Welcome to AsiaCALL-2-2021, the 18th International Conference of the Asia Association of Computer-Assisted Language-Learning (AsiaCALL). As I am fond of reminding friends and colleagues, AsiaCALL is a research and professional association dedicated to bringing people together in research and professional ventures. We also do our best to enable access for everyone to new knowledge and to encourage collaboration in new technology-based ventures, including new theoretical constructs at all levels, relating to language education. In order to achieve this, we have done our best to find ways to bring together researchers and practitioners from all over the world, and Asia in particular, with no regard to status, income or experience so as to attain the highest levels of intellectual and cultural diversity as a way of enriching the field of (technology-enhanced) language learning and promoting equal opportunity.

One might have expected that an increase in the number of conferences would lead to a decrease in the number of submitted abstracts for the second conference. Far from it. AsiaCALL-2-2021 actually attracted 50% more papers than the first of the 2021 conference. This is eloquent testimony to the vitality of the field and of the positive relationship between the language teaching profession and the AsiaCALL organization. Thank you very much for your strong continuing support. We are delighted that we can be of ongoing service to you and contribute to the infrastructure necessary for the development of the field, especially at a time when there is a proliferation of online conferences and webinars.

I should like to take this opportunity to express my thanks on behalf of the AsiaCALL organisation to Hoa Sen University for its magnificent support of the conference. In particular, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the President of AsiaCALL2021-2, Vice-Rector Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu and his team, for their wonderful efforts on behalf of the organisation and for ensuring the success of the conference.

I also wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Associate Professor Dr. Pham Vu Phi Ho, Associate Dean of Foreign Languages at Van Lang University, Vietnam and Vice-President for Administrative Affairs of AsiaCALL for his tireless efforts on behalf of the organization. He has provided the key energy for many of the association’s recent initiatives. We owe him much.

My deepest gratitude also goes to our wonderful keynote, plenary and featured speakers: Professor Dr. Hayo Reinders, from Anaheim University, USA and King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu, Vice-Rector of Hoa Sen University, Vietnam, Associate Professor Dr. Long V. Nguyen, Vice-President of the University of Foreign Languages, Da Nang University, Vietnam, Dr. Ania Lian, Senior Lecturer in Education, College of Indigenous Futures, Education and the Arts, Charles Darwin University, Australia, Vice-President of AsiaCALL for Research and Innovation, Dr. Le Dinh Phong, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology, Hoa Sen University, Vietnam. These gifted, innovative speakers set the tone for the conference. Their contributions fuel the participants’ ever-present enthusiasm and I look forward to the research and publications generated by this gathering of minds.

Finally, a word of warm thanks to all the conference participants. As always, they are the most important people, the reason for the organization’s existence and its lifeblood. Thank you for joining and extending AsiaCALL’s intellectual and social family.

Professor Dr. Andrew P. Lian
President of AsiaCALL