FROM THE EDITORS.

Welcome to the first issue of volume six of Language Learning & Technology. We expect 2002 to be another exciting year for LLT with special issues coming up on indigenous languages and teacher education. In this issue, the first general issue since last January, we are pleased to bring you a wonderful variety of articles.

Three of the articles examine social aspects of language learning. Margaret A. DuFon begins a discussion of ethnographic, artistic, technological, and other concerns of obtaining authentic language learning material through video in "Video Recording in Ethnographic SLA Research: Some Issues of Validity in Data Collection." She illustrates some of the theoretical and methodological questions she raises with her own experiences with her students in Indonesia. In her article "Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study," Julie Belz analyzes socio-institutional dimensions of a German-American telecollaboration partnership, revealing tremendously practical points of consideration for any inter-language telecollaboration project. And, Etsuko Toyoda and Richard Harrison, in "Categorization of Text Chat Communication Between Learners and Native Speakers of Japanese," look at how difficulties in communication trigger negotiation of meaning between students and native speakers of Japanese in chat conversations. Through their examination, they discovered crucial communication aspects which were not taught in class and which students would not have learned had they not participated in chat with native speakers.

The next three articles are related to vocabulary learning. Ofelia Nikolova's "Effects of Students' Participation in Authoring of Multimedia Materials on Student Acquisition of Vocabulary" reports on a study which considers the effect of student involvement in the learning process on vocabulary learning. She also discusses the effectiveness of text, sound, and image versus text and sound only. Isabelle De Ridder addresses the question, "Visible or Invisible Links: Does the Highlighting of Hyperlinks Affect Incidental Vocabulary Learning, Text Comprehension, and the Reading Process?" In "Providing Controlled Exposure to Target Vocabulary Through the Screening and Arranging of Texts," Sina Ghadirian proposes exposing students to reading texts in an order which introduces them to words of incremental frequency in the target domain. This is now possible through the use of a computer program which sorts collections of texts and finds the target words while creating an order for the texts.

Finally, "Student Perceptions on Language Learning in a Technological Environment: Implications for the New Millennium" by Johanne Steppe-Greany reports on a survey of beginning Spanish students' responses to technology-enhanced learning environments. This kind of feedback is certainly valuable to any institution considering developing technology-enhanced language classes.

We have two regular technology columns. In On the Net, Jean W. Leloup and Robert Ponterio introduce us to MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching), a free online collection of reviewed authentic language learning materials. And in Emerging Technologies, Bob Godwin-Jones describes different types of wireless networks, both those available now, and those becoming available. Though Europe is somewhat ahead of the game in this area, it is a growing option in other parts of the world.

We also offer you one book and three software reviews. Stephen A. Bird reviews Carol Chapelle's Computer Applications in Second Language Acquisition (2001). Meena Singhal reviews Essential Academic Skills in English: Listening to Lectures CD-ROM (Volume I). Susan Carpenter Binkley reviews Advanced French: Interactive Video Language Learning with "Au coeur de la loi." And Joseph Collentine reviews Tesoros: A Multimedia-Based Spanish Course on CD-ROM.

Thank you all for your continued support of LLT. Please continue to send us manuscripts, commentaries, and reviews. We also welcome feedback from our readers and encourage each of you to subscribe. It's free, and it helps us to better know you and your interests.

Have a wonderful 2002!

Sincerely,

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