CALL and its EvaluationBlake, Chapter 3

2/23/10TESL 532, Lord CroccoMichelle LusterNatalia Golovina

PLATO – The 1960’sBefore you read this chapter, did you

know? Two decades before the World Wide Web came

on the scene, the PLATO system pioneered online forums and message boards, email, chat rooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer games, leading to the emergence of what was perhaps the world's first online community.

Computer Based Education: The

beginnings PLATO's most enduring legacy is the online community spawned by its

communication features. It originated in the early 1960's at the Urbana campus of the University of

Illinois. The Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) was founded

by Bitzer, an electrical engineer. It is a timesharing system. (It was, in fact, one of the first timesharing

systems to be operated in public.) Both courseware authors and their students use the same high-resolution graphics display terminals, which are connected to a central mainframe. A special-purpose programming language called TUTOR is used to write educational software.

Throughout the 1960's, PLATO remained a small system, supporting only a single classroom of terminals. About 1972, PLATO began a transition to a new generation of mainframes that would eventually support up to one thousand users simultaneously.

What happened next: The 1970’s “Term Talk”

A "term-talk" conversation was limited to two people…

“Personal Notes”The FIRST ‘Email’ system…

CALL: The Evolution

Structural CALL1970's - 1980's

Communicative CALL1980's - 1990's

21st Century Integrative CALL

Digital Classroom: i CALLIntelligent CALL

The Three Stages of CALL

Stage 1970s-1980sStructural CALL

1980s-1990sCommunicative CALL

Twenty-first Century:

Integrative CALL

Technology

Teaching ParadigmView of Language Principle use of ComputersPrinciple Objective

Authoring CapabilitiesMANY of these programs are free for educators, allowing

them the opportunity to enhance their lessons by: Creating CALL exercises for in-class use. Creating CALL exercises for homework. Utilizing CALL LMSCMS templates such as Moodle to

manage classes.But, these have limitations: Constrains the creator to a predetermined set of formats

Vocabulary Glosses WordChamp: Applications/Demo You can get help, find a language partner, or a tutor. Go to ‘help for teachers’ link to learn more about the

features. Over 130 languages online Ts can create a class, assign homework, and check Ss

progress. Your very own wiki page: http//:www.icall.wikiscpaces.com

Hot Potatoes: Tutorial/Demo

A tool and a tutor: Tutorial Call

These programs are examples of how CALL can provide a blend of both tool and tutor by allowing the student (user) to be in control of the targeted words but not the database and multimedia components facilitate the training affect.

This supports Krashen’s (2004) theory of the importance of authentic material in SLA.

CALL Standards (1) Standards for TESOL teachers: CALL will soon be included in these standards.

CALICO states that teacher training in the uses of technology are very limited and in need.

ISTE suggestions – this IS the future. Although research reports on the numerous advantages of technology-

based instruction for language learning (Wiburg & Butler-Pascoe, 2002; Warschauer & Kern, 2000), many TESOL programs still lack adequate integration of learning technologies into their curricula. Teachers are not receiving sufficient-instruction or practice in the integration of learning technologies into their courses (Kavanaugh-Brown, 1998; Symonds, 2000). As a result, language teachers are faced with the challenge of using technology successfully without proper preparation. 

CALL Standards (2) CALICO and ISTE recommend continuous and relevant

instruction and support for educators and administrators at all levels. Furthermore, they encourage states to develop standards for teacher technology preparation and require candidates for teaching positions to demonstrate their technology skills.

For instance, The Technology Performance Profiles for Teacher Preparation (NETS, 2003) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) suggest ways programs can incrementally provide learning experiences that will help prospective teachers meet the standards.

Hot Potatoes Enables to create interactive Web-based Exercises of the

following types: Jquiz (question-based exercises) JCloze (gapfill exercises) JMatch (matching exercises) JMix (jumble exercises) JCross (crosswords) The Masher (building linked

units of material)http://hotpot.uvic.ca/wintutor6/tutorial.htm

http://www.teaching-tools.de.vu/

Strong and weak qualities of iCALL

Strong Weak 1. Provides feedback to textual input2. Provides tools for individual sound

practice, and word recognition3. Provides exercises to master linguistic

forms at the word or sentence level4. Simulates communicative exchanges5. Tracks and visually displays the waveform

and pitch contours from speech input and compares them to those patterned after NS

6. Learners can see their progress7. Provides 3D animation that

demonstrates how the lips and tongue should move to produce the target sound

“Current speech-interactive language tutors do not let learners freely create their own utterances because underlying speech recognizers require a high degree of predictability to perform reliably.” (Eskenazi)

CALL evaluation FL teachers have a professional responsibility to seek out and select

what they consider to be the best set of CALL learning materials for their students.

Current techniques:

checklists, surveys, evaluation studies involving qualitative and quantitative data

The CALICO journal maintains an excellent online software review section:

https://calico.org/p-21-SoftwareReviews.html-Courseware#Guidelines

What factors should be taken into consideration while evaluating

CALL ? Technical and design factors Provision of help and feedback Level of interactivity Efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation Teacher fit (methodological approach) Learner fit (as a function of the individual learner profiles,

interests, and computer infrastructure) Operational fit (interface features and activities types)

What factors should be taken into consideration while evaluating

CALL ? Language learning potential Meaning focus Authenticity Positive impact (the effect on developing learning strategies,

pragmatic abilities, and cultural awareness) Practicality

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/index.htm