The document discusses the history of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) from the 1980s. It notes that the 1980s saw a boom in CALL as interest grew dramatically with the widespread availability of inexpensive microcomputers. This led many motivated language teachers to write their own simple CALL programs, as they were no longer constrained by their programming abilities. The document also discusses how teachers in this period were able to successfully integrate computers into language engagement and teaching by combining class work away from computers with planned computer work.

1. The Apple II in the
USA (1977)
The Sinclair ZX80
(1980)

2. the BBC micro in the UK
(1982)

3.  Methods from the 50’s
and 60’s began to
vanish, and changed
drastically.
 Community Language
Learning (CLL): This
involved focusing on
the emotions and
feelings of the person
bye constantly
engaging them.
 Communicative
Language
Teaching(CLT): The
goals of this were ‘to
(a) make
communicative
competence the goal of
language teaching and
(b) develop procedures
for the teaching of the
four language skills that
acknowledge the
interdependence of
language and
communication’

4. The early 1980s saw a boom in computer-
assisted language.
At this time the interest
in CALL grew dramatically and a lot of
software was produced.
Introductory books and specialized CALL
journals, such as the CALICO Journal, first
appeared (1983), began to appear.

5.  It was in the early 1980s that the language
teacher-programmer became prominent. With
the widespread availability of inexpensive
microcomputers, often supplied with a version of
BASIC, the motivated language teacher could
write simple CALL programs.

6. In the communicative approach, the focus is on
using the language rather than analysis of the
language, teaching grammar implicitly. It also
allowed for originality and flexibility in student
output of language
Now language teachers were free to develop their
own conceptualization
of CALL on the
microcomputer, the only
major constraint being
their programming ability

7.  To fix the programming problems, many teachers
relied on software such as Storyboard, and
Hypercard. These are basic programs that the
teachers could change; although there were
other teachers who still created their programs
from scratch.
 Teachers in the 80’s made significant advances
with CALL because of the advances in computer
technology. They were able to successfully
integrate using computers to engage the student
visually, while still interacting with the student
in conversation.

8. • The article makes a reference to an influential paper
'It's not so much the program, more what you do with
it: the importance of methodology in CALL'.
• The author of this paper “stresses the intelligent
combination of class work away from the computer
with work on the computer, achieved by coordination
and advanced planning by the teacher. Thus, CALL
materials are not intended to stand alone, but to be
integrated into broader schemes of work.”