SUMMARY OF CALL

A.  Unit 1

In unit 1, we talk about CALL, its definition, its history, and its scope. CALL is the acronym for computer-assisted language learning. Although,as we will see below,the field or significant parts of it sometimes go by others name, CALL seems to be the most widely accepted generic term. In this foundation CALL will be use in a broad sense to any endeavor involving the computer in some significant way in language teaching and learning.

CALL began in the 1960s with mainframe-based drill and practice materials, especially those based on the University of Illinois’ PLATO system. Early programs were written by teacher-developers on Apple II, IBM PC, and BBC computer, and were often distributed for free. In the late 1980s and early 90s, the Apple Macintosh replaced the Apple II in many educational settings in the US and became an immediate favorite among teacher-developers because of the support of Hypercard, a powerful but easy-to-use authoriting. During this period the use of the computer as a tool increased, especially as teachers developed innovative techniques for using email and word processor become integrated into writing classes. CALL is integrated into language learning activities both in and out of the class. In 2009, I published a four-volume edited set, computer assisted language learning : Critical concepts in Linguistics (Routledge), an anthology of 74 key articles covering the whole field of CALL.

The scopes of CALL are :                                                      

·      As researches : into second language acquisition, human-computer interaction, what works for CALL

·      As consumers of CALL software for class use or building web activities into course work

·      As director, helping student find and use supplementary CALL material  or web resources.

·      As manager of computer-mediated communication among learners in and out of class

·      As software or web developes either “from scratch” or adding new materials to existing templates

·      As coaches, to help student develop software, websites, and general computer literacy

·      As CALL experts for your program helping other teacher and administrator with CALL implementation.

·      As CALL professionals, consulting on external project, doing software review for journals, making conference presentations, writing papers, interpreting and applying CALL research, providing input to the field at large.   

Three phases of CALL are:

·      Behavioristic CALL

The first phase of CALL based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning. Programs of this  phase entailed repetitive language drill and can be referred to as “drill and practice.”

·      Communicative CALL

The second phase of CALL based on the communicative approach to teaching which become prominent in the 1970s and 80s. proponents of this approach felt that drill and practice programs of the previous decade did not allow enough authentic communication to be much value.

·      Integrated CALL

Integrated approaches to CALL are based on two important technological developmentsof the last decade-multimedia computer and the internet.

B.  Unit 2

In unit 2, we talk about Courseware evaluation, development, and Implementation. The term courseware,which refers to software that is used to support formal language learning.In practice,courseware has been used to refer to everything from complete software packages that can be used without a teacher to software that is just a part of a language learning course,sometimes a minor or optional supplementary part.

The three of modules, they are :

·      Development module

Courseware development refers to the process of going from the idea of creating a piece of tutorial software through the final product. It should be informed by general principles of instructional design

·      Evaluation module

Evaluation involves three kinds of considerations. a crucial aspect is to understand what courseware does first before attempting to judge it.

·      Implementation module

·      Implementation considerations are relevant during the evaluation process, but they become crucial when deciding how best to use software that is available.

C.  Unit 3

In unit 3, we talk about Computer Mediated Communication. CMC ( Computer Mediated Communication ) computers are a means through which teachers communicate with learners, learners communicate with one another and learners may even communicate with native speakers. That communication takes place through variations in the following elements : timing (synchronous or asynchronous), number and patterning of participant ( one to one, one to many, or many to many), and medium *text, voice, or video).

Text-based CMC

            Due to both the history of technology development and the ease of text use, most CMC has been done using the medium of text. We will look at the text uses both for their own value and as a vehicle for introducing concepts relevant to audio and video-based CMC. There are two kinds of text, they are :

-          Asynchronous text. The first use of CMC in language teaching almost certainly came through email exchanges from teachers to students within classes. Email is an example of asynchronous communication, in that the interaction is not in real time. With email teachers can receive homework from students and give responses to it. Students can communicate with another to practice using the language. There are a number of sites that provide services for linking up such as interpals (www.interpals.net) and a popular one for ESL learners is Dave’s ESL cafe (www.eslcafe.com/students). Students can log into existing discussion lists specially for teachers.

-          Synchronous text. With synchronous text, or chat, the messages are exchange in text form, ut in real time. Some of the early research on CMC was built around a type of chat program, interchange. Chat rooms are easily found on the web through portals like yahoo, chat rooms for english language learners available at sites such as Dave’s ESL cafe and EnglishBaby (www.englishbaby.com).

Audio / Video CMC

            Asynchronous audio. Like text, audio or video interaction can be either asynchronous or synchronous. One example of asynchronous voice interaction would be the voicemail services, using this the setudents with voice-enabled computers can leave messages for one another. An excellent free resource for doing such recordings is Audicity (http://audicity.sourceforge.net/) for both PCs and Macs.

            Asynchronous video. This area has not been  as well-developed, due partly to the bandwidth requirements for using video. While there are many sites for sharing video (most notably www.youtube.com).

D.  Unit 4

            In unit 4, we talk about CALL on the web in more depth, the Web is also where you find the most common tool applications for CALL, in particular the browsers and online video players that give access to a seemingly endless collection of both dedicated and authentic English language material. The web has featured in many of the CALL articles and conference presentations since the mid 1990s.

Disadvantages of the Web.

There are some disadvantages of the web, they are :

·      Text-based material on the web is sometimes not as easy to read as material in paper format because of font color and background choices.

·      Sound and video sometimes take a noticeable time to transfer, even on fast connections. Newer forms of streaming have improved this drammatically, but the web is still not as responsive as a CD-ROM, DVD or the hard drive on a TiVo or other digital video.

·      Sound and video are typically compressed to spend up transfer : depending on the degree of compression and other factors they can be of noticeably lower quality than the original. This can affect their suitability for supporting language learning. Also some of the free material on sites like www.youtube.com were of poor audio or video quality even in their original state (for example, if taken with a mobile phone).

Down servers or broken links may lead to frustation.

Advantages of the Web.

There are many good reasons for using the Web for language learning activities, they are :

·      There is anytime, anywhere access ( for some people at least)

·      There are enormous amounts of free material

·      Material can be found that is current

·      Language reference and other learning support materials can be found

·      Student and teacher publication opportunities exist

·      A cultural window is opened through the authentic material readily available

·      Meaning technologies, such as transcripts, dictionaries, and tranlators, exist to aid comprehension of material

·      Increasing amounts of audio and video allow building of comprehension skills beyond reading

·      Previous disk-based activities (like tutorial exercises) and internet-based activities (like email) can often be handled through the web

The key to using the web is to be prepared. Know what the objective of your lesson is and try to make sure students are trained in what they need to know to accomplish that objective. Try to build some flexibility into the assignment or activity so that if something isn’t working as expected it can still go on.

Here are few tasks to help you connect the material here to your language teaching :

·      The web can be resource for both classroom and online lessons: take a look at two or three of the lesson plans on the web (use google (www.google.com) to find “ESL lesson plans” if none of of the sites above has what’re you looking for.

·      Meaning technologies like Babylon (www.babylon.com) and online scripts for audio and video can hinder as well as help, since they can interfere with normal language processing. What are some ways to use them positively and to train learners in their use?

·      Try three or four of the sites listed above that you haven’t visited before. Note ways you might use them in current or future classes.

·         Increasingly, the term “web 2.0” is appearing on the web and elsewhere. What is web 2.0? there are examples of it here, such as www.youtube.com if you don’t know what is is, go to a manifestation of it at www.wikipedia.org and look up the term. How do you think web 2.0 is changing language teaching.

E.  Unit 5 CALL and Language Skills

Skills-oriented language teaching remains a common approach for classes as well as for self-learning, and computer-assisted language learning is not exception. In this unit, we look at how both tool and tutor software can be used to support specific skills. In particular, we will look at some websites that focus on these skill areas.

There are some skill areas for call, they are :

1.      Listening

Listening is potentially one of the most promising areas for call development. This is because multimedia computing has everything standard audio and video have with the addition of variety of meaning technologies such as text support, hyperlinked glossaries, and even translation. One type of presentation specific to call is the punctuated presentation, in which the flow is interrupted at intervals to ask question along the way. Examples of course website for two of my recent listening classes are at www.standford.edu/`efs/693a andwww.standford.edu/`efs/efs693b/. And useful dedicated  esl listening sites : they are www.esl-lab.com, www.ello.org, andwww.lingual.net.

2.       Speaking

In terms of direct practice of speaking, recent developments on the web have allowed for voice chat sites which make it possible for learners and teachers to interact through the internet in distance education courses. Asynchronous speaking practice is possible through www.wimba.com, using internet voice mail, or simply attaching sound files to email.

3.      Reading

In the early days of call, reading software was designed to improve skills in order to transfer them to paper materials. Here some other ways call can be used to support reading : just using the web, educational sites with esl or adult literacy support, text reconstruction activities, such as storyboard, cloze exercises and jigsaw readings, timed or paced readings to develop speed, for example,www.readingsoft.com/. Online graded readers such as those at www.eslreading.org/.

4.      Writing

Writing was revolutionized for everyone with word processing, and the addition of spell checkers has been quite helpful. Grammar and style checkers are much less useful to date. Writing has also been a common skill taught as a course through distance education using in the internet. Writing publication opportunities are ready available through wikis and blogs.

5.      Grammar

Grammar practice was perhaps the earliest use of call. Today grammar work is largely focused on the following : workbook-style exercises at www.grammar-quizzes.com/, grammar test prep materials especially toefl at www.toefl.com, online courses and references athttp://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/index.cfm, and grammar portals such as www.esltower.com/.

6.      Pronounciation

Pronounciation work is generally of three types :

·         listen, repeat/record, and compare.

·         visualization ; wave form, pitch contour, spectogram.

·         asr (automatic speech recognition) scoring.

7.      Vocabulary

Other common call implementations for vocabulary include the following.

·         hypertext dictionaries/glossaries. Babylon (www.babylon.com) is a commercial memory-resident dictionary system that runs in the background on your computer.

·         talking dictionaries : longman, oxford, and newbury house have learner’s dictionaries.

·         concordance programs.

·         picture dictionaries : http://www.pdictionary.com/ has a picture dictionary for english, spanish, french, german, and italian.

·         word lists and vocabulary tests for english.

An outstanding site for vocabulary teaching and research tools is tom cobb’s compleat lexical tutor : http://www.lextutor.ca/.

8.      Culture

Obviously, this is a huge area for foreign language teaching, where authentic cultural material is readily accessible through the web. There are many ways to use the authentic material found on websites to support cultural learning. At you tube,http://www.youtube.com.

F.   Unit 6 CALL Research

In this unit we talk about call research. So far, we have been going through this course with the implicit assumption that call works, that teaching language using computers in using computers in some way makes learning “ better”. Here are some possible interpretations :

·      learners pick up language knowledge or skills faster or with less effort (learning efficiency)

·      learners pick up what is targeted, retain language knowledge or skills longer, and/or learn more of what they need (effectiveness)

·      learners can get materials or experience interactions that would otherwise be difficult or impossible (access)

·      learners can learn with more or less equal effectiveness across a wider range of time/places (convenience)

·      learners enjoy the language learning process more or are willing to engage in it more (motivation)

·      learners require less space, less teacher time, or less experience materials (institutional efficiency)

Call research trends

            research has continued in all areas of call but recently has focused on several identifiable areas, such as :

·         computer mediated communication; especially, interaction in synchronous chat settings and email in tandem settings

·         visual, text and sound annotation to promote comprehension and vocabulary acquisition

·         effectiveness of online collaborative and constructivist activities, including development of communities.

There are several avenues available to teachers in the role of researchers of their own classroom or students. They are :

·      observation. When your students are using software or doing a computer-ased task in a lab where you can watch them. You can look over their shoulder, check their interactions, and make brief notes of what you notice.

·      tracking. Some software has built-in tracking features. If you are using a discussion board, all student posts can be reviewed.

·      student surveys. Ask specific questions about usage-note that it’s best to do this as soon as possible after a call session sense memories fade rapidly.

·      pre- and post- testing to evaluate outcomes of the use of technology.

·      student journals. Getting students to keep a reflective journal of their experiences with software.

·      other studies : case study, action research, descriptive qualitative study, experiment.

G.  Unit 7 CALL Learner Training

  at the last unit we share about call learner training. Call has given us some amazing possibilities create a problem. Absent a teacher, students using computers are typically given more control over their own learning. One way out of this dilemma is to spend time training learners in dealing appropriately with this new environment.

There are three alternatives to call learner training. They are :

·         one solution is to try to build software in such a way that it adapts to the learner on a number of different levels : language proficiency, computer proficiency, learning style, topical interest, motivational type and intensity, and so on.

·         a second alternative is to take the philosophical position that learners have a right to self discovery and that left alone they will naturally move to the strategies that work for them and that are consonant with their learning style.

·         a third alternative is to acknowledge that learners would profit from training  but that it’s just too much trouble to train them since it obviously takes a lot of time away from other aspects of language learning and there’s no guarantee it will be successful.

Training can be divided at least into two areas : technical and pedagogical.

·         technical training naturally includes general computer literacy, but of greater interest here is learning technical skills and knowledge of particular value to language learning.

Here is one example : most audio/video players, for instance ( real, quicktime, windows media), often have a default setting is small. But by dragging the bottom right corner, the player can be stretched.

Here’s another example : recent versions of windows media player have a “play speed” control that allows learners to slow down (or speed up) sound files (accessed through view> enhancements>play speed settings).

·         pedagogical training that is, how to use the tutorial software or tool effectively to meet specific learning objectives.

There are five principles for learner training, they are :

·         experience call yourself. Try a piece of call software (like rosetta stone) for a language you don’t know, or visit a chatroom for a language you aren’t fluent in.

·         give learners teacher training. Let them know some of what you know if they are to become more independent.

·         use a cyclical approach. Teach a bit at a time. Don’t just have a training session at the beginning and think your job is done.

·         use a collaborative debriefings. Get learners to discuss their experiences, successes and failures with the call tasks and software in pairs or small group.

·         teach general exploitation strategies. Show the learners ways to use software to make it easier if it’s too hard and harder if it’s too easy.

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