Ms Maria-Araxi Sachpazian, Lecturer at the English Studies Department of CITY College, University of York Europe Campus delivered a presentation at the 3rd International Conference on Language Education and Research, which was organised by the Applied Language Studies House and the Journal of Applied Languages and Linguistics and was carried out online from 1st to the 3rd October 2021. Ms Sachpazian presented her preliminary work on a research project entitled “Is this a forgotten hand: issues of learners’ cognitive engagement in Digital Learning Environments”. The presentation aimed to explore from a bibliographical perspective the reasons why learners of English in secondary and tertiary education failed to exploit digital learning environments during the online teaching made necessary by the pandemic and why their cognitive engagement left so much to be desired.