Informal digital learning of English (IDLE): a scoping review of what has been done and a look towards what is to come

Abstract

As technology has advanced, so have opportunities for language socialization and practice. This reciprocal relationship has resulted in the emergence of a subfield of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL): Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE). IDLE has manifested in various forms, including the more notable extramural and extracurricular varieties. Given the recent attention given to IDLE by Applied Linguists and language educators, this scoping review provides a roadmap for future research and explores the potential of IDLE to support English language teaching and learning in informal digital contexts. A Web of Science core eight database search for relevant research published between 1980 and 2019 using 35 IDLE-related key terms resulted in 38 studies of which 30 aligned with the inclusion criteria. Results showed the studies were conducted mostly under a mixed-method and qualitative paradigm and were published between 2017 and 2019. Only two studies used longitudinal data collection methods. Topics investigated included the linguistic dimension of CALL, the affective and cultural dimension of CALL, and the agency and digital literacies dimension of CALL. The small, yet salient, body of emergent IDLE literature points towards three trends: a growing relevance of langua-technocultural competence, the importance of digital literacies to communicative competence, and the importance of non-professional translation and interpreting to digital language learning.

Keywords:

• Digital language learning
• IDLE
• Informal Digital Learning of English
• informal language learning
• scoping review

Notes

1 As Lee (2020) was extracted with the “FirstView article” publication date of 2019, it has been included but with the updated print publication date of 2020.

2 Approaches from translanguaging (García & Li, 2013) and multimodal analysis (Jewitt, Bezermen, & O’halloran, 2016) can be of use given the fluid nature of digitally mediated discourse.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partly supported by ForVid: Video as a language learning format in and outside the classroom (RT2018-100790-B-100; 2019–2021), ‘Research Challenges’ R + D + i Projects, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain.

Notes on contributors

Ali Soyoof

Ali Soyoof is currently a PhD student at Monash university. His research areas of interest are video games, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and out of classroom language learning.

Barry Lee Reynolds

Barry Lee Reynolds is Assistant Professor of English Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Macau. He has taught EGP, EAP, ESP and trained language teachers in the USA, Taiwan, and Macau. He conducts interdisciplinary applied linguistics, CALL, and literacy research.

Boris Vazquez-Calvo

Boris Vazquez-Calvo is an assistant professor in EFL and L2 education at the University of Málaga, Spain. His current research interests touch upon language learning and translation, digital culture and fan practices, and technology-mediated discourse.

Katherine McLay

Katherine McLay is a lecturer at the University of Queensland. Her areas of interest are digital literacies, learning technology, and sociocultural theory. She has published in a number of quality journals such as Frontiers in Psychology, British Educational Research Journal, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning and International Journal of Educational Research.