Making ICALL’s intelligence accessible and understandable : evaluation, validation, and future directions of ICALL ecosystems

In this paper, we will reflect upon the revised and expanded version of the Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) ecosystem developed in Degraeuwe and Goethals (2022a). We portray the upgraded version of the ecosystem and perform a reflective analysis on it following the same methodology as presented in Degraeuwe and Goethals (2022a). The analysis is carried out by means of a case study with 22 participants who study Spanish as a foreign language and who work with the ecosystem in a blended writing course focused on vocabulary learning and lexical ambiguity. Students’ attitudes towards engaging in the ICALL ecosystem are gauged through a questionnaire, which revealed a slight but non-significant positive change in attitude (compared to a statistically significant positive change in Degraeuwe and Goethals 2022a). However, it should be noted that the initial attitudes before engaging with the ecosystem were already very positive (5.32 on an 8-point Likert scale), which might have made it more challenging for the ecosystem to have a considerable impact. Additionally, an analysis at question level showed that sparking curiosity about language technology and providing a good user experience remain challenging aspects.