ENG517 Glossary by Asfand Yarr

1. Affordances :Affordances are the visual clues that an object gives to its use as well as what the program is capable of doing in terms of both intended and unintended functions. A chair is for sitting on and the size of the seat suggests that it might be comfortable for that purpose, but the chair can also be stood upon or used as a weapon; these are other affordances. An object can have both affordances and misaffordances, things that distract from the object’s intended use. Affordances can be both obvious and learned. A misaffordance for a chair would be design features that disguised its purpose or interfered with its principal purpose of being sat upon.
2. AI :Artificial Intelligence refers to the ability of a computer to mimic human thinking processes.
3. AILA :Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée.
4. ALLP :The Athena Language Learning Project developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
5. ALTE :Association of Language Testers in Europe.
6. Applet :A small application, often written in the Java computer language, that can be embedded in a web page to perform a small function.
7. Asynchronous :Refers to communication that takes place at different times, for example, through email in which a message is sent and may be read at leisure by the recipient.
8. Avatar :is an online personality that might resemble a person or almost anything else. Avatars are used in MOOs to represent a person and can be manipulated to move around an environment and interact with other participants’ avatars.
9. BASIC :Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, a computer programming language developed in the mid-1960s.

10. Beta software :a pre-commercial version of a software package that is made publicly available to identify problems in the software. 11. Bookmark :An Internet bookmark is a marker for a web page; the word is also used as a verb. 12. Bot :A small automated program which searches and indexes a range of websites for some specific information, such as the best price for an airline ticket or to create a current reference set. Bots are also known as spiders, ants, web crawlers and other terms reflecting small variations in function. 13. CAI :Computer-Aided Instruction refers to learning at the computer, but not necessarily to do with language. Although not necessarily intended by all those who use the acronym, the term instruction suggests a teacher-centred approach. 14. CAL :Computer-Assisted Learning. Similarly to CAI, CAL may refer to the learning of any subject (including language learning) using a computer. But in contrast to CAI, CAL emphasizes the learner. 15. CALI :Computer-Assisted Language Instruction, a term commonly used in North America. 16. CALICO :Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium. 17. CALL :Computer-Assisted Language Learning can be defined as learning language at the computer either as a direct activity through structured lessons or during an activity peripheral to the study of language but that, nonetheless, promotes language awareness and acquisition. In some cases, computer software that is used for teaching subjects other than language, such as mathematics, is included under the umbrella of CALL if the software’s language has been simplified or otherwise adapted for use by non-native speakers. For the sake of brevity, in this book CALL is used as a collective term to include related terms except where a specific distinction needs to be made or in quotes from the literature where an author’s original choice of term is preserved. 18. CALT :Computer-Assisted Language Testing. 19. CAT :Computer-Assisted Teaching (or Computer-Adaptive Testing). 20. CBL :Computer-Based Learning. 21. CBT :Computer-Based Training tends to refer to programs used for corporate training with narrow and short-term instructional goals but may refer more generally to any kind of training. The term is not often used in the languagelearning context except where it refers to the teaching of some discrete language learning skills, such as listening training. 22. CD-ROM :Compact Disk-Read Only Memory is a disk storage format that can hold approximately 600 megabytes of information. 23. chat room :a designation for a private space used in Internet Chat Relay programs that allow for discussion on individual topics. Two or more participants wishing to discuss an issue may construct the virtual rooms at any time. 24. CMC :Computer-Mediated Communication refers to a situation in which computer-based discussion may take place but without necessarily involving learning. 25. CMI :Computer-Mediated Instruction refers to instruction that takes place through the use of a computer and may, for example, include learning that occurs when a learner communicates with a distant tutor through email or simply uses some form of computer hardware and software. The term instruction shows a teacher-centred approach. 26. cognitive overhead :refers to the learning that needs to be done before using a software program.