reflection and community service and is shown to be impactful. In Hong Kong, the first university that has made SL a graduation requirement is the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (the University). Considering this, new SL courses have proliferated over the past decade. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, this paper examines personal narratives from a new SL subject aiming to raise awareness of refugees in Hong Kong. The data includes students’ reflective journals, co-created personal narratives and podcasts and semi-structured interviews.

This paper finds that crafting and recording narratives of shared experiences deepens cultural understanding, cultivates empathy and facilitates language learning in a genuine setting.

Ultimately, this paper advocates a well-designed SL that combines language, content and technology as a powerful, transformational experience for both college students and service recipients.

This paper focuses on a brand new SL course, “Storytelling for Understanding: Refugee Children in Hong Kong,” offered in Semester 1, 2022–2023. The subject was developed by the two authors from a language division affiliated to the University. The deliverables were podcast recordings, co-authored and co-edited by the students and the children.

The professional experiences of teachers of languages and cultures, along with the learning experiences of their students, are embedded in educational contexts, which themselves are informed, and constrained, by national language policies. This study aims to explore 51 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) secondary teachers’ perceptions of Web-based technology use to enhance students’ cultural awareness in Chile. Specifically, the study investigated teachers’ use of Web-based resources for cultural awareness, culture content and technology-based tasks, as well as perceived challenges in implementing technology-enhanced language and culture learning.

The study adopted a mixed-method research design combining online questionnaires and interviews as data collection tools. Results were analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics and content analysis.

The teachers in this study emphasized reflection in their classrooms but did not take a critical approach. Their approach to culture was limited to a “country-specific” view, and technology-enhanced activities accentuated differences rather than promoting meaningful intercultural exchange. Challenges to the successful implementation of technology-enhanced language and culture learning included a somewhat out-of-date theoretical approach to intercultural learning in the national curriculum, a nationwide approach to professional development that lacks a focus on critical reflection and inadequate support for effective use of technologies in schools.

The study highlights the importance of periodically revising a country’s EFL language policies, communication methods, support mechanisms and implementation factors to ensure classroom integration of language, culture and technology education.

This paper explores the tension between macro-level national policy and teachers’ perspectives on their classroom practice, including the contextualized limitations of implementing national policy at the micro level.

This study aims to delve into the interplay between didactic audiovisual translation (DAT) and computer-assisted language learning (CALL), exploring their combined impact on the development of intercultural competence (IC) among learners of English as a foreign language (EFL).

Using a quasi-experimental approach with a quantitative research design, the study analyses the outcomes of a questionnaire answered by 147 students across 15 language centres in Spanish Universities. These participants actively engaged in completing the lesson plans of the Traducción audiovisual como recurso didáctico en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras project, a Spanish-Government funded research initiative aimed at assessing the effects of DAT on language learning.

The current study confirms the reliability of the instrument developed to measure students’ perceived improvement. Beyond validating the research tool, the findings of the current study confirm the significant improvement in intercultural learning achieved through DAT, effectively enhancing students’ motivation to engage in language learning.

The current research solely examines students enrolled in higher education language centres. This paper closes with a CALL for additional research, including participants from other educational stages, such as primary or secondary education. In the broader context of CALL research, this study serves as a valuable contribution by exploring the potential of DAT in fostering IC in EFL settings.

This research confirms the potential of DAT and CALL to promote students’ learning process, as the combination of these approaches not only yields linguistic benefits but also intercultural learning.

The purpose of this study is to theorize that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can be integrated in English language learning with a focus on cultural learning of both home and target language.

The present study used a systematic methodology to conceive the language and home-culture integrated online learning (LHIOL) curriculum design based on relevant conceptual frameworks and gather qualitative data from focused group interviews of 30 teachers and 3,000 students’ open-ended questionnaires, along with learning artifacts to identify major themes.

CALL, used as cultural and linguistic material, helps students embrace their cultural identities, especially ethnic minorities, capitalize on their distinctive values, and appreciate and empathize with other languages and cultures. The instructors advocate for localizing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) educational content into Vietnamese culture, using real multimedia resources. However, the LHIOL curriculum faced systemic constraints regarding competitions between linguistic and cultural instruction, teachers’ refusal to recognize ICC’s importance and recognition of an explicit link between virtual cultural learning and their lives.

LHIOL is a preliminary practical effort to suggest how a cultural education from one’s native tongue can be integrated into a culture-focused English/Western language environment. By incorporating fundamental concepts that underpin the integration of language and culture as well as CALL, improving ICC offers a framework that can be applied to elucidate cultural learning.

The purpose of this study is to examine relevant demographic and socio-economic factors as they relate to progress towards intercultural communicative competence (ICC) and intercultural sensitivity for ethnic-minority Latinx middle school English learners (ELs) using a mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge-featured writing practice.

Through the theoretical lens of funds of knowledge, this three-year study implemented a survey-based quasi-experimental design centered on the Latinx ELs’ ICC development with the implementation of an intercultural sensitivity questionnaire (Chen and Starosta, 2000). The authors first investigated the relationship between ELs’ intercultural sensitivity and associated demographic and socio-economic factors. The authors then examined the changes of ELs’ intercultural sensitivity. Over ten weeks, the intervention group completed five funds-of-knowledge-featured narrative essays using pen and paper and mobile-based writing tools alternatively.

Findings indicated that ELs’ intercultural sensitivity increased as they advanced to a higher-level grade from sixth to eighth. The embedded mobile-assisted funds-of-knowledge writing practice as intervention promoted ELs’ intercultural sensitivity in interaction engagement, respect of cultural differences, interaction enjoyment and interaction attentiveness. Among the variables, interaction enjoyment was portrayed the most. ELs who reported not speaking English at home were statistically significant in this experiment.

This study acknowledges the robust and variance of funds of knowledge as a niche to address the interculturality and hybridity of ELs’ cultural practices accumulated through Latinx ELs’ family socialization and social development using mobile-assisted writing practice. This study could provide implications for optimizing inclusive experience to promote computer-assisted language learning in a contemporary, postcolonial global world.

Self-regulation is the level of learning where the learner becomes an active agent in their learning process in terms of activity and aspects of motivation and metacognition. The current paper mostly deals with the metacognitive aspect. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into self-regulation of learning in the context of modern technology in higher education. This study also aims to highlight the direction, tendencies and trends toward which self-regulation of learning is moving in relation to modern technologies.

The review study was compiled via searches in three databases: Scopus, Web of Science and ERIC. A filter was used to search for empirical studies solely in English, published over the past decade on the topics of self-regulation of learning and technology in higher education.

The findings clearly show a correlation between self-regulation of learning and modern technology, especially after a significant event such as the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in the wake of this change, the field of education has seen the emergence of methods and new platforms that can provide support for the development of self-regulated learning strategies.

The originality of the study lies in the fact that it focuses on the link between self-regulation of learning and modern technologies in higher education, including some predictions of the future direction of self-regulation of learning in this context.

The role of academic libraries in dissemination of information and facilitating research of academic community is well-established world over. However, a significant role of libraries in ensuring fair use of information to promote an ethical research culture at the higher education institutes is also flourishing. This study aims to explore the perceived causes of unethical use of literature by university scholars and deterrents to plagiarism in universities of Pakistan.

The design of the study was qualitative, and interviews were conducted on nine university library heads in Pakistan who were officially administrating anti-plagiarism (Turnitin) software service at their universities and were providing “similarity index certification” of PhD and MPhil research work through the software. They were purposively selected for the interviews because of their direct interaction with the researchers and faculty on matters of information searching as well as its ethical use. The study is based on PhD thesis work of the first author.

The findings of the study depicted that conceptual unawareness of plagiarism, lack of information skills, socio-cultural factors and weak policies were the prime reasons for unethical research practices among graduate scholars. Participants were positive that a role of university library in combating plagiarism through provision of anti-plagiarism software and guidance could prove more beneficial for both the researchers and libraries.

Multiple studies have been conducted, in and out of south Asian region, to gather the views of the students and faculty on the matters of academic misconduct. However, no study was found presenting the views of the other stakeholders in promotion of academic integrity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind in South Asian context and provided observation-based views of a group of university library heads who are also administrating anti-plagiarism service in their universities on the causes and deterrents to plagiarism.

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can create participatory cultures by removing barriers to access materials, encouraging student modes of expression, differentiating student interactions through digital environments and increasing learner autonomy. Participatory cultures require competencies or new media literacy (NML) skills to be successful in a digital world. However, professional development (PD) often lacks training on CALL and its implementation to develop such skills. The purpose of this study is to describe teachers use of digital tools for multilingual learners through a relevant theoretical perspective.

This design-based research study examines 30 in-service teachers in South Carolina, a destination state for Latinx immigrants, focusing data over three semesters of PD: interviews and instructional logs. The researchers address the question: How are teachers using digital tools to advance NML for multilingual learners (MLs)?

The authors analyzed current elementary teachers’ use of digital tools for language learning and NML purposes. Three themes are discussed: NMLs and digital literacy boundaries, digital tools for MLs and literacy teaching for MLs and NML skills.

Teacher PD often needs more specificity regarding the intersection of MLs and digital literacy. The authors contribute to the literature on needed elementary teaching practices for MLs, the integration of NML and how these practices may be addressed through PD.

This research paper aimed to investigate the affordances of using virtual reality (VR) in teaching culture among in-service teachers of teaching Persian to speakers of other languages (TPSOL) in Iran.

This qualitative case study, conducted at two Iranian universities, used purposeful sampling to select 34 eligible in-service Persian teachers from a pool of 73. Data collection used an open-ended questionnaire and interviews.

Before the TPSOL in-service training workshop, teachers expressed their reservations regarding the use of VR to teach culture in TPSOL courses. The emerged themes were “skepticism toward effectiveness,” “practicality concerns,” “limited awareness of VR applications,” “technological apprehension” and “prevalence of traditional teaching paradigms.” During the post-workshop interview, it was discovered that the teachers’ perceptions of VR in teaching culture had undergone a positive shift. The workshop generated emergent themes that reflected positive perceptions and affordances for using VR to teach culture in TPSOL, including “enhanced cultural immersion,” “increased student engagement,” “simulation of authentic cultural experiences,” and “facilitation of interactive learning environments.”

One primary limitation is the lack of prior experience with VR for teaching practices in real-world classrooms among the participants. While the study aimed to explore the potential of VR in enhancing pedagogical approaches, the absence of participants with prior exposure to VR in educational contexts may impact the generalizability of the findings to a broader population. Additionally, the study faced practical constraints, such as the unavailability of sufficient facilities in the workshop. As a result, the instructor had to project the VR cont7ent on a monitor, potentially diverging from the immersive nature of true VR experiences. These limitations offer opportunities for future research to refine methodologies and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the implications of integrating VR into teaching practices.

Extensive research has been conducted on the effectiveness of VR in language education. However, there is a significant gap in research on TPSOL, which is considered a less commonly taught language. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the use of VR in the TPSOL through the lenses of in-service teachers. As part of a larger investigation, this qualitative inquiry focuses on the perceptions of in-service teachers about VR, with a particular emphasis on the cultural understanding of the Persian language.