The Handbook of Informal Language Learning E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1428

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Authored by a prominent team of international experts in their respective fields, The Handbook of Informal Language Learning is a one-of-a-kind reference work and it is a timely and valuable resource for anyone looking to explore informal language learning outside of a formal education environment. It features a comprehensive collection of cutting edge research areas exploring the cultural and historical cases of informal language learning, along with the growing area of digital language learning, and the future of this relevant field in national development and language education.

The Handbook of Informal Language Learning examines informal language learning from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Structured across six sections, chapters cover areas of motivation, linguistics, cognition, and multimodality; digital learning, including virtual contexts, gaming, fanfiction, vlogging, mobile devices, and nonformal programs; and media and live contact, including learning through environmental print, tourism/study abroad. The book also provides studies of informal learning in four national contexts, examines the integration of informal and formal classroom learning, and discusses the future of language learning from different perspectives.

The Handbook of Informal Language Learning is an essential resource for researchers, students, and professionals in the fields of language acquisition, English as a second language, and foreign language education.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Notes on Contributors

Introduction

A new field of research

Plan of the handbook

Conclusion

REFERENCES

Part I: Theorizing Informal Language Learning

1 Motivation and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Second language motivation in the classroom

English learning beyond the classroom

Informal language learning: A theoretical framework

Conclusion

REFERENCES

2 Learning Languages in Informal Environments: Some Cognitive Considerations

Introduction

Summary

REFERENCES

3 Multimodality and Language Learning

Introduction

Conclusion: Why do we need a theory of multimodality?

REFERENCES

4 How Learning Context Shapes Heritage and Second Language Acquisition

Introduction

Language acquisition in different contexts

Second language acquisition

Heritage language acquisition

Formal vs. informal contexts in language learning

Informal language learning today: New technologies

Conclusion

REFERENCES

5 Informal Writing and Language Learning

Introduction

Conclusion

REFERENCES

Part II: Learning in Digital Contexts

6 Virtual Landscapes

Introduction

Virtual worlds and informal language learning

Teacher recommendations and the future of VWs

REFERENCES

7 Gaming and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

General findings related to L2 acquisition and informal learning through games

Gameplay interactions

Research limitations

What is language learning?: Perceptions and a market of diverse solutions

The future of gaming and informal language learning

Concluding thoughts

REFERENCES

8 Self‐Paced Language Learning Using Online Platforms

Introduction

Web‐based and mobile platforms

Research study

Conclusion

REFERENCES

INTERNET SOURCES

9 Fan Fiction and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Fan fiction – a crash course

Fan fiction and informal language learning

Future directions

REFERENCES

10 Vlogs, Video Publishing, and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Informal language learning and the internet

Studying informal language‐learning vlogs

The potential of informal language learning in the context of vlogs

Limits of informal learning in the context of vlogs

Conclusion

REFERENCES

11  Mobile Collaboration for Language Learning and Cultural Learning

Introduction

Informal mobile language learning and collaboration

Fostering peer collaboration via mobile devices

Forms of context‐relevant collaboration beyond the classroom

Roles for teachers

Support for learners

Conclusion

REFERENCES

Part III: Learning Through Media and Live Contact

12 Video and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

The scope and scale of video and informal language learning today

Research on captioned video and informal language learning

Some key studies of caption use in informal language learning

REFERENCES

13 Songs and Music

Introduction

The linguistic benefits of using music and songs

Conclusion

REFERENCES

14 Mobility, Media, and Multiplicity: Immigrants' Informal Language Learning via Media

Introduction

Informal learning through media: Maintaining the old and developing the new

Lessons learned: Supporting informal language learning

REFERENCES

15 Service Sector Work and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Theoretical concepts

Learning in natural settings: The strategies used by businesses and employees' communication strategies

Conclusions

REFERENCES

16 Linguistic Landscapes and Additional Language Development

Introduction

The linguistic landscape: From a colorful canvas to critical pedagogical approaches for language learning

Making use of the language‐learning opportunities that are already there

Implications and future potential

REFERENCES

17 Language Tourism and Second Language Acquisition in Informal Learning Contexts

Introduction

Language gains deriving from language tourism

Interacting with the host community

The role of accommodation, leisure activities, and other travel components in facilitating SLA

Alternative educational settings conducive to SLA

SLA in work contexts

Challenges and future research

REFERENCES

Part IV: International Case Studies of Informal Language Learners

18 Hong Kong and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

The linguistic and sociocultural realities of Hong Kong

Hong Kong learners' engagement in informal language learning

The interaction of out‐of‐class learning experience and linguistic and sociocultural realities

Conclusion

REFERENCES

19 An Emerging Path to English in Korea: Informal Digital Learning of English

Introduction

The unique position of English in Korea

IDLE and English learning outcomes

Implications for English education in Korea

REFERENCES

20 Informal English Learning Among Moroccan Youth

Introduction

Methods

Findings

Discussion: The invisible university

Conclusion: Limitations

REFERENCES

21 Sweden and Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Informal learning

Survey of the field – Sweden

Concluding remarks

REFERENCES

22 Informal English Learning in France

Introduction

Early findings on informal English learning in France

Participation in online informal activities

A case study on L2 development from informal usage

Implications from the present research

Conclusion

REFERENCES

Part V: Informal Learning and Formal Contexts

23 Translanguaging Across Contexts

Introduction

Context and theory

Empirical studies

Translanguaging examples

Implications for research and practice

REFERENCES

24 A Critical Review of Social Networks for Language Learning Beyond the Classroom

Introduction

Theoretical and methodological framing

Approaching social media

Social networking in language education

Informal learning

Future directions

Conclusion

REFERENCES

25 Digital Writing in Informal Settings Among Multilingual Language Learners

Introduction

Technology‐supported informal writing

Bridging the gap

Concluding remarks

REFERENCES

26 Extensive Reading for Statistical Learning

Introduction to extensive reading

Statistical learning

Reading and vocabulary research supporting ER

Research on ER

Reading comprehension

Reading rate

Vocabulary development

Other benefits

Obstacles to ER

Implementation

REFERENCES

27 Leveraging Technology to Integrate Informal Language Learning within Classroom Settings

Introduction

The case for integrating informal learning into a language class

Teacher support for informal language learning

Strategies and tools for informal language learning: Focus on listening and vocabulary development

Designing and evaluating informal language learning experiences

Conclusion: The road ahead

REFERENCES

28 Connecting Informal and Formal Language Learning

Introduction

Key concepts related to informal and autonomous language learning

Benefits of informal autonomous language learning

Self‐directed language learning and technology

Underlying theoretical constructs associated with autonomous language learning

Other factors that can foster or impede L2 learner autonomy

Instructional approaches that encourage autonomous learning

Autonomous learning within the classroom

Autonomous language‐learning communities

Non‐language oriented spaces and communities

Benefits of participation in these online communities

Potential dangers of online autonomous learning

Resources available

Suggestions for using these resources in the L2 classroom

Conclusions: Making the formal informal again

REFERENCES

Part VI: The Present and Future of Informal Language Learning

29 Digital Translation: Its Potential and Limitations for Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Translation in the language classroom

Translation technology

Application of translation apps for language learning

Conclusion

REFERENCES

30 Future Directions in Informal Language Learning

Introduction

Understanding experiential language learning: A growing need

Recreational language learning on the rise

New opportunities for learning through games and social media

Growing participation in nonformal, yet structured learning

Classroom integration

New devices and opportunities on the horizon

The role of informal language learning in the future

REFERENCES

31 Last Words: Naming, Framing, and Challenging the Field

Introduction

Naming the field

Framing informal learning

The interdisciplinary attraction of informal language learning

Challenges for future research

Future research shopping list

Conclusion

REFERENCES

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 3

Table 3.1 Peirce's ten classifications of signs and terminology.

Chapter 6

Table 6.1 Oldenburg's (1999) third‐place characteristics.

Chapter 8

Table 8.1 Interest by region (according to Google Trends).

Table 8.2 Traffic estimators' results (according to SimilarWeb).

Table 8.3 Some interesting specifications of Duolingo and Babbel.

Table 8.4 Language competencies developed.

Table 8.5 Language activities developed.

Table 8.6 Short criteria table.

Table 8.7 Undergraduate and postgraduate students' language selection.

Chapter 15

Table 15.1 Communication strategies developed by service sector migrants in t...

Chapter 16

Table 16.1 Selected objects for learning from environmental language.

Table 16.2 Reflections on the role of English (in German contexts) and the so...

Chapter 20

Table 20.1 Number of students interviewed and sources of English, by gender a...

Chapter 29

Table 29.1 The evolution of translation technology.

Table 29.2 Comparison of the translation of informal sentences with the three...

Table 29.3 List of language‐learning skills in association with the features ...

List of Illustrations

Chapter 2

Figure 2.1 Results of Shin and Christianson (2012).

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1 A meme about Australian politician Bronwyn Bishop's misuse of gov...

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 Monolingual (one line) and bilingual (two lines) language develop...

Figure 4.2 Second language acquisition around puberty.

Figure 4.3 Heritage language acquisition in simultaneous and sequential bili...

Chapter 6

Figure 6.1 Japanese‐focused island in

Second Life

.

Figure 6.2 Most frequent respondents by country.

Figure 6.3 Use of primary and second language(s).

Figure 6.4 How second language skills were improved.

Chapter 10

Figure 10.1 Techno‐semio‐discursive space of a vlogger on YouTube. Link: htt...

Figure 10.2 A sustained monologue, fixed camera in the car, centered framing...

Figure 10.3 Exchanging comments on pronunciation (extract).

Figure 10.4 YouTube Creator Studio dashboard.

Figure 10.5 Corrections offered by users on YouTube.

Chapter 23

Figure 23.1 A game on a tablet.

Figure 23.2 Translanguaging to ensure the reader's understanding.

Chapter 27

Figure 27.1 The learning continua of formal/informal and intentional/inciden...

Chapter 29

Figure 29.1 Display of a range of potential translations for the highlighted...

Chapter 31

Figure 31.1 Four types of informal learning.

Guide

Cover

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The Handbook of Informal Language Learning

Edited by

Mark Dressman and Randall William Sadler

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Dressman, Mark, editor. | Sadler, Randall William, 1965– editor.Title: The handbook of informal language learning / edited by Mark Dressman, Randall William Sadler.Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley‐Blackwell, 2020. | Series: Blackwell handbooks in linguistics | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2019023879 (print) | LCCN 2019023880 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119472445 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119472407 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119472308 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Second language acquisition. | Informal language learning. | Non‐formal education.Classification: LCC P118.2 .H3585 2019 (print) | LCC P118.2 (ebook) | DDC 418.0071–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023879LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023880

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Notes on Contributors

Panagiotis Arvanitis is Associate Professor at the Faculty of French Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in the field of multimedia databases, information and communication technologies, and new ICT learning environments. He has published several papers on new ICT learning environments, and the use of multimedia databases and hypermedia tools in language teaching and learning. He is interested in online language learning, computer‐supported collaborative language learning, web technologies, virtual and augmented learning environments, mobile language learning tools, and game‐based learning. He is especially interested in how language instructors can utilize web technologies to promote student collaboration and knowledge construction in both online and offline settings.

Alice Chik is Senior Lecturer in Educational Studies and coordinator of the Macquarie University Multilingualism Research Group, Australia. Her research examines languages learning in digital environments. She is especially interested in exploring how language learners construct and direct their autonomous learning in informal contexts. Her recent co‐edited works include Autonomy in Language Learning and Teaching (2018) and Multilingual Sydney (2019).

Kiel Christianson is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, USA, and Director of the EdPsych Psycholinguistics Lab (Beckman Institute). He also directs the Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) Program. He has taught at universities in Japan and Germany. His research topics include bilingualism, syntactic parsing, reading, visual word processing, and second language acquisition. Recent publications appear in Cognition; Language, Cognition, & Neuroscience; Cognitive Psychology; PLoS One; and Language Learning.

Tatiana Codreanu is a member of the Interactions, Corpus, Apprentissage, Représentations (ICAR) CNRS Research Lab, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France, and a Lecturer in French at the Imperial College, London. Her research interests cover digital communication, social media, discourse and interaction analysis, and ethology. She has designed and implemented e‐learning solutions and massive open online courses (MOOCs) for various academic and EU projects with a focus on transdisciplinary research (self‐determination theory, user behavior, interaction analysis, and data analytics). Her findings have been applied in various contexts including EU level policies on communication, education, and social media.

Christelle Combe is Senior Lecturer in French as a foreign language at the University Aix‐Marseille, France, and member of the Laboratoire Parole et Langage (CNRS). Her research interests include multimodal discourse analysis and interaction analysis in digital contexts. With these methodological tools, she studies ethos and new digital genres such as vlogs, as well as innovative online environments for foreign language teaching and learning. She trains future French teachers on digital technologies for language learning.

Sarah‐Elizabeth Deshaies is a PhD candidate in Educational Psychology and a student in the SLATE program. Her research focuses on the effects of individual differences on reading processes. Her MS thesis was on working memory capacity and the role it plays in processing discourse related to agents either thinking about doing an activity, promising to do the activity, or doing the activity. Her dissertation work focuses on the processing of statements that (dis)confirm bias during reading.

Mark Dressman is Professor and Chair of English at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, USA. He is a former teacher of English as a first and additional language in secondary schools in Morocco, the United States, and the Navajo Nation. He is an ethnographic/qualitative researcher of language and literacy practices across a wide range of settings, including school libraries, middle and secondary classrooms, and most recently in three Moroccan universities. Additional research areas include theories of multimodality, discourses of literacy research, and the uses of social theory in educational research.

Doreen E. Ewert is Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Language and Director of the Academic English for Multilingual Students Program at the University of San Francisco, USA. Her areas of research include second language reading and writing, vocabulary and fluency development, language assessment, and curriculum design and implementation. She presents regularly at regional, national, and international conferences, as well as providing workshops for preservice and in‐service teachers. Her most recent publications are ‘Teacher and Tutor Conferencing’ in The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching (2018, Wiley Blackwell), ‘Getting ER into the curriculum: No excuses!’ in CATESOL Journal (2017), ‘Teachers' conceptualizations of a reading‐to‐write task in designing a data‐driven rating scale’ in Assessing Writing (2015, with Sunyoung Shin), and ‘What accounts for integrated reading‐to‐write task scores?’ in Language Testing (2015).

Sarah Forget is a Scholarly Teaching Fellow in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia where she teaches translation technology and audiovisual translation. She started her career as a localization specialist and project manager for an IT company. She brings her knowledge of the professional world to the classroom, where she teaches students in the use of computer‐assisted translation tools. Her areas of interest include translation technology, localization project management and the training of future translators.

Robert Godwin‐Jones is Professor of World Languages and International Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. His research is principally in applied linguistics, in the areas of language learning and technology and intercultural communication; he has published widely in those fields, as well as regularly presenting at international conferences. He writes a regular column for the journal Language Learning & Technology on emerging technologies.

Philip Hubbard is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Director of the English for Foreign Students Program at the Stanford University Language Center, USA. A professional in computer‐assisted language learning (CALL) for over 30 years, he has published in the areas of CALL theory, research, methodology, listening, teacher education, learner training, and evaluation. He is associate editor of Computer Assisted Language Learning and Language Learning & Technology. His recent projects focus on CALL as a transdisciplinary field, teacher support for informal language learning, and teaching reflectively with technology.

Montserrat Iglesias is Senior Lecturer of English as a foreign language and the head of studies at CETT Language School, at the School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy CETT‐UB, University of Barcelona, Spain. Her research focuses on the development of oral communicative competence in English for specific purposes and on language tourism. As well as having published several journal articles and book chapters, she has co‐authored Ready to Order, an elementary English course for hotel and catering students.

Hania Janta is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM), University of Surrey, UK, where she is a member of the “YMobility” project, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020. Previously, she was Senior Lecturer at the SHTM. Her central research interests are contemporary mobility and service employment.

Stefan D. Keller is Chair of English Teaching and Learning at School of Teacher Education, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences at the University of Basel, Switzerland. His main research interests are teaching and learning of English as a second language, especially writing.

Stephanie W.P. Knight holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico and is the Assistant Director at the Center for Applied Second Language Studies at University of Oregon, USA. Her research involves reflective, student‐centered learning and the creation and evaluation of digitally enhanced classroom interventions such as games, portfolios, and augmented reality / virtual reality platforms. She facilitates national teacher workshops and professional learning communities centered on the intentional use of digital tools to promote critical thinking and inquiry in language‐learning contexts.

Agnes Kukulska‐Hulme is Professor of Learning Technology and Communication in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University, UK. She has been researching mobile learning since 2001 and is Past‐President of the International Association for Mobile Learning. Her research and teaching expertise covers a number of related areas including distance education, online learning and social inclusion, with a particular interest in learner‐led innovation and self‐directed learning. Her original discipline background is in linguistics and language teaching.

Meryl Kusyk is a Researcher and Lecturer of Applied Linguistics at the Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany. Her research interests include language learning and technology, informal language learning, development in complexity, accuracy and fluency and usage‐based language learning. Her PhD (2017) examines the dynamics of English development through participation in online informal activities and studies how French and German university students' L2s change over time as a result of this participation.

Chun Lai is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Her research interests include self‐directed language learning beyond the classroom, focusing on understanding the nature of learners' out‐of‐class language learning with technology, and the influencing factors. She has published widely on this research topic and her most recent publication is a monograph Autonomous Language Learning with Technology: Beyond the Classroom (2017).

Chaehyun Lee is Assistant Professor in Elementary/ESL Education in the Department of Educational Instruction and Leadership at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, USA. She completed her PhD in bilingual/ESL education at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign. She is interested in emergent bilingual students' language use and literacy development. She works with elementary‐age bilingual students as a Korean heritage language teacher and publishes research on the literacy development and instruction of bilingual students.

Helen Lee has a background in language teaching and applied linguistics. She holds a Masters degree in TESOL and ICT from the University of Brighton and has presented at the University of Oxford, the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL), and the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL). She is currently a PhD candidate at The Open University, UK, working in the area of multimodal language learning supported by mobiles from beyond the classroom. She was awarded the student prize for research excellence in honor of Professor Stephen Bax.

Ju Seong Lee is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language Education at the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. His research interests include informal digital learning of English, communication behaviors, affect in second language learning, and English as an international language.

Chin‐Hsi Lin is Associate Professor in the Division of Chinese Language and Literature, Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Dr. Lin earned his PhD in Language, Literacy, and Technology from the University of California, Irvine in 2012. His research interests revolve around learning processes and outcomes in online language learning. Specifically, his work has predominately focused on self‐regulation, interaction, course design, and teacher effects and how they predict achievement.

Karen M. Ludke is Senior Lecturer in English Language at Edge Hill University, UK. After studying English and French (University of Michigan), she completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. She contributed to the European Music Portfolio: A Creative Way into Languages project and then joined the AIRS (Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing) project at the UPEI (University of Prince Edward Island). Her research explores how music and singing can support language learning and has been published in Memory and Cognition and The Oxford Handbook of Singing (2019).

Boning Lyu is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. She is particularly interested in technology enhanced language learning. Her most recent research project is about examining learners' use of language learning community platforms for self‐directed, out‐of‐classroom learning.

Lindsay Marean is the InterCom Editor at the Center for Applied Second Language Studies at University of Oregon, USA. Her research interests center around indigenous language revitalization, and connecting research on teaching and learning languages with practicing language activists.

Paul Kei Matsuda is Professor of English and Director of Second Language Writing at Arizona State University, USA, where he works closely with doctoral students specializing in second language writing from various disciplinary perspectives. Founding Chair of the Symposium on Second Language Writing, he has published widely on issues related to language, writing, and identity. His recent publications include Professionalizing Second Language Writing (2017) and Handbook of Second and Foreign Language Writing (2016), both as co‐author.

Sarah J. McCarthey is Professor of Language and Literacy and Department Head of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, USA. Her research focuses on students' literate identities, classroom writing instruction and the role of professional development in teachers' understandings of writing. Her recent work on translanguaging builds on her previous studies examining English language learners' identities as writers. Her most recent publications appeared in Computers and Composition, Middle Grades Review, and Pedagogies: An International Journal.

Silvina Montrul is Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, USA. Her research focuses on linguistic and psycholinguistic approaches to second language acquisition and bilingualism, with particular emphasis on heritage speakers. She is editor of Second Language Research and author of The Acquisition of Spanish (2004), Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism (2008), El bilingüismo en el mundo hispanohablante [Bilingualism in the Spanish‐speaking world] (2013, Wiley Blackwell) and Heritage Language Acquisition (2016) as well as over 100 journal articles and book chapters.

Annie M. Moses is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Early Childhood program in the Department of Education and School Psychology at John Carroll University, USA. Her research focuses on early literacy development, media, and early childhood education. She has published, most recently, on these topics in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, Sign Language Studies, and Early Childhood Education Journal.

Howard Nicholas is Associate Professor in the School of Education at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. His research interests encompass plurilingualism and additional language development in naturalistic and instructional environments. His most recent publications include ‘Multimedia and transnational family communication’ in Migration, Mobility, & Displacement (in press, with X. Dang and D. Starks) and ‘Connecting worlds: Linguistic landscapes as transformative curriculum artifacts in schools and universities’ in P. Mickan and I. Wallace (Eds.), Language Education and Curriculum Design (in press, with D. Starks, S. Macdonald, and J. Roos).

Melika Nouri is a third‐year PhD student in Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacies at Arizona State University, USA. During her doctorate degree, she has been interested in exploring the intersections of writing and language learning. Her research focus includes genre theory and pedagogy, English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes.

Idalia Nuñez is Assistant Professor of Bilingual and ESL Education at the University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign, USA. She grew up on the Texas‐Mexico borderlands which shaped her experiences and perspectives on language and literacy. Grounded on the premise that everyday practices can inform and advance curricular and instructional developments, her research focuses on recognizing the cultural and linguistic resources of students of color, specifically from Latinx communities. Her interests include exploring translanguaging, bilingualism, and biliteracy.

Dennis Murphy Odo is Associate Professor in the Department of English Education at Pusan National University, South Korea, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in second language acquisition and TESOL methods courses. He has served as an English language teacher and teacher educator in Korea, Canada, and the US. His research interests include input‐based second language learning, second language reading, technology, and teacher development.

Kristen H. Perry is Associate Professor of literacy education and Director of Graduate Studies in the department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Kentucky, USA. Her research focuses on family and community literacy, particularly with immigrant and English‐learning communities, as well as adult literacy. She has published a chapter in Critical Reflections on Research Methods: Power and Equity in Complex Multilingual Contexts (2019) and articles in the Journal of Literacy Research and Journal of Language and Literacy Education.

Jana Roos is Professor of Applied Linguistics and English Language Education at Potsdam University, Germany. Her research focuses on second language acquisition to inform (early) foreign language teaching and learning in institutional contexts. Recent publications include, ‘Using young learners' language environments for EFL learning – ways of working with linguistic landscapes’ AILA Review (in press, with H. Nicholas); and Widening Contexts for Processability Theory: Theories and Issues (in press, co‐edited with A. Lenzing and H. Nicholas).

Randall William Sadler is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, USA, where he teaches courses on telecollaboration, virtual worlds and language learning, and the teaching of L2 reading and writing. He is the Director of the Illinois Teaching English as a Second Language and ESL Programs. His main research area is on technology in language learning, with a focus on how computer‐mediated communication and virtual worlds can enhance that process.

Shannon Sauro is Associate Professor in the Department of Culture, Languages and Media at Malmö University, Sweden. Her research explores language learning in the digital wilds, particularly in fan communities, and its relevance for the language classroom. She is co‐editor, with Carol A. Chapelle of The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning (2017, Wiley Blackwell); with Joanna Pitura of CALL for mobility (2018); and with Katerina Zourou of the special issue of Language Learning & Technology on CALL in the digital wilds.

Helen Slatyer is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, where she teaches translation and interpreting theory and practice. Her background in applied linguistics and in translation and interpreting studies has naturally led to interdisciplinary research in pedagogies for teaching interpreting in a multilingual classroom and the application of educational testing methodologies to the testing of translators and interpreters in multiple language pairs.

Geoffrey Sockett is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Paris Descartes University, France. He has written and spoken extensively on the theme of informal learning and is most notably the author of The Online Informal Learning of English (2014). His current research interests include the applications of online informal learning in classroom and formal online settings in higher education and he is supervising a number of PhDs on this topic.

Pia Sundqvist is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oslo, Norway, and at Karlstad University, Sweden. Her main research interest is extramural English, especially the relation between digital gameplay and various aspects of L2 English proficiency. Other research interests include L2 vocabulary acquisition and the assessment of L2 oral proficiency. She is the author of Extramural English in Teaching and Learning (2016, with L.K. Sylvén) and Motivational Practice: Insights from the Classroom (2019, with A. Henry and C. Thorsen).

Julie M. Sykes is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Director of the Center for Applied Second Language Studies at University of Oregon, USA. Her research focuses on applied linguistics and second language acquisition with an emphasis on technological and pedagogical innovation for interlanguage pragmatic development and intercultural competence. She has published various articles on technology‐related topics, including synchronous computer‐mediated communication and pragmatic development, gaming and computer‐assisted language learning (CALL), and lexical acquisition in digitally mediated environments. She is the recipient of the 2018 University of Oregon Research Award for Impact and Innovation.

Denyze Toffoli is Associate Professor at the University of Strasbourg, France, where she currently heads the Department for Institution‐wide Language Provision (IWLP). A member of the Linguistics, Languages, and Speech research group (LiLPa), her publications focus on the online informal learning of language, especially as it involves the psychological aspects of learning, such as affect, motivation, attachment, and autonomy, but also touching on learning contexts and teacher cognitions.

Robert Vanderplank is an Emeritus Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford, UK, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Lifelong Language Learning at Kellogg College. His research interests and publications include language learning through captioned media, autonomous and informal language learning, language learning and technology, assessment, listening comprehension, second language attrition, and study abroad. His most recent book is Captioned Media in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard‐of‐Hearing as Tools for Language Learning (2016).

Binbin Zheng is Assistant Professor in the Office of Medical Education Research and Development at Michigan State University, USA. Her research focuses on using emerging technologies to enhance teaching and learning in both literacy education and medical education. She received her PhD degree from the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine with a specialization in Language, Literacy and Technology. She has published articles in journals including Review of Educational Research, Computers & Education, and Teachers College Record.

Katerina Zourou is a scholar in language learning/ teaching from an open perspective (open educational resources and practices) and from a networking and collaboration perspective (collective learning, social networked learning). She is also head of Web2Learn in Greece. She acts as project leader or partner in transnational projects funded by the Council of Europe, the European Commission and national funds.

Introduction

MARK DRESSMAN

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.

William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, Scene 1

Imagine this: It is 1980 (or 1890, or 1090, or 980, or 109 CE), and you live anywhere on Earth. You've decided that your fortune lies in leaving your homeland to live in another country or empire, working as an immigrant, or a trader, or perhaps as an envoy from your own country, and you see that your success in this endeavor will depend largely on your ability to function well in the language(s) of the country you are moving to. What are your options for learning that new language, in your time? Perhaps you can find some books, or perhaps there are classes you can take, or if you have the means, you'll hire a tutor or find someone who speaks the new language and befriend them. Maybe, if it's 1980, you can find some audiotapes or phonograph records to listen to and imitate. It will be hard, hard work; but you can do it, if you persist: You can learn a foreign language on your own, if there are resources, and if you have the means to obtain them.

But now, it's 1995, and you live in a country with access to a new form of communication, satellite television, which can send you programming 24 hours a day in the language you want to learn – with subtitles (or if you're lucky, captions in the target language). Then, it's 2005, and there are new technologies, personal computers and mobile devices and the internet, and you now have access to vast written and audio resources in the language of your desire, and even, through chatrooms and the new massive multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPGs), to live contact with others in their language. It may also be that through a very affordable travel program, you can fly to a country where the language is spoken widely and spend some time there “picking it up” from local people; or perhaps those speakers have come to your homeland and you have a chance to meet with them; or, perhaps you have family or friends in that country you can visit or chat with online. Finally, it's 2015 and then 2020. Advances in access and speed on smarter and smarter phones, tablets, and laptops provide an almost limitless array of sources of the language of your dreams, spoken and written by people who “speak your language” metaphorically as well as linguistically across written, audio, and video platforms. Through constant exposure and a bit of effort, you absorb and then understand and finally, in fits and starts, speak and read and write a new language, if not effortlessly, then with an ease and grace that surprises even you.

What an incredible time ours is for language learning! In the space of a generation – 25 years – all of humanity, or at least that huge part of it with some access to digital communications and/or intercontinental transport, has moved from near‐total dependence on the knowledge and expertise and planning of others to a level of autonomy and opportunity for self‐teaching and “picking up” new languages unimagined in any other period of human history. If you don't believe this or think it's an exaggeration, do this: Go to your local university and seek out some students who are international or “foreign.” Ask them how they learned to speak, read, and write your language so well. Their first answer might be that they took lessons or learned in school. But then, press them: How did they really learn the language? How did they pick up its slang and master its pronunciation so well? How did they acquire its pragmatics, or understanding of use in context? They might hesitate, but in most cases, they will tell you: They learned these things from watching movies online or on satellite television, or from playing video games, or from chatrooms or perhaps from a friend or relative with whom they practiced. Yes, they had a teacher and took classes, but the learning that led to being able to use the language to do things was informal, and came from human contact online or in person, and from watching many, many movies and television shows or listening to a lot of music in their target language.

This may not be the case everywhere, even when and where such opportunities are present. From where I write in the United States, most people remain convinced that languages are among the most difficult (and boring) school subjects. This is true also for countries like Japan or Korea or even southern Europe. But for a growing number of individuals in other places like Morocco or China, where learning English has become a national preoccupation, informal learning has become predominant, even if formal educational systems do not recognize this and if the learners themselves do not always realize the extent to which their learning of English has come if not accidentally then often incidentally from seeking the pleasures of entertainment or human exchange.

What, then, of the formal ways of learning languages – of textbooks and courses of study and sophisticated classroom curriculums that attempt to “naturalize” and make language education as authentic as possible within an official, formal education context? Are these going away, or will they be replaced by informal or perhaps nonformal (e.g. Rosetta Stone; Babbel) modes of learning? The practical answer to this question is likely to be highly dependent on differences in culture and national policy in any locale. Some related but more theoretical and intriguing questions, however, could be: How can or should formal language education take the new opportunities for informal learning into account? Is there a way for formal instruction to integrate or incorporate insights from informal language learning, or are the two as alien and difficult to mix as oil and water? Or does informal learning threaten the continued existence, in the end, of formal instruction to an extent that it needs to be ignored or denied or even resisted by educators? This final possibility leads to one last question: What is the future of language education itself? What will become of learning, whether formal, nonformal, or informal; of teaching itself; and of the design of curriculum, especially in an age of increasingly sophisticated forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and increasingly ubiquitous access to digital streaming, cyber and cyborg technologies, and future technologies yet to be imagined or named?

A new field of research

This Handbook represents our collective best attempt as chapter authors to organize research and theory on informal language learning around a set of subtopics, and to lay the groundwork for a new and very vibrant subfield within applied linguistics. This is an ambitious goal, and, it must be acknowledged, one that is not without antecedents. As far back as the 1970s, Krashen (1976) and d'Anglejan (1978) reported on (and advocated for) the role of informal experiences in “adult” (i.e. second) language acquisition and learning, followed by Ellis (1980, 1982) in the early 1980s. And nearly every foreign language teacher we have ever known would agree that in areas such as acquiring pronunciation and fluency, there is no substitute for “immersion” in a community of speakers. But in these cases, a distinction between acquisition, or the “picking up” of language, and learning, or the conscious, organized study of and practice in a second language, has been made, in which very often the center of the learning/acquiring process was a classroom, with activities organized and led or facilitated by a designated teacher.

The authors of this Handbook are focusing on a set of phenomena that differ in some significant ways from earlier days before digital communications and globalization became as pronounced and ubiquitous as today. First, informal language learning today differs from the past in its breadth of opportunities for learning. Whereas 30 years ago authentic informal encounters with another language would need to come through travel, close association with a speaker of that language, or to a more limited extent through foreign movies rented at a video store, by 2003, learners could download music and videos online from iTunes in a wide variety of languages or chat with other players on MMORPGs all over the world or in a variety of chatrooms like MSN. Beginning in 2005, YouTube made it possible for people to see and hear each other speaking extemporaneously all over the world; Facebook (from 2004) and other social networking sites made it easier than ever before for people from Iceland to Tierra del Fuego to share themselves, their culture, and their language in immediate and often very intimate ways; and services like Google Translate (from 2006) made it possible for people to understand each other (or at least short utterances) with greater ease than ever before. Many of the new platforms and media formats were not developed or intended for language learning specifically, but they could be appropriated for that purpose; and then early language learning platforms like Live Mocha (in 2007) appeared, which gave rise to the more elaborate, commercial platforms of today, such as Babbel, Duolingo, and the online version of Rosetta Stone. Finally, and at the same time, increasingly cheap and extensive networks of air travel as well as dramatic increases in migration from South to North created opportunities and needs for acquiring a second, third, or fourth language.

A second difference is that the multiplicity of possibilities for exposure and engagement with other languages also blurs the distinction between acquisition and learning of languages as well as distinctions often made between informal, or incidental, and nonformal, or deliberate but out‐of‐school, learning. If one is learning partly through conscious attention to a language and partly through immersion in the pleasure of a video text, is one acquiring a language or learning it? Consider the example of the teenager in Turkey who becomes “hooked” on K‐pop, picks up some expressions, and then begins consciously to study Korean to understand the lyrics sung by his or her favorite group. Is that learner “acquiring” Korean by picking it up from the music she or he loves, or is that teenager “learning” Korean by studying it? Or, consider the case of the Moroccan university student who learns English by watching TED Talks with captions or subtitles in Arabic or French. Is that student studying (learning) English or acquiring English if she takes notes as she watches, or rewatches some parts of the video that she particularly enjoys, “soaking up” the gestures and expressiveness of the speaker along with vocabulary and ideas? In other words, does the distinction made in earlier times between acquisition and learning or among formal, nonformal, and informal approaches matter for learners anymore; and if it doesn't matter for learners, then should it matter for researchers and, more critically, for educators?

A final difference closely related to the second is that both the ubiquity and diversity of these new opportunities for language learning are also challenging relations between the didactic and the auto‐didactic, or between the curriculum of the classroom and the curriculum of social media, tourism, the workplace, and movies/TV/music – in short, between what used to be considered the unavoidable work of “mastering” another language, and what learners often experience as the joyful play of interacting with others with and through texts, and the sense of reward and mastery of language that comes from using a new language in highly communicative but often grammatically imprecise ways.

What shall we call it?

These three differences pose, in turn, new definitions and new questions for researching language education. For example, what is meant by “informal language learning?” As the term was conceived in planning this Handbook, informal language learning refers to any activities taken consciously or unconsciously by a learner outside of formal instruction that lead to an increase in the learner's ability to communicate in a second (or other, non‐native) language. By “formal instruction,” I mean learning activities organized by a teacher that are systematic and regularly scheduled. Foreign language classes within a public or private school program are obviously examples of formal instruction; but so are classes in a language center or even private tutoring lessons, if those lessons are organized and taught regularly by an instructor. Examples of informal language learning include nearly every other occasion of second or other language learning, from in‐the‐moment “lessons” with friends and family members who speak a target language to environmental print to encounters as a tourist to subtitled or captioned video to chatrooms with friends and family, the chat of MMORPGs, or chat within spaces that are three dimensional and either virtual or augmented in their reality. A special, hybrid case might be language‐learning platforms such as Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, or Babbel, which combine formal, programmed instruction with the freedom to study when, where, and how a learner chooses – a combination often described as nonformal or non‐formal. In our definition, such examples would be within the informal learning category, because although they are instructionally planned by others, how they are used remains almost completely within the control of the learner.

In short, the use of the term informal language learning includes all activities undertaken by learners outside a formally organized program of language instruction. This is, in turn, a more inclusive conceptualization of informal language learning than others in the field, who have focused more on digital and computer‐based environments, have taken, such as Toffoli and Sockett's (2015) acronym, OILE (online informal learning of English) or Lee and Dressman's (2018) acronym, IDLE (informal digital learning of English), or Pia Sundqvist's term (see Chapter 21), extramural English (EE). The reason for this is that although from a research perspective it makes sense to focus on a specific platform or medium of learning, learners in the act of informally learning/acquiring a language may combine a range of digital and live opportunities, such as listening to songs downloaded from YouTube but also chatting with tourists in the street, studying abroad, or conferring with a more knowledgeable family member or friend. In conversations with these learners, the basic distinction they make is between learning in school and learning elsewhere; in their view, the pleasure of informal learning comes from “stealing the scraps” of language, as Shakespeare put it, whenever they can and from whomever they can. Like these learners, informal language learning in this Handbook is considered not as a single new phenomenon, a gift of the digital age, but rather as a set of phenomena and the happy consequence of a broad range of technological advances in need of a definition that includes all the ways people are informally learning new languages in the early twenty‐first century.

Plan of the handbook

The plan for this Handbook has been as broad and inclusive as its practices of definition. It begins with reviews of well‐defined areas that are relevant to the conceptualization of informal language learning as a developing field of research; but then it moves to sections that present findings and theoretical perspectives that are interdisciplinary and that explore a diverse range of the media and manifestations of informal language learning. The editorial goal and the goal of chapter authors has not been to define, but rather to do the basic work of establishing a robust new field of research: to describe, to question, and most of all to explore; and only afterward to try to delineate a path forward for theory, for empirical research, and for the educational work of curricular and instructional development.

Let's be candid here: During the initial writing of the chapters, many authors wrote to say they were struggling because they were not finding a great deal of previous research on the informal aspects of language learning/acquisition among adolescents and adults. They said they needed, in many cases, to “start from scratch” and engage in “a lot of conceptualization” that involved generating very basic questions, forming categories, and making distinctions among cases and phenomena that were original to their topic; and, they wanted to know, was that okay?