Keynote Speakers

Dr. Marta González-Lloret is Professor of Spanish and Applied Linguistics at the Spanish Division of the Department of Languages and Literatures of Europe and the Americas and Associated Graduate Faculty of the department of Second Language Studies (SLS) at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Originally from Valladolid, Spain, she has lived in Hawai‘i for over 30 years. Her teaching and research focus on Spanish language and linguistics, second language acquisition, teacher education, critical digital literacy, and computer-assisted language learning. Her main research interests lie in the intersections of technology with Task-Based Language Teaching and L2 pragmatics. In 2018, she received the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching. She is internationally recognized for her work, has published widely and currently serves as editor of the John Benjamins book series Task-Based Language Teaching: Issues, Research and Practice and Pragmatics & Language Learning book series (NFLRC).

Dr. Sangmin Michelle Lee

Dr. Sangmin Michelle Lee is Professor of Global Communication and Software Convergence at Kyung Hee University, Korea, and a leading expert in technology-supported language learning. She holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on instructional design in AI-, AR-, and VR-supported learning environments, creativity, machine translation, game-based language learning, and L2 writing. She has published widely in leading journals, including IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies and Computer Assisted Language Learning, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on language learning, technology, and task-based language teaching. Dr. Lee's contributions to academia are evident through her publications in esteemed journals. Notably, she co-authored "Into the Brave New Metaverse: Envisaging Future Language Teaching and Learning" and "Second Language Learning through an Emergent Narrative in a Narrative-rich Customizable Metaverse Platform," both featured in the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies

Fostering Intercultural and Sociopragmatic Competence through Virtual Exchanges

This presentation examines the use of Virtual Exchanges (VEs) as a pedagogical approach to enhance language acquisition and intercultural competence. VEs facilitate structured and sustained interaction between learners from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds through online communication tools. The presentation explores how these exchanges can foster the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), digital literacy, and sociopragmatic skills; particularly the ability to recognize community norms and select appropriate communicative actions within specific social contexts. Drawing on existing research on VEs, the talk proposes a pedagogical design informed by instructed second language (L2) pragmatics to support the development of intercultural and sociopragmatic competence. Practical examples of possible VE implementations will be presented to illustrate these principles. Finally, the presentation considers emerging directions in the field, including the integration of immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to further expand the potential of VEs in language education.

Title pending

Coming soon