This is lecture 1 in the SUST master course entitled 'Technology for the Teaching of English Language'

1. Computer Assisted Language
Learning

2. What is CALL?
• Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is
succinctly defined in a seminal work by Levy
(1997: p. 1) as "the search for and study of
applications of the computer in language
teaching and learning".
• An alternative term, Technology-enhanced
language learning (TELL), also emerged around
the early 1990s.

3. Philosophy behind CALL
• The current philosophy of CALL puts a strong
emphasis on student-centred materials that allow
learners to work on their own. Such materials
may be structured or unstructured, but they
normally embody two important features:
interactive learning and individualised learning.
CALL is essentially a tool that helps teachers to
facilitate the language learning process. It can be
used to reinforce what has been already been
learned in the classroom or as a remedial tool to
help learners who require additional support.

4. History of CALL
• CALL dates back to the 1960s, when it was first
introduced on university mainframe computers.
The PLATO project, initiated at the University of
Illinois in 1960, is an important landmark in the
early development of CALL. The advent of the
microcomputer in the late 1970s brought
computing within the range of a wider audience,
resulting in a boom in the development of CALL
programs and a flurry of publications of books on
CALL in the early 1980s.

5. Typology and phases (1)
• During the 1980s and 1990s several attempts were made
to establish a CALL typology.
• A wide range of different types of CALL programs was
identified.
• These included: gap-filling and Cloze programs, multiple-
choice programs, free-format (text-entry) programs,
adventures and simulations, action mazes, sentence-
reordering programs, exploratory programs - and "total
Cloze", a type of program in which the learner has to
reconstruct a whole text. Most of these early programs
still exist in modernised versions.

6. Typology and phases (2)
• Since the 1990s 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, language learning
in virtual worlds and interactive whiteboards.
• Warschauer (1996) and Warschauer & Healey (1998) took a
different approach. Rather than focusing on the typology of CALL,
they identified three historical phases of CALL, classified
according to their underlying pedagogical and methodological
approaches:
• Behaviouristic CALL: conceived in the 1950s and implemented in
the 1960s and 1970s.
• Communicative CALL: 1970s to 1980s.
• Integrative CALL: embracing Multimedia and the Internet in
1990s.

7. Internet Assisted Language Learning
• The emergence of the World Wide Web (now
known simply as "the Web") in the early 1990s
marked a significant change in the use of
communications technology for all computer
users. Email and other forms of electronic
communication had been in existence for many
years, but the launch of the first graphical Web
browser, Mosaic, in 1993 brought about a radical
change in the ways in which we communicate
electronically. The launch of the Web in the
public arena immediately began to attract the
attention of language teachers.

8. • In its early days the Web could not compete seriously
with multimedia CALL on CD-ROM and DVD. Sound and
video quality was often poor, and interaction was slow.
But now the Web has caught up. Sound and video are
of high quality and interaction has improved
tremendously, although this does depend on sufficient
bandwidth being available, which is not always the
case, especially in remote rural areas and developing
countries. One area in which CD-ROMs and DVDs are
still superior is in the presentation of
listen/respond/playback activities, although such
activities on the Web are continually improving.

9. Web 2.0 Applications
• Since the early 2000s there has been a boom in the development of so-called Web
2.0 applications. Contrary to popular opinion, Web 2.0 is not a new version of the
Web, rather it implies a shift in emphasis from Web browsing, which is essentially
a one-way process (from the Web to the end-user), to making use of Web
applications in the same way as one uses applications on a desktop computer. It
also implies more interaction and sharing. Walker, Davies & Hewer (2011: Section
2.1)list the following examples of Web 2.0 applications that language teachers are
using:
• Image storage and sharing
• Social bookmarking
• Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking
• Chat rooms, and MUVEs (virtual worlds)
• Podcasting
• Audio tools
• Video sharing applications and screen capture tools
• Animation tools - comic strips, movies, etc.
• Mashups