Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching

Negotiating Intercultural Awareness and Informal Digital Language Learning

Intercultural awareness (ICA) has long been a central concern in second language (L2) learning and teaching, given the multilingual and intercultural reality of language use. ICA is also the foundation for interculturally competent individuals (Chen & Starosta, 1998). Research in intercultural communication has consistently identified ICA as a foundational component of intercultural communicative competence (Baker, 2015; Byram, 2020; Fantini, 2012; Jackson, 2019; Wang & Hu, 2025). It underpins learners' capacity for perspective-taking and reflexive engagement with linguistic and cultural diversity across online and offline spaces (Chun, 2011; Dooly & Darvin, 2022).

As language learning increasingly extends beyond the classroom, informal digital language learning (IDLL) has become an important context in which learners engage with diverse linguistic and cultural practices through social media, online gaming, streaming platforms, virtual communities, and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated applications (Lai & Sundqvist, 2025; Liu & Lee, 2026; Reinders & Benson, 2017; Toffoli et al., 2023). While these technology-mediated experiences create conditions for fostering intercultural awareness, they are also shaped by platform logics, algorithmic mediation, digital inequalities, identity, and power (Darvin & Hafner, 2022; Jones, 2022).

Although research on IDLL and intercultural awareness has grown rapidly, studies explicitly examining their relationship remain limited (cf., Liu & Lee, 2025; Liu et al., 2025). Existing research has been dominated by cross-sectional survey designs, leaving important questions about how learners negotiate cultural differences, position themselves in relation to others, and develop intercultural awareness through participation in informal digital environments insufficiently explored. This special issue aims to advance scholarship by bringing together empirical, conceptual, review, and methodological contributions that conceptualize intercultural awareness as a situated, dynamic, and socially negotiated process within informal digital language learning.

We welcome submissions employing mixed-methods, qualitative, longitudinal, or innovative methodological approaches. Studies involving any target language and diverse educational, cultural, and geopolitical contexts are encouraged.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Intercultural awareness in informal digital language learning across diverse target languages
• Multilingual and translanguaging practices in digitally mediated intercultural spaces and intercultural awareness
• The reciprocal relationship of intercultural awareness with informal digital language learning
• Intercultural awareness and AI-mediated informal language learning
• Intercultural positioning in transnational gaming, fandom, and social media communities
• Algorithmic mediation and its influence on intercultural awareness in online environments
• Digital inequalities and differential access to intercultural engagement in IDLL
•  Identity, investment, and power in informal digital intercultural encounters
•  Longitudinal and process-oriented studies of intercultural awareness in IDLL
•  Methodological innovations for researching intercultural processes in digital contexts