COMPUTER–ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (CALL)

INTRODUCTION TO CALL

1.      DEFINING CALL

a.       COMPUTER-ASSITED LANGUAGE LEARNING (CALL) represents a side of e-learning where computer technology is used in the context of language learning. (Yuan, 2007:416)

(model e-learning di mana teknologi komputer digunakan dalam pembelajaran bahasa)

b.      COMPUTER-ASSITED LANGUAGE LEARNING may be defined as the study of applications of the computer in language learning and teaching (Levy, 1997:1)

(kajian penerapan komputer dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran bahasa)

2.      HISTORY OF CALL (1)

a.       CALL DATES BACK TO THE 1960s
It was first introduced on university mainframe computers.

The Plato projects, initiated at the University of Illinois.

Marty 1981

b.      IN THE LATE 1970s
The advent of the microcomputer brought computing within the range of a wider audiences.

A flurry of publications of books on CALL in the early 1980s

c.       DURING THE 1980s and 1990s
Several attempts were made to establish a CALL typology.

These included Gap-filling and Cloze programs, multiple choice programs, free-format programs, adventures and simulations, action mazes, sentence-reordering programs.

d.      SINCE 1990s – NOW
It has become increasingly difficult to categorise CALL as it now extends to the use of blogs, wikis,social networking, podcasting, web 2.0 applications, interactive whiteboard.

Davies et al 2010:section 3.7

3.      HISTORY OF CALL (2)

Rather than focusing on the typology of CALL, Warschauer identified three historical phases of CALL, classified according to their underlying pedagogical and methodological approaches:

a.       Behavioristic CALL (1960-1970)

      consisted of drill-and-practice materials in which the computer presented a stimulus and the learner provided a response. Both could be done only through text.

      The computer would analyse students' input and give feedback, and more sophisticated programs would react to students' mistakes by branching to help screens and remedial activities.

b.      Communicative CALL (1970s – 1980s)

      The focus is on using the language rather than analysis of the language

      It also allows for originality and flexibility in student output of language

      The communicative approach coincided with the arrival of the PC, which made computing much more widely available and resulted in a boom in the development of software for language learning

      Provide skill practice but not in a drill format—for example: paced reading, text reconstruction and language games

      Criticisms of this approach include using the computer in an ad hoc and disconnected manner for more marginal aims rather than the central aims of language teaching.

c.       Integrative CALL (1990s -   )

      Integrating the teaching of language skills into tasks or projects to provide direction and coherence

      It also coincided with the development of multimedia technology (providing text, graphics, sound and animation) as well as Computer-mediated communication (CMC)

      CALL in this period saw a definitive shift from the use of the computer for drill and tutorial purposes (the computer as a finite, authoritative base for a specific task) to a medium for extending education beyond the classroom

      Multimedia CALL started with interactive laser videodiscs such as Montevidisco (Schneider & Bennion 1984 and A la rencontre de Philippe (Fuerstenberg 1993), both of which were simulations of situations where the learner played a key role.