RESUME OF CALL (FINAL EXAM)
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) may be defined as "the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning". CALL now includes highly interactive and communicative support for listening, speaking, reading and writing, including extensive use of multimedia CD-ROMs and the Internet. There are a number of ways to conceptualize field of CALL, but one useful way, especially for those just entering the field, is to divide computer use according to the functional roles of tutor and tool, concepts popularized for CALL by Levy (1997). CALL began in the 1960s with mainframe-based drill and practice materials, especially those based on the University of Illinois' PLATO system. It remained an insignificant alternative for language learning outside of a few universities until the spread of the microcomputer into educational settings in the early 1980s. Early programs were written by teacher-developers on Apple II, IBM PC, and BBC computers, and were often distributed for free.
There are scope of Call, they are:
v As researchers: into second language acquisition, human-computer interaction, what works for CALL
v As consumers of CALL software for class use or building web activities into course work
v As directors, helping students find and use supplementary CALL materials or web resources
v As managers of computer-mediated communication among learners in and out of class
v As software or web developers, either "from scratch" or adding new materials to existing templates
v As coaches to help students develop software, websites, and general computer literacy
v As CALL experts for your program, helping other teachers and administrators with CALL implementations
v As CALL professionals, consulting on external projects, doing software reviews for journals, making conference presentations, writing papers, interpreting and applying CALL research, and/or providing input to the field at large.
Though CALL has developed gradually over the last 30 years, this development can be categorized in terms of three somewhat distinct phases which I will refer to as behaviorist CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL (cf. Barson & Debski 1996). a. Behaviorist Call
The first phase of CALL, conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and '70s, was based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning. Programs of this phase entailed repetitive language drills and can be referred to as "drill and practice" (or, more pejoratively, as "drill and kill"). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, behaviorist CALL was undermined by two important factors. First, behaviorist approaches to language learning had been rejected at both the theoretical and the pedagogical level. Secondly, the introduction of the microcomputer allowed a whole new range of possibilities. The stage was set for a new phase of CALL.
b. Communicative Call
The second phase of CALL was based on the communicative approach to teaching which became prominent in the 1970s and 80s. Proponents of this approach felt that the drill and practice programs of the previous decade did not allow enough authentic communication to be of much value. Several types of CALL programs were developed and used during this the phase of communicative CALL.
Integrative Call
Approaches to CALL are based on two important technological developments of the last decade - multimedia computers and the Internet. Multimedia technology - exemplified today by the CD-ROM - allows a variety of media (text, graphics, sound, animation, and video) to be accessed on a single machine.
The history of CALL suggests that the computer can serve a variety of uses for language teaching. It can be a tutor which offers language drills or skill practice; a stimulus for discussion and interaction; or a tool for writing and research. With the advent of the Internet, it can also be a medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials. But as pointed out by Garrett (1991), "the use of the computer does not constitute a method". Rather, it is a "medium in which a variety of methods, approaches, and pedagogical philosophies may be implemented" (p. 75). The effectiveness of CALL cannot reside in the medium itself but only in how it is put to use. CALL software is a bit different from a checkbook balancing program in that it involves a more complex view of who the evaluators and end users are. Evaluation, for instance, may be connected to the developer and be used for improving the courseware prior to release, or it may be done by an outside reviewer for a professional journal. Development, evaluation, and implementation are thus simultaneously part of a logical progression of a courseware project and interacting manifestations of its reality. The three modules (development, evaluation, and implementation) share core components inspired by Richards & Rodgers (1982). The development and evaluation modules are most closely related in terms of the elements considered
EVALUATION MODULE
Evaluation involves three kinds of considerations. A crucial aspect is to understand what the courseware does first before attempting to judge it: If an evaluator wants to approach the problem a little more objectively, the first consideration then is the operational description of the software, which essentially focuses on the procedure level elements. More generally, what kind of "teaching" is the software likely to be doing? Ultimately, then, evaluation consists of getting a clear understanding of what the software actually has in the way of material and interaction, and then judging how closely it fits with the learner's needs as determined by their profiles and learning objectives (perhaps themselves determined by a course syllabus) and your own language teaching approach.
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. However, I believe it is also critically important to recognize the pedagogical aspects specific to language learning that traditional instructional design approaches may overlook. In describing the development module, We review the key terms which are part of the evaluation module as well. This captures the intuitive realization that the deliberations important in deciding whether or not to use a piece of software are the same as the deliberations taken in producing the software in the first place. Like the development module, both the evaluation and implementation modules rely on versions of Richards and Rodgers' categories of approach, design, and procedure.
IMPLEMENTATION MODULE
Implementation considerations are relevant during the evaluation process, but they become crucial when deciding how best to use software that is available. Some of the key questions to address in implementation are the following.
a. What is the setting in which the students will be using the software (classroom, lab, home etc.?)
b. What kinds of training or preparatory activities are warranted?
c. What kinds of follow-up activities either in or out of class will there be?
d. Given the options provided by the program, how much control will the teacher exert, and how much control will be left to the learner?
Arguably, activities with CALL courseware can be supplementary or complementary to the classroom part of the course (including the virtual classroom in an online setting), required or optional, and still be useful. However, the instructor needs to be sure that learners see the connections and that the computer work is compatible in terms of content, level, and approach to the rest of the course material and activities. For a more detailed description of the components to consider in implementation and their interrelationships, see Hubbard (1996).
In one category of tool uses, computer-mediated communication, or CMC, 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 participants (one to one, one to many, or many to many), and medium (text, voice, or video). In addition, the physical properties of the device may offer a significant variable, such as the difference between email on a computer and text messaging on a cell phone. In this unit we will briefly examine the options and then go over some of the rationale for various uses to support language learning.
TEXT-BASED CMC
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.
Asynchronous text. The first use of CMC in language teaching almost certainly came through email exchanges from teachers to students and among students within classes. Email is an example of asynchronous communication, in that the interaction is not in real time: You create and send an email, and the recipient typically gets it within seconds but may not read it or respond until much later. Email can be used for a number of purposes. Teachers can receive homework from students and give responses to it. Students can communicate with one another to practice using the language, to discuss issues, to fulfill communicative tasks, or to collaborate on projects. Another form of asynchronous communication is discussion lists or listservs, where the email goes out to groups rather than individuals (one to many).
Synchronous Text. With synchronous text, or chat, the messages are exchanged in text form, but in real time. Some of the early research on CMC was built around a type of chat program, Inter Change, that was part of the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment system (www.daedalus.com). Students could carry out synchronous discussion in a computer classroom using this tool. Chat rooms are easily found on the web through portals like Yahoo, though many are of questionable suitability for use with language classes. However, here are a number of specialized chat rooms for English language learners available at sites such as Dave's ESL Cafe (www.eslcafe.com) and EnglishBaby (www.englishbaby.com), some of which are moderated by an English teacher. 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 offered by a number of sites for free. Using this, students with voice-enabled computers can leave messages for one another or for the teacher.
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), they are not really designed for exchanging video messages. Synchronous audio/video. Synchronous audio is possible using internet telephony (or just the telephone, for that matter) for one to one conversation. Skype (http://www.skype.com), a relatively reliable service that is free when calling computer to computer and inexpensive when calling computer to telephone, has made this increasingly popular in education circles. CMC IN DISTANCE EDUCATION AND VIRTUAL WORLDS
Distance education is increasing in education generally and language learning is no exception. While tutorial CALL material can be presented online for independent study without teachers, there are also classes that are offered to groups of students online with a live teacher's guidance. These classes can be either synchronous or asynchronous, and CMC usually plays an important role.
INTEGRATING CMC INTO ESL CLASSES
It is important to recognize that synchronous CMC by definition is real time communication. Learners will be put on the spot to produce language quickly and one should expect less accuracy (including typos if in a text mode), but they will arguably be practicing something that overlaps a lot with face to face communication. Asynchronous CMC allows for more thought and planning, and thus it may be more reasonable to expect closer attention to organization and language forms.
Technological Mediation on Team Performance (2003)”, has been done to develop the basis of this research. This model theoretically analyzes the effects of technological mediation on team processes, such as, cohesiveness, status and authority relations, counter-normative behavior and communication. The communication that occurs through computer-mediated technologies (i.e., Email, Audio/Video Conferencing etc.) is called Computer-mediated Communication (CMC). The application of this type of communication is more entrenched in virtual environment because this is the only source available to geographically dispersed teams for the exchange of information. Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) can be divided into Asynchronous and Synchronous Communication. Asynchronous Communication is the time-constrained communication (e.g., Text Messaging) and Synchronous is without it (e.g., Emails).
The significance of having social interaction between virtual distributed team members is also inevitable. This is a common observation that people want to work with those whom they like. Virtual organizations must try to create the atmosphere of trust, group prestige, empathy, satisfaction and loyalty towards other team members and must try to generate a philosophical rhythm of regular Face-to-Face (FTF) settings through emerging communication technologies.
We have been looking at CALL software and activities involving it regardless of whether it is accessible through disk, the internet in general or the World Wide Web.
DISADVANTAGES OF WEB
ü Because of the hype surrounding it for language learning, it is useful to begin with some of the disadvantages of the web over alternatives:
ü 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.
ü Sound and video sometimes take a noticeable time to transfer, eve on fast connections.
ü Sound and video are typically compressed to speed up transfer: depending on the degree of compression and other factors they can be of noticeably lower quality than the original.
ü Because of the way that HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) works, on most pages every click is a request that has to go back to the original server.
ü Because of this delay, interactivity is limited compared to what is possible with disk or CD-ROMs.
ü Down servers or broken links may lead to frustration.
ü The sheer amount of material can make it hard to find what you want, though developing skill with a search engine like Google (www.google.com) is certainly a great help. ü The Web is dynamic and often as unpredictable as the humans behind it.
ü Sites and applications that used to be free and only supported by text ads that could be easily ignored are increasingly charging fees requiring subscriptions or requiring users to watch commercials before the desired materials loads.
ü As widely known, the accuracy of web sources is often questionable.
ADVANTAGES OF THE WEB
ü Despite the disadvantages, there are many good reasons for using the web for certain language learning activities:
ü There is anytime, anywhere access (for some people at least).
ü There are enormous amounts of free material.
ü Material can be found that is current
ü Language reference and other learning support materials can be found.
ü Student and teacher publication opportunities exist.
ü A cultural window is opened through the authentic material readily available.
ü Meaning technologies, such as transcripts, dictionaries, and translators, exit to aid comprehension of material.
ü Increasing amounts of audio and video allow building of comprehension skills beyond reading.
ü Previous disk-based activities and internet-based activities can often be handled through the web.
Skills-oriented language teaching remains a common approach for classes as well as for self-learning, and computer-assisted language learning is no exception. To get ideas for your own future CALL materials development. The questions we should be trying to answer are the following:
- What have teachers/developers done to teach the skill areas using computers?
- To what extent does what they've done actually enhance learning?
- And most important, how can you use these resources to support your students' learning objectives?
Ø 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 a variety of meaning technologies such as text support, hyperlinked glossaries, and even translations. There are a number of useful dedicated ESL listening sites: three of my favorites are www.esl-lab.com, www.elllo.org, and www.lingual.net. Ø 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. The most widely used indirect method for practicing speaking is simply to listen to conversational dialogues on disk or the web. See, for example, www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html. Ø READING
In the early days of CALL, reading software was designed to improve skills in order to transfer them to paper materials. More recently, reading in digital form is becoming more and more common.
Most CALL reading instruction, first on disk and later on the web, has involved the use of meaning technologies. These include dedicated applications, such as hypertext glossaries, translations, and notes (on grammar, usage, culture), put together by developers for particular texts and generic applications such as electronic dictionaries, encyclopedias, translation systems like Google's http://translate.google.com/#. Ø 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, and using a thesaurus can be counterproductive if students aren't trained in their limitations. Writing has also been a common skill taught as a course through distance education using the Internet.
Some other ways computers enhance writing instruction include the following.
- Use of email and discussion boards (see Unit 3) for fluency development.
- Blank screen (where the monitor is turned off and students type in their ideas without being distracted) and other production techniques, such as using graphic organizers or concept t mapping:http://library.usu.edu/instruct/tutorials/cm/CMinstruction1.htm.
- Collaborative writing tasks. These are made easier today with tools such as an online word processor now available for free from Google: http://docs.google.com/
- Writing support practice (e.g., CALL activities with fill-ins for structured writing)
- Publication opportunities (both paper and web) as motivators. See Tom Robb's classic description of an early web publishing project at www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/projects.html.
Ø GRAMMAR
Grammar practice was perhaps the earliest use of CALL. Today grammar work is largely focused on the following:
Ø PRONUNCIATION
Pronunciation work is generally of three types.
- Listen, repeat/record, and compare. This option shows up in many multimedia programs and is analogous to the tape-based language lab technique in the audio-lingual method. However, the instantaneous response of digitized speech (no rewinding needed) makes the computer a more effective instrument for this. See http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/dialog01.htm
- Visualization: wave form, pitch contour, spectrogram. The first and last are of questionable value. Wave forms are easy for a computer to produce, but they only clearly show the bands of intensity across time. This is most helpful in teaching rhythm. Spectrograms are most useful if they have high detail, which they generally don't on CALL software, and they require training in phonetics to interpret them. However, visualization of pitch contour has been found to be quite helpful for some students in recognizing and producing both the patterns and ranges of intonation.
- ASR (automatic speech recognition) scoring. Here, the computer uses speech recognition software to grade accuracy. This can be useful, but there are a lot of technical problems--microphone quality, sound card quality, and background noise are all variables that can negatively affect the score, leading even native speakers to score as non-natives. For an example of a standardized test that uses ASR, see Ordinate's PhonePass: www.ordinate.com. ASR and other is also used in Rosetta Stone, http://www.rosettastone.com.
Ø VOCABULARY
Vocabulary activities have been around since the early days of CALL in the form of electronic flashcards (linking L2 word to L1 translation or L2 word to L2 definition). 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; www.voycabulary.com is a web application that automatically links items in a web page to a variety of dictionaries. · Talking dictionaries: Longman, Oxford, and Newbury House have learner's dictionaries with CD-ROMs that include pronunciation and sometimes other multimedia support. An online version is at www.ldoceonline.com. · Concordance programs: these programs look for words in collections of texts, or corpora, and return examples of the word in the immediate context it occurs in: an online one is available at www.edict.com.hk/concordance/. . Ø CULTURE
The teaching language using computers in some way makes learning "better." But what exactly is "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 times/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 expensive materials (institutional efficiency)
CALL RESEARCH TRENDS
Most CAI (computer-assisted instruction) and early CALL research focused on comparing computer users with a control group typically using traditional methods.
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 SURVEY OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS IN CALL RESEARCH
SUBJECT CHARACTERISTICS IN CALL RESEARCH
The overall conclusion was that "CALL research as a whole is unbalanced in the direction of the study of novices working on novel tasks or using novel applications" (Hubbard 2005: 363).
DOING RESEARCH
There are several avenues available to teachers in the role of researchers of their own classroom or students
· Observation. When your students are using software or doing a computer-based task in a lab or other venue where you can--watch them.
· 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.
- Student journals. Getting students to keep a reflective journal of their experiences with software or other CALL activities is useful both for them and to the teacher.
LOCATING RESEARCH STUDIES
A search through Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) using appropriate keywords is one way to find research materials on a CALL topic. CALL has given us some amazing possibilities for improving language learning. However, these possibilities create a problem. Absent a teacher, students using computers are typically given more control over their own learning. The result is that students may not use the computers in ways that are effective for achieving language learning objectives, and it is even less likely that they will use them in ways that are most effective.
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
TECHNICAL TRAINING
Training can be divided at least into two areas: technical and pedagogical (you may recall that this was the same division as for teachers in). Technical training naturally includes general computer literacy (which can be a major issue or not depending on your setting and students), 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 that is small:
PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING
There are five principles for learner training, summarized below.
· Experience CALLS your self.
· Give learners teacher training.
· Use a cyclical approach.
· Use collaborative debriefings.
· Teach general exploitation strategies.
Of course, in order to be effective at training students, it is necessary to thoroughly analyze the software, task, or activity you are assigning.
There are a number of areas related to CALL that we either did not cover at all or just mentioned in passing.
· Concordancing. Concordance programs such as Athelstan's (http://www.athel.com) MonoConc are tools that allow you to tap into large collections of texts, called corpora, to discover how language is actually used. · Learning Management Systems. Learning management systems, or LMSs (sometimes also called course management systems), include commercial systems like Blackboard and Web CT that are used either for online courses or for online elements of classroom-based courses.
· Computer-Based Language Testing. Although testing is not a direct part of language learning, it is clearly an area of interest to language teachers. For proficiency testing, TOEFL (www.toefl.org) and other commercial proficiency tests are now offered primarily through computer at testing centers. · Communities of Practice. While we have assumed here that you can learn about CALL through course work or self-study, another way is to interact with other language teachers who are similarly on their own. An example is the Webheads (http://webheadsinaction.org/) community. · Teacher Education for CALL. Unit 1 touched on this area, but now that this mini-course is concluding, it's worth looking again at opportunities in teacher education.
· Tracking. Tracking of student use of computer applications has been a part of CALL research since the beginning, but a lot of research, both formal and informal, has relied on other data such as pre- and post-testing, observation, think-aloud and recall protocols, and simply student attitude surveys to determine effectiveness.
