How do ICT tools for language learning enhance learners' affective development?

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Existing literature revealed positive impacts of ICT tools on the development of linguistic skills; however, impacts of the tools on affective changes are still under investigation. Enhancing affective factors is crucial for language learning, because low levels of self-confidence and high levels of language anxiety could have negative impacts on language learning. As a result, they may produce only limited amount of output. Hence, alternative ways to increase learners’ output is necessary. This research explores to what extent ICT tools can positively influence these affective factors of language learners. In order to understand the benefits of ICT tools on affective changes, an educational experiment was carried out in summer 2022. In the experiment, two types of instruction (e.g., face-to-face and remote language teaching) and practice (e.g., in-person live and audio-recoded role-plays) were given to Japanese university students, and the impacts of these types of instruction and practice were evaluated by questionnaires that had both Likert-scale questions and open-ended questions. The data were briefly analyzed in fall 2022, and one conference abstract based on the analysis was accepted.