This thesis proposed a framework for conceptualizing critical thinking in language learning. A learning environment where collaborative learning and network technology were combined − computer-mediated collaborative learning (CMCL) − was set up. The main aim was to study the potential of the learning environment in promoting critical thinking (CT) in language learning. The proposed framework of...

in today’s multiculturally interconnected world, cultural understanding is the key to communication and a buffer to communication breakdown. that is, the objectives of language learning cannot be viewed as a mainly linguistic task anymore; they should be directed towards achievement of intercultural communicative competence. therefore, the foreign language teachers should utilize and promote th...

Abstract: This paper focuses on a communicative language-learning environment between a native speaker and a learner using a videoconference system. This paper describes Viclle (Video-based Communicative Language Learning System) that supports both a teacher and a learner. A teacher (a native speaker) can correct a recorded video with Viclle. This paper also describes VCML (Video-based Correcti...

I advance the hypothesis that the earliest phases of language acquisition -- the developmental transition from an initial universal state of language processing to one that is language-specific -- requires social interaction. Relating human language learning to a broader set of neurobiological cases of communicative development, I argue that the social brain 'gates' the computational mechanisms...

This paper summarizes computer supported language learning environments using collaborative writing tools. Moreover, this paper proposes a markup-based composition learning support system called CoCoA (Communicative Collection Assisting System). It allows students and teachers to exchange marked-up documents via Internet, and its environment is very similar to a real one in which people use pap...