New CALL-SLA Research Interfaces for the 21st Century: Towards Equitable Multilingualism

The majority of the world is multilingual, but inequitably multilingual, and much of the world is also technologized, but inequitably so. Thus, researchers in the fields of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and second language acquisition (SLA) would profit from considering multilingualism and social justice when envisioning new CALL-SLA interfaces for the future. I first explain the connection I see among multilingualism, digital literacy, and social justice, and I characterize contemporary SLA as transformed by a social turn that is now complete, a bilingual turn slowly underway, and a social justice turn emerging on the horizon. I then review empirical evidence that suggests digital communication encourages multilingual practices, helps users appreciate the open nature of language resources, and perhaps even supports positive multilingual ideologies. Next, I offer some illustrations of possible new research questions and CALL-SLA studies that would focus on embracing and exploiting the openness of language resources in language learning, and on doing multilingual learning. Finally, I examine what we know about the digital divide that is relevant to CALL-SLA researchers. I close with a checklist for researchers interested in contributing to these new research interfaces in support of equitable multilingualism in online and offline language learning and teaching.