The rapidly expanding use of computer networking in many parts of the world is transforming the way we communicate with each other, conduct business, and produce knowledge. In the context of language education, computer networks make it possible for learners to access and/or publish texts and multimedia materials and to extend their communicative experience to worlds far beyond the classroom. These possibilities have led to great expectations of how computer networks will enhance language learning. Historically, however, educators' expectations of how new technologies may transform learning have not necessarily been borne out in practice. This book offers an initial step forward evaluating educators' expectations about computer networking by presenting recent research on what happens when language learners are brought together with texts and with other speakers of a language in networked environments.

This book originated when the two of us first met at the National Foreign Language Resource Center Symposium on Local and Global Electronic Networking in Foreign Language Learning and Research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in July 1995. At the time it struck us that the field was long on pedagogical suggestions for exploiting networking technology but short on research. Despite a growing body of general research on computer-mediated communication, relatively few studies have been published that deal specifically with second language learning contexts. This book attempts to fill that void by bringing together in one volume the best current research on language learning using computer networks.