Summary of An Invitation to CALL
Unit
1: Introduction to Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
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 other names,
CALL seems to be the most widely accepted generic term. In this foundation
course, CALL will be used in a broad sense to refer to any endeavor involving
the computer in some significant way in language teaching and learning.
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). A vocabulary flashcard program or set of
online grammar exercises would represent tutor uses, where the computer in some
way has a teaching function. A language learning activity involving a word
processor, email program, or web search engine like Google would represent tool
uses, where the computer has no overt teaching function.
Unit 2: Courseware Evaluation, Development,
and Implementation
This
unit looks at the sub-field of tutorial CALL from the perspectives of both the
end users (teachers and students) and developers. It introduces 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. We will use the term interchangeably with that of tutorial
software to include any software designed for language learning purposes.
The
objective of this unit is to give you a peek at the three dimensions of
tutorial CALL--developing courseware, evaluating courseware, and implementing
courseware in your classes. Although CALL courseware has arguably lost its
dominant position in CALL over the past decade, it is still widely used and
continues to be a significant part of the field. At the very least, it is worth
exploring so that you can make an informed decision about whether to
incorporate it in your own teaching or recommend it to your students for
independent study. It is worth noting that more and more courseware, much of it
free, is showing up on the web rather than in CD-ROMs, and that there is
non-CALL courseware that can sometimes be adapted for language learning
purposes.
ORGANIZING
PRINCIPLES
Development,
evaluation, and implementation are part of a logical progression in any
situation that has an end product. If a company produces a computer program for
balancing your checkbook, for instance, they need to 1) design it with the
needs of the end users in mind, 2) evaluate it in house and encourage outsiders
to review it, and 3) have a mechanism to implement it, including figuring out
how to make it available and training end users in its effective operation. Of
course this can be and often is cyclic rather than linear, with the feedback
from evaluation and implementation providing data for subsequent development.
Development,
evaluation, and implementation are thus simultaneously part of a logical
progression of a courseware project and interacting manifestations of its
reality. This is true whether the project is for CALL or for some other
educational purpose. However, the specific domain of language teaching and
learning imposes on these three a set of considerations that are not exactly
the same as we would find in courseware for, say, history or chemistry or math.
The framework that follows addresses those considerations. This is a revised
and simplified form of the content in Hubbard (1996) and in the papers listed
below (see references). The others go into more depth in language teaching
approaches (1987), evaluation (1988), and development (1992).Note that an
updated version for evaluation can be found in Hubbard (2006):
www.stanford.edu/~efs/calleval.pdf, also covering Chapelle's (2001) framework
and evaluation checklists.
EVALUATION MODULE
Evaluation
involves three kinds of considerations. A crucial aspect is to understand what
the courseware does first before attempting to judge it: this is, not
surprisingly, difficult to do because as soon as we start interacting with a
program we want 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. The design elements essentially can be subsumed under the label
"learner fit." That is, based on the information from the operational
description, you are looking to see how well the design elements (see
Development Module, below) of language difficulty, program difficulty, program
content, etc. fit the students you are evaluating for.
The
approach elements, in this case approach-based evaluation criteria, can be
subsumed under the label "teacher fit"--broadly, what does the
software appear to represent in terms of assumptions about what language is and
how language is learned, and how compatible are such assumptions with those of
the teacher doing the evaluation? 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. This relationship is sketched below.
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, I 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.
-
What is the setting in which the students will be using the software
(classroom, lab, home, etc.?)
- What kinds of training or preparatory
activities are warranted?
-
What kinds of follow-up activities either in or out of class will there be?
-
Given the options provided by the program, how much control will the teacher
exert, and how much control will be left to the learner?
Unit 3: Computer Mediated Communication
The
past unit dealt largely with dedicated CALL courseware, or tutorial CALL;
however, in many cases the tool uses may be more appropriate for a given
teaching approach or teacher's experience, or may serve a given learning
situation better. 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
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.
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. 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.
For instance, a student could interview another through email, asking a set of
questions, getting the answers, and then reporting the result in class the next
day. Teachers can also assign information gap activities, where students are
paired and each has some of the information both need to complete a task.
Outside of the class, students can communicate with "keypals", the
equivalent of traditional pen pals.
Synchronous text. With Synchronous text, or chat, the
message are exchanged in text form, but in real time. Some of the early
research on CMC was built around a type of chat program,
InterChange,
that was part of the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment system
(www.daedalus.com). Students could carry out synchronous discussion in a
computer classroom them discussing orally face to face?), a number of studies
have shown that some students communicate more when they don't have to speak or
be face to face with interlocutors, that communication overall is more evenly
distributed among participants (e.g., Warschauer et al., 2000), and that they
may even use a much wider range of discourse functions than they do in
face-to-face settings with the same material (Kern, 1995).
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.
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.
Unit 4: CALL on the Web
We
have been looking at CALL software and activities involving it regardless of
whether it is accessible through disk, the Internet in general (like email) or
the World Wide Web. This unit looks into the Web in more depth. The reason is
that the Web represents the largest collection (by far!) of material that is
accessible almost anytime and anywhere by almost anyone having a browser
equipped computer and an Internet connection. 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.This unit is primarily about
exploring, so follow up on links that look interesting. Note that this is just
a start. Some of these sites will be discussed in greater detail in Unit 5.
ADVANTAGES
OF THE WEB
Despite
the disadvantages, there are many good reasons for using the Web for certain
language learning activities.
·
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 translators, 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.
DISADVANTAGE OF
THE WEB
Because
of the hype surrounding it for language learning it is useful to begin with
some of the disadvantage of the web over the alternatives
·
Text-based material on the web is sometimes not
as easy to read as material in paper format because of font color and
background choice.
·
Sound and video sometimes take a noticeable time
to transfer, even on fast connections. Newer forms of streaming have improved this
dramatically, but the Web is still not as responsive as a CD-ROM, DVD or the
hard drive on a TiVo or other digital video recorder.
·
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. 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)
·
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. The equivalent
of turning a page may result in a noticeable delay if the server is busy.
·
Because
of this delay, interactivity is limited compared to what is possible with disks
or CD-ROMs. However, increasingly Web applications (like Macromedia Flash) have
interactivity without delays.
·
Down
servers or broken links may lead to frustration.
·
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. If you haven't already done so, have a look at Google's basic search
help, www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=134479, and more
search help, www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861.
·
The
Web is dynamic and often as unpredictable as the humans behind it. You may find
an old site that has not been updated for years, or you may find a great source
of material only to have it be gone the next time you look for it. You may
still be able to locate old pages using the "cached" feature of
Google (www.google.com) or the Internet archive's Way back Machine at
www.archive.org.
·
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 (so
that you don't get their ads), or requiring users to watch commercials before
the desired material loads.
·
As
is widely known, the accuracy of Web sources is often questionable (the present
one excepted of course). See, for example,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm.
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 no 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. Many of these are for
free, but like everything else that's free on the web, the sites need to be
looked at carefully for their pedagogical value. Once you understand what they
do, try to judge their fit to your potential students and your own teaching
approach.
You
can also use them to get ideas for your own future CALL materials
development.The questions you should be trying to answer are the following:
1. What have teachers/developers done to teach the skill areas using
computers?
2. To what extent does what they've done actually enhance learning?
3. And most
important, how can you use these resources to support your students' learning
objectives?
ESL PORTALS
Because
of the enormous number of English teachers and learners, there are quite a few
multi-skill collections for ESL.,A few, such as www.manythings.org by the Kelly
brothers (http://aitech.ac.jp/~lkelly/ and http://aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/) are
mostly labors of love for students and colleagues around the world; often,
however, these are commercial, aimed at getting "eyeballs" for advertisers.
Some of these are divided by skills and have examples of web-based
materials: see for
example www.eslgold.com or http://esl.about.com or just type "ESL"
plus the skill you're interested in into Google. Collections for other commonly
taught languages can be found in a similar way. One type of collection is a
portal, which is a website that has a large number of links to other websites,
such as www.rong-chang.com.
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. Listening activities typically
involve presentations followed by comprehension questions--some also include
full or partial dictations. One type of presentation specific to CALL is the punctuated
presentation, in which the flow is interrupted at intervals to ask
questions along the way.
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. There has also
been interest recently in having students produce and publish podcasts. Many
believe that putting students in front of a computer in groups of two or more
will get them talking about the computer task and improve speaking fluency,
although research has not always borne this out: like many other CALL
activities, it depends on the students' readiness and motivation. For tutorial
CALL, practicing speaking has always been tricky.
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.
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.
GRAMMAR
Grammar
practice was perhaps the earliest use of CALL. Today grammar work is largely
focused on the following:
Workbook-style exercises (on disk and online): online examples can be
seen at www.grammar-quizzes.com/. Grammar test prep materials (especially TOEFL
www.toefl.com and TOEIC http://www.toeic.com) CD-ROMs accompanying grammar
textbooks, like Focus on Grammar at www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/multimedia/programs/fog.htm
and Azar's grammar series www.azargrammar.com/materials/index.html. Online
courses and references (e.g., Anthony Hughes' Online English Grammar,
http://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/index.cfm or www.scribd.com/doc/2586846/Anthony-Hughes-the-online-english-grammar)
Hypertext-linked grammar notes accompanying readings
Grammar portals
such as www.esltower.com/
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.
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.
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. YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com, is a particularly useful application for this purpose
with intermediate and advanced students.
PRACTICE ACTIVITY
Select
one skill area that particularly interests you. After reviewing some of
the sources mentioned above, find several other web sources on your own
and review them for their potential to integrate into or supplement your class
activities.
Unit
6: CALL Research
So
far, we have been going through this course with the implicit assumption that
CALL works, that teaching language using computers in some way makes learning
"better." But what exactly is "better?" Here are some
possible interpretations:
Ø
learners pick up language knowledge or skills
faster or with less effort (learning efficiency)
Ø
learners pick up what is targeted, retain
language knowledge or skills longer, and/or learn more of what they need
(effectiveness)
Ø
learners can get materials or experience interactions
that would otherwise be difficult or impossible (access)
Ø
learners can learn with more or less equal
effectiveness across a wider range of times/places (convenience)
Ø
learners enjoy the language learning process
more or are willing to engage in it more (motivation)
Ø
learners require less space, less teacher time,
or less expensive 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.
·
Observation. When your students are using
software or doing a computer-based task in a lab or other venue where you
can--watch them. You can look over their shoulder, check their interactions,
and make brief notes of what you notice. Interact with the students as they
interact with the software. This can give you feedback on the effectiveness of
a given piece of software, CALL exercise, or CALL task, and it can also help
you determine student training needs.
·
Tracking. Some software has built-in tracking features.
If you are using a discussion board, all student posts can be reviewed. Some
chat programs also allow the sessions to be logged for later review.
·
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 or other CALL activities
is useful both for them and to the teacher.
Unit 7: CALL
Learner Training
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. Due to the
newness of computer environments and the range of choices in many CALL
applications, they are arguably unprepared to take on this responsibility. 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.
PEDAGOGICAL
TRAINING
In
a 2004 paper (Hubbard, 2004), I make a case for giving training not just on
technical aspects but also on pedagogical ones, that is, how to use the tutorial
software or tool effectively to meet specific learning objectives. To this end,
I offer a set of five principles for learner training, summarized below.
1. 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 are not fluent in. This was the recommended assignment for Unit 1.
The assumption here is that by knowing what it's like from the learner's side,
you'll be able to give better advice.
2. Give learners teacher training. Let them know some of what you
know if they are to become more independent. Help them develop a "language
learning approach" that is consistent with what you consider a valid
language teaching approach. In particular, try to give them practice with
linking the procedures and strategies they use with software, online tasks, and
CMC activities to specific language learning objectives.
3. 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. If anything,
let learners "play" awhile with the application so that they have
some familiarity with it before formal training begins. Learning (both
technical and pedagogical) should be incremental but also include plenty of
recycling and reviewing key concepts and strategies.
4. Use
collaborative debriefings. Get learners to discuss their experiences,
successes and failures with the CALL tasks and software in pairs or small
groups. Don't just make the instruction one-way from you. Having learners talk
about lab experiences at the end of a
session helps consolidate it, and discussing their individual experiences
(at home or a drop-in lab) at the following class provides a way of avoiding
the sense of isolation that comes from working on the computer alone.
5. Teach
general exploitation strategies. Show learners ways to use software to make
it easier if it's too hard and harder if it's too easy, as well as how to mine
the material for uses different from those intended by the developer. For
example, many CALL tutorial exercises involve multiple choice. By teaching
learners to resize windows so that the list of possible answers is hidden, the
question becomes both a more challenging and a more natural open-ended one. Learners
similarly need training in how to use text support (transcripts and captions)
effectively for audio and video so that the language learning objective is
supported. For CMC activities, some training in the rationale for and
techniques of effectively negotiating meaning is valuable. In general, learners
need to build a repertoire of strategies that they can use to realize the
language learning potential in dedicated CALL software, CMC tasks and online
language material.
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