CALICO 2025 Conference Report

By Lisa A. Frumkes, Independent Educator

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.69732/ZIGA2678

The 2025 symposium of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) was held at San Diego State University in California from May 27 to May 31. This year’s theme was “Converging Realities and Realms of Possibility.” 

CALICO typically hosts workshops before the main conference. This year, seven half-day and one full-day workshop were offered. AI was a big workshop focus this year; topics included the use of AI for grading work, supporting project-based learning with AI, and employing AI to create lessons and games. Another popular workshop topic was H5P (https://h5p.org/) for content creation, language learning, and practice.

The AI theme continued at the opening plenary on Wednesday evening. Rick Kern embraced the conference theme with a discussion of how new AI tools, used thoughtfully and judiciously, can help us expand our opportunities to teach and use language in our classrooms and in our lives. 

Thursday evening brought another plenary, this one offered by Marta Gonzalez-Lloret of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa on Pragmatics and CALL. Among other important points, she discussed how new technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and AI  – and even older ones, like e-mail – can be used iteratively to support and expand students’ pragmatic competence and make them more culturally aware and appropriate in their target-language interactions.

Nearly 200 papers and presentations were shared at the conference. While many focused on AI and immersive realities (like VR), topics such as second-language literacy, teacher development, and virtual exchange were explored. They included: “A Comparison of VR and Role Play for Medical Interpreting,” “Exploring the Role of High-Immersion Virtual Reality Games for Fostering Agency and Enjoyment,” “Classroom Language Learning but Make it Wild!: Interest-Driven Assignments for Authentic Language Engagement,” and “From Rehearsal to Real-world Tasks: Insights for Technology-mediated Task Design and Implementation.” 

In addition, several presentations highlighted collaborations between industry and the academy, for instance, “Developing AI Language Learning Tools for Serious Games: Lessons Learned from Iterative Usability Research” and “Assessing the Impact of Immersive AI-powered Speaking Practice on Oral Proficiency Outcomes.” 

On Friday morning, the Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa presented its LaunchPad event. This shark-tank style competition features entrepreneurs pitching their products to a panel of five judges. This year’s LaunchPad competitors were:

• Luduan, represented by CEO Jonathan Becker, frees up instructor time by employing AI to provide personalized learning materials and real-time feedback to learners.
• The Mimir, presented by founder Mengting Hou, allows learners to practice and improve reading, listening, and speaking skills, while building vocabulary and focusing on their own interests.
• Voccent, offered by founder and CEO Victor Brunko, supports learners in their development of speaking skills, fluency, and emotional expression via real-time feedback.

This year’s LaunchPad judges chose Luduan as the winner, while the People’s Choice Award (selected by an audience that was both live and virtual) was presented to Voccent. You can learn more about all three products, as well as the LaunchPad competition itself, at https://thelanguageflagship.tech/launchpad/.

In the exhibit hall, CALICO attendees found breakfasts and snacks while learning more about the LaunchPad competitors’ products as well as those offered by CALICO sponsors Avant Assessment, Cascade Reading, Duolingo, Immerse, The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center, and our very own IALLT.

And throughout the symposium, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) presented papers and panels.

As the conference concluded, CALICO president Jonathon Reinhardt announced this year’s award winners:

• The Robert A. Fischer Outstanding Graduate Student Award was presented to Matthew Pattemore.
• The Language-learning Website Award: The Esperanto “Access to Language Education Award” went to CANAvenue canavenue.ca, a site devoted to teaching English to Canadian newcomers.
• The Outstanding CALICO Journal Article Award was awarded to “Online Fan Practices and Informal Language Learning” by Haeun Kim, Carol Chapelle, Noemie Sollier
• Finally, the CALICO Lifetime Achievement Award recognized Philip Hubbard of Stanford University, “for outstanding contributions and service to the field and to CALICO.”

With that, CALICO welcomed Regina Kaplan-Rakowski as its new president.

CALICO 2026 will be held at Miami University in Oxford, OH. There will be a call for papers in the fall, with submissions due around October 31, 2025. CALICO always kindly holds a few spots for members of IALLT to present, and your IALLT representatives to CALICO (Lisa Frumkes and Robert Elliott) will solicit proposals in the fall to fill those slots. Keep your eyes on the conference website (https://calico.org/conference/) for dates and other details! Whether through CALICO directly or via IALLT, don’t miss out on your chance to participate in CALICO 2026!