Overview of CALL

Computer Assisted in Language Learning

Brief history of CALL

1. The use of computer in language learning (CALL) has undergone several stages of educational theoretical cycle.
2.  First introduced in 1960, CALL emphasized behaviorist learning model. The computer was treated as a mechanical tutor. 
3.   They were designed under the influence of behaviourism which was proposed by Skinner (1957).  
4.  Behaviorists work on the assumption that learners are passive.  According to them, learners learn new information in response to a properly structured environment. 
5.  Structuralists such as Bloomingfield, Fries and Lado construed language learning (LL) as a form of habit. This came in the form of dialogues and pattern drills, grammar translation, audio-lingual teaching, in order for learners to produce automatic, correct response to linguistic stimuli.

   

   Computer is used for language
    learning purposes.

6. Even speaking, reading and writing emphasized the linguistic product rather than on processes.
7. A mainframe computer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, namely PLATO, was the best known tutorial system at that time. It features repetitive drills, grammatical explanations and translation tests at various intervals.
8. Later came the cognitive approach in the 70’s and 80’s and thus the label “communicative CALL” came about. The personal computer came about in the late 1970’s. This appeared about the same time as the rejection towards behaviorist approaches early 1980s helps to encourage discovery learning.
9. In communicative CALL, learners engage in the construction of new knowledge by engaging in problem solving activities.
1. The computer is now just the pupil.  It is often associated w/ learner-centered approach
2. The communicative approach emphasized discovery learning where the focus was on the use of the forms rather than on the forms themselves.
3. Grammar was taught implicitly and students were encouraged to produce their own utterances.  

The Role of CALL in Different Frameworks 

	Structural	Cognitive/ Communicative	Sociocognitive / Integrative
What is the principle role of CALL ?	To provide unlimited drill, practice, tutorial explanation and corrective feedback	To provide language input & analytic and inferential tasks.	To provide alternative contexts for social interactions; to facilitate access to existing discourse communities and the creation of new ones.