ENG517 Midterm Short Notes

These are notes for those students who are unable to go through video lectures & handouts. These are not prepared for grand quiz but you can comprehend topics of grand quiz or basic concepts.

Lecture: 01

CALL - the study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning. Also known as:

Computer-Aided Language Learning (CALL) Computer-Assisted Language Instruction (CALI) Computer-Enhanced Language Learning (CELL)

CALL – Language learner

CALL allows learners to control their own learning process CALL can provide communicative meaningful language learning CALL software can offer a balance of controlled practice and free communicative expression

What do we mean by “computer”?

It does not include simply the canonical desktop and laptop devices but also includes the networks connecting them, peripheral devices such as:

PDAs (personal digital assistants) Mp3 players Mobile phones Electronic whiteboards DVD players

What do we mean by “improve”?

It can be answered with respect to a number of different perspectives:

• Learning efficiency: learners are able to pick up language knowledge or skills faster or with less effort
• Learning effectiveness: learners retain language knowledge or skills longer, make deeper associations, and/or learn more of what they need
• Access: learners can get materials or experience interactions that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to get or do
• Convenience: learners can study and practice with equal effectiveness across a wider range of times and places
• Motivation: learners enjoy the language learning process more and thus engage more fully
• Institutional efficiency: learners require less teacher time or fewer or less expensive resources.

Lecture: 02

Views regarding CALL

Chapelle (2001), who links the design and evaluation of CALL tasks to a set of principles derived primarily from the research base of the interactionist perspective of second language acquisition (SLA). Bax (2003), who views “normalisation” as the defining direction for the field, a state where technology is fully integrated into language teaching.

Technology Deriving CALL

1. CALL Emergence
2. Early Work with Micro- computers
3. Random-Access Laser Videodisc
4. Artificial Intelligence Improvisation

MIT’s Athena Language Learning Project - an attempt to bring together interactive videodisc and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to revolutionize language learning.

The Focus of Research in CALL

Early CALL research often focused on attempting to demonstrate the superiority of using computers over traditional language teaching.

CALL Design and Evaluation

Colpaert’s framework which creatively blends engineering principles and pedagogical approaches and is specifically oriented toward the creation of language courseware. Levy who categorized the uses of the term design in a corpus of 93 CALL articles from 1999

Three General Approaches by Levy and Stockwell

1. Checklists
2. Methodological frameworks
3. Applications of SLA principles

Lecture: 03 · CALL in the 1950s and 1960s · Introduction of computer in education

The first phase of CALL which was called Behavioristic 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".

Applications used for the language teaching and learning

PLATO Programmed Logic / Learning for Automated Teaching Operations - 1959

The first and most significant applications for the teaching and learning of language at the computer were those used on the PLATO system.

Its programming languages were custom-designed for the purpose of teaching language.

Much of PLATO’s first-language learning work was done in teaching Russian using a GTM.

Simulations

The learner is placed in a "world" defined by the teacher. It is a form of experiential learning. It is a strategy that fits well with the principles of Student-centred and constructivist learning and teaching. Simulations take a number of forms. They may contain elements of:

A game A role-play

CALL in the 1970s

Communicative CALL by John Underwood

According to Underwood, communicative call:

Focuses more on using forms rather than on the forms themselves Teaches grammar implicitly rather than explicitly Will never try to do anything that a book can do just as well Does not evaluate everything the students nor reward them with congratulatory messages Avoids telling students they are wrong

Lecture: 04

CALL in the 1980s

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, CALL was undermined by two important factors.

1. Drilling and rote learning approaches to language learning had been rejected at both the theoretical and the pedagogical level.
2. The introduction of the microcomputer allowed a whole new range of possibilities.

Points of Pederson’s assessment 1988

1. Meaningful Practice
2. Encourage development of language
3. Students differences and difficulties better documented
4. Difference may affect strategies, gains and attitude in CALL
5. Teachers have to secure the needed computer resources

Programs and applications used in language teaching process

Macario - an early videodisc program for learning Spanish. It was developed at Brigham Young University and was an attempt to create learning materials by adapting existing materials.

Montevidisco and Interactive Dígame - it was a teacher-controlled situation in which on-screen video provided visual and listening opportunities that were intended to be followed up with in-class conversation in the target language.

HyperCard developed by Apple Computer - provides an influential metaphor for CALL.

It works by creating a set of virtual index cards that can be cross-referenced. On these cards, text, images, audio, animations and video can be added.

Hypermedia - an extension of the term hypertext, is a nonlinear medium of information that includes graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks. This contrasts with the broader term multimedia, which may include non-interactive linear presentations as well as hypermedia.

Multimedia - any combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation, and video that is delivered by computer.