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CALL is the acronym for Computer Assisted Language Learning and it is related to the use of computers for language teaching and learning. In the following pages, a general picture of the changes that CALL brings with it will be presented. First of all, the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the use of CALL will be pointed at; later, the technical requirements for the use of CALL will be presented; thirdly, an analysis of the implementation of CALL for the practice and improvement of the four language skills will be developed. And finally, different resources available on the Internet for English teaching and learning as a second language will be enumerated. In this last section, some lines will be devoted to the analysis of the effectiveness of computer conferencing in the field of ESL.

1.1) General advantages and disadvantages of CALL
CALL has much to offer English language teachers and will have more to offer in the future. We cannot, though, let us guide ourselves just as if we were blind by the seductive and powerful technology that CALL represents. It is vital to develop and maintain a critical eye on it. One of the advantages of CALL is that, in Phillips words, it offers a powerful self-access facility1[1](p.7); that is, it helps to generate autonomous learners who will experience freedom of choice. The tools that learners find in computers allow them to assume mastery of their own learning experience. Students can call up the programs held by computers whenever they want; besides, computers are sensitive to the learners level of proficiency. This advantage, though, can also be seen as a disadvantage, since many teachers may consider that computers are undertaking functions that should be performed by trained teachers. In this paper I will demonstrate that this disadvantage is not a real one, since, in fact, computers should be used by teachers as a complementary tool in the teaching process. Another advantage of CALL is that it gives a new role to teaching materials. Out of the context of CALL, teaching materials are passive. As Phillips points out, before computers were used in the classroom context Nothing the student said or did could influence in any deep sense the linear progression of the content 2[2](p.7). In

CALL, materials adapt themselves to the requirements of the individual student; that is, they become interactive. To this advantage, Phillips attaches a counter-argument: to what extent is it desirable that more of the management of learning be embodied in the materials themselves rather than in the way they are exploited? 3[3](p.7) In the field of methodology, we also find one advantage and one correspondent disadvantage. The advantage is that CALL, like other new technologies, brings about changes in the teaching methodologies of English. There are cases, though, in which computers are just used to give old materials a new aspect. This is the case of teachers who put students in front of the computer just to make fill-in-the-gap exercises. The advantages and disadvantages mentioned up to the present moment make us aware of an important fact in relation to CALL- we have to be constantly analysing whether the uses to which CALL is put are just reinforcing current practices or if, in contrast, they are promoting curriculum renewal. In order to fully benefit from the potential of the computer for language learning, language teaching specialists have to promote a complementary relationship with computers. The technology that computers offer has to be integrated with pedagogic programs that guarantee a real evolution of the teaching methodologies and procedures. The following paragraph, written by Chris Harrison, is very illustrative with respect to this point: To return to the original question: What are you teaching your students and why? ,we may add How? Taking the premise that our students learn English in order to build up their communicative abilities (although the cultural element also plays a large part),we may need to place more emphasis on fluency than accuracy activities, on interaction between students rather than on one-way teacher-student traffic. We need to allow the students to take risks without being threatened by penalties, to cooperate rather than compete, to introduce the unexpected and to take the initiative. By giving the information role to a computer, and by the teacher taking on the analyst and plannerroles, we can provide for all of these needs in a studentcentred setting.4[4] (p.59)

Harrison offers a picture in which the teacher abandons his informative role to take on a more active part in the teaching process; and this is allowed to him thanks to computer co-operation, since the computer is now going to be the new source of information. This results in an innovative teaching methodology in which the dichotomy teacher/transmissor-student/receiver is broken. Now, teachers are going to promote communication/interaction with -and mainly among- students; in order to attain this objective, they are going to encourage students to take risks, leaving aside penalties for producing incorrect bitsof language. Besides, the teachers analysis of the teaching-learning process and his planning of its development will make possible for him to correct possible errors in this process. Finally, the introduction of the unexpected will be determinant to give students enough motivation for them to take an active part in their learning process. With the practice of this kind of activities, curriculum renewal is guaranteed, so that there is no doubt that a real and evident progress in teaching methodologies is taking place. One final aspect that we should analyse in relation to the implementation of computers in English language teaching is ultimately an ethical question- What is the kind of environment that is going to be created by means of the computer?. Personally, I consider that the creation of autonomous learners should not be associated to the concept of human alienation. The CALL classroom should not be conceived as a room in which every learner is studying in isolation in front of his/her computer. Teachers must think of activities that enable group work/human interaction and computers to be compatible. Otherwise, men as social beings will be replaced by men as alienated computer slaves.

1.2) What do we need to use CALL?
English teachers -and language teachers in general- should put many important factors into consideration before embarking on the adventure of CALL. First of all, they should evaluate the computer skills of learners. Learners with little or no knowledge of computers will first require a thorough introduction in basic computer skills including word processing, e-mail usage and the operation of browser software. The second factor is related to the learners4 language level and navigation on the web. If teachers want their students to work with ESL web sites, they will

have to take into account that only intermediate or advanced level learners will ensure an effective navigation on the web, since most of the ESL web sites require high knowledge of the English language. Thirdly, a few technical issues should be taken into account. It is obvious that availability of a computer room on a regular basis is the first thing that teachers need for CALL to be successful. The experience of many teachers has revealed that three students per computer is the maximum for the teaching experience to be effective. Besides, teachers should have at their disposal software especially designed for ESL. On the other hand, navigation on the web implies other specific requirements, such as, a) Access to a reliable network environment. The most important thing is to count on a reliable internet provider. b) Use of modern equipment and browser software. The use of outdated equipment may result in unacceptable download times and thus failure of the experience. The fastest modems should be used (at least 28,800 bps) and, if possible, the best computers to work on the web would be Power PC or Power Macintosh as they possess the large amounts of memory required to operate the new generation of plug-in multimedia applications. Besides, teachers should note that many newer sites are designed to be used only with the latest versions of browser software, such as Netscapes Navigator and Communicator or Microsofts Internet Explorer. c) Teachers should be familiar with basic internet technology in order to anticipate potential problems. Furthermore, they should be ready to contact support staff and on-line help resources in case major technical problems occur. It would be an ideal situation if learners could fulfil all these requirements. We have to be realistic, though, and take into account that this will be the case just on very few occasions. In this case, the advice given by teachers who have worked with computers is the use of imagination in order to counterbalance the lack of technological availabilities. If software is not available, they should be ready to look for free software that can be found in the web; if working on-line is forbidden by the institution, they should take the most of the possibilities that working off-line offers. Even if there is no possibility to work with specialised software, the decision of giving the current teaching method a new format is a right one. Indeed, it has been

demonstrated that the students4 motivation and interest raise if they do a typical fillin-the-gap exercise on the computer rather than if they do it on a piece of paper or a book. In this case , though, (that is, in case students use computers to do traditional exercises) students should be encouraged to discover by themselves (whenever possible) modern software especially designed for the study of languages.

1.3) Different programs that CALL offers to us.
There are three different kinds of programs that we can use in the CALL classroom: a) Programs especially designed for English language learning. b) Ludicrous programs. c) Word Processors. a) Programs especially designed for English language learning Most of the programs in this group offer two different versions; one of these versions is the so-called tutorial. In Davies words, tutorial programs consist of some short introductory notes, followed by a series of questions, to which the student responds at the keyboard. Discrete comments can be built in, and error, review routines are automatic. If required, a set of helpnotes can also be called up during the question-answer sequence.In order to understand the student who has not fully understood the point of the exercise. The results of students4 attempts at each exercise are stored on the computer.5[5](p.14) On the other hand we have the socalled authoring versions of programs, which allow teachers to create their own exercises. Some examples of CALL authoring packages are the following: CALL for English. It contains a great variety of exercises for students to practice grammar, language functions, and vocabulary. There are exercises thought for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. For this, a number of programs are used. The names of these programs are Gapmaster, Matchmaster, Choicemaster, Testmaster, Storyboard, Textmixer, Wordstore and Vocabulary Games. These names are explicit enough for the reader to guess the contents of each.

Clozewrite and Clozemaster. Clozewrite enables a short text to be displayed on the computer screen. Then, words are deleted at chosen regular intervals and replaced by numbered blanks. The student can choose any deletion interval from 2 to 9, and also specify the deletion starting point, so that a variety of different exercises can be created out of one single text. At any stage, the student can ask for individual letters or whole words to make the task easier, but then points are deducted. Besides, Clozewrite includes a scoring facility. Clozemaster works in a similar way, but accepts longer texts. One disadvantage of these programs is that the computer accepts only words that appear in the original text. Purists argue that for the programs to be effective, they should be able to recognise any semantically and syntactically correct word that could be fit into the gap. Nevertheless, there are many facts that justify in some sense the imperfection of these programs. Thus, for example, both Clozewrite and Clozemaster allow students to work with an endless list of texts, which will help them increase their linguistic knowledge of English. Besides, students will have to read intensively these texts in order to win the gamefrom this, it can be deducted that they do not see this activity directly as homework for the subject of English , but as a game-. Choicemaster is a package designed for teachers who wish to produce straightforward multiple-choice exercises and tests. In tutorial mode, the student receives immediate feedback as every question is completed. It offers clues and explanations when wrong answers are selected. In tests, the students is not offered any feedback until the whole exercise has been completed. Multitester is a package containing exercises such as Multiple Choice, Open Answer, True/False, Matching and Cloze. It offers both the tutorial and the authoring versions; and exercises with different levels of difficulty can be chosen. Learning English. Like Multitester, it offers both the tutorial and the authoring versions. Some of the exercises it contains are Multiple Choice and Fill in. The authoring version offers teachers two kinds of statistics; the first one presents a set of the questions that were given a wrong answer, highlighting the incorrect words included by students in every answer. For example: Question n:1: I think I4ll____a shower before supper. Students answer:4 - have got Guesses:77.50% of the questions.

The second statistic offers a summary of all the errors committed in all the computers used by students; it also indicates the number of computers, out of the total number of computers used, where wrong answers have been written. For example: Question n:1 Number of errors: 7/16 Question n:40 Number of errors: 7/16 Errors: 13.13% of the questions As it can be deducted, these statistics allow teachers to determine which ones have been the aspects of the language that students have found more difficult or that they have not understood correctly.

English Top Level. It makes reference to different cultural aspects of the different English speaking places in the world. Thus, it contains sections devoted to Australia, South-Africa, Ireland and the United States. Some of the exercises it offers -always related to the above-mentioned cultural aspects- are quizzes, grammar exercises, and reading comprehension. Vocab is an authoring package which enable the teacher to create files or words, together with context/clues, which are then used as the basis for a variety of entertaining vocabulary games. Word Sequencing presents groups of jumbled sequences of words on the computer screen, which have to be rearranged to form meaningful sentences. b) Ludicrous programs Facemaker: An entertaining program, which allows the user to create different human faces on the computer screen by typing in words (in English) associated with physiognomic description. My English Partner is a program based on pictures that enable students to work with lexical items and texts. For this, it uses exercises based on looking for objects that correspond to a certain word -or the other way round-, completing dialogues, maintaining conversations with characters belonging to the program, or

doing comprehension texts, crosswords and hieroglyphs, among other things. Non-specific programs for English teaching. Despite the fact that these programs were not originally created for teaching English, they are very useful for an English language learner, since the language they use is English. Besides, like any ludicrous program, they are highly motivating. Some examples of this kind of programs are Computer Scrabble, Hangman, Wheel of Fortune and The Secret of the Monkey Island.

c) Word Processors Word processors can be used to create an endless number of exercises in English -filling in the gaps; rearranging disordered paragraphs in a text; replacing incorrect words by the corresponding correct ones,... In a way, doing exercises in a word processor implies giving traditional exercises a new format. Nevertheless, as it has been pointed out, this way of working in the English language classroom results in a quite successful experience, since students enjoy the mere fact of being manipulating computers. We also have to take into account the fact that every single student has also the possibility of working simultaneously with his/her own dictionary without having the need to carry it from home; this is the advantage that CD-ROM dictionaries offer. Besides, computers allow teachers to give exercises a more attractive aspect by means of colours, different letter styles, pictures -even animated ones-,... Some people could argue that there are currently many textbooks that have a very attractive visual aspect; nevertheless, we should also take into account that working always with the same text turns out to be quite boring for students in a short term. On the other hand, presenting students these text in photocopies would be excessively expensive -and surely less interesting for having lost the technological flavour that computers give them-, taking into account that the photocopies would have to be coloured for them to keep at least part of their visual attractiveness.

2) Computers and Grammar Teaching
Following Kemmis distinction, Higgins6[6] describes three different models of

grammar teaching: Instructional, Revelatory and Conjectural (p.35). In Instructional grammar, explicit statements and formal exercises are consciously learnt and presented in a systematically organised way. In Revelatory grammar, the exchange of meaningful language is promoted; grammatical correctness is not the goal and sometimes it is not even demanded from students. No systematic progression of contents is followed and no memorisation is required. Conjectural grammar implies working with the target language in a inductive way. Thus, students work out rules from data, form hypotheses and test them. By this kind of grammar is also understood when students arrange their partial knowledge of a language into a system that they can share it with someone else. Most of the functions that are undertaken in an English language classroom where Instructional grammar is followed are easy enough to computerise. These functions would be presenting students statements in the form of rules and ask them to memorise those rules; using some examples to explain students the theoretical points and assigning mechanical tasks. Besides, attention to error correction is also considered to be quite relevant. The task of judging the different reasons why students commit different kinds of errors is better fulfilled by teachers than by computers, since they have more channels of communication open to their students. Besides, teachers know every one of their students as individual beings; and this enables them to distinguish, on many occasions, between errors due to carelessness, those due to round misunderstanding of a grammar principle, and those which consist on some kind of students4 experimenting with the target language (i.e. an attempt to see if a principle applied in one context also works in another different context). Nevertheless, this capacity of teachers to discriminate the different reasons why their students make some mistakes or others is somewhat instinctive; and this instinctive quality of the capacity results in a hindrance for teachers to transfer their skills to a machine. In sum, the teachers4 knowledge about their students cannot be systematised and turned into a language that computers can understand. There are some experts, though, that have achieved some important advances through the creation of intelligent tutoring systems.

In Revelatory grammar computers play a much more relevant role. Here, computers are not only used to give traditional exercises a new format, but they directly help to enhance acquisition by means of the many resources they offer and thanks to their motivating power. In Revelatory grammar any language item is used to potentiate the target language; then, any text shown by the computer is considered to be meaningful language; and this obviously includes, for example, the instructions given by the computer to install a program -given the fact, obviously, that these instructions are written in English-. If the programs that have to be installed by the students are the latest version of a game or simply one that they really like, we can imagine the interest that they are going to put in order to quickly understand the instructions for the installation. If the teacher wants to potentiate group work, then s/he just will have to arrange groups of students working with the same computer (it has been advised that no more than three students should work with the same computer). Soon, the teacher will witness how enthusiastically students collaborate in order to achieve the desired goal. On the other hand, it is obvious that the more interesting the task is, the highest motivation students will show. Some of the tasks that student prefer are branching stories, adventures, puzzles, or logic problems in which the computer has the role of providing an attractive context for the use of language. Many teachers may think that, although highly motivating for students, these tasks do not help students to improve their grammar knowledge. A more optimistic eye, though, will discover that many Revelatory tasks can be slanted towards particular forms. Thus, for example, an adventure game in which an enquiry to a witness has to take place can serve to potentiate the practice of past tenses. One drawback of these kind of activities, according to Higgins 7[7] (p.38) is that little systematic progress can be perceived, and this may depress learners as much as teachers. Nevertheless, this drawback exists when a given syllabus is tried to be covered through the above-mentioned tasks. We have to take into account that not every task can be slanted towards a concrete linguistic feature and that some of these tasks are extremely time-consuming so that on many occasions it turns out to be that too much time has been spent for the student to practice an extremely simple aspect of the language. We cannot forget, though, that the attitude with which a person faces a learning process is determinant for that learning process to be

successful. In this sense, the motivating power that computers have for students guarantees that they are going to face English with a positive attitude; and this increases the possibility of the learning/acquisition process to be a successful one.

3) Computers, Reading and Writing
Not many people object nowadays to the fact that a novel in paper format will never be replaced by a novel displayed on the computer screen. The pleasure of reading comfortably on an armchair, turning pages quietly forward -or backwards to check some idea previously read- is not one that can be equally attained through a screen. Maybe this preference for the printed page is a matter of habit, and it is quite probable that the day will arrive when laptop computers, or even more modern artefacts, will become so widespread as to substitute books. With these computers, people will be able to read as comfortably as they choose -sitting on a sofa or even lying on the beach-, and trees will stop being literature victims. But going back to the year 2,000, books are still preferred to computers for extensive reading of many kinds of texts.

The situation changes when it comes to intensive reading. Nobody has yet investigated whether students prefer doing intensive reading in books rather than in computers, but what is true is that intensive reading is more effective in computers than in books. Thus, for example, computer activities which involve rebuilding or rearranging texts have proved their value, not to mention the act of reading the instructions that are included in a CD game so that players know what to do in order to be able to play effectively. And even more effective intensive reading in the computer can be when the texts that students face are messages sent by the characters of an interactive computer program. In the case of writing on the computer, there is only one disadvantage, and that is that nowadays the majority of students -mainly in primary education- are not used to using a keyboard. As a consequence of this, the process of writing becomes a painfully slow one. Nevertheless, learning to use the keyboard need not to take long, and this insignificant drawback is counterbalanced with many advantages. Thus, teachers can again take advantage of the enjoyment that students find in manipulating computers. Writing an essay on paper has not the same attractiveness for them than writing it with a word processor. To this, we have to add the advantages that word processors attach to writing tasks. First of all, mistakes can be

corrected much more easily. On the other hand, students do not have to give much importance to the order in which they write their ideas, since they can easily change text order, and thus rearrange ideas, as many times as they want. Besides, the grammar and spelling correction devices that word processors incorporate can be activated whenever teachers consider necessary. This way, students are made conscious of the mistakes or errors they have made, and have the possibility of either checking or trying to guess the correct option.

4) Computers in Listening and Speaking
The enormous amount of specific software that has been created for learning English includes the possibility of teaching and training the skills of listening and speaking. The problem is that, rather than being truly interactive, the activities designed for improving listening and speaking are mainly based on drills. Thus, learners have the possibility of enacting dialogues -generally of the question-answer type- with characters belonging to the program, but these are indeed closed dialogues; that is, learners cannot ask or answer whatever they want, but they have to limit themselves to predetermined texts. Nevertheless, despite the lack of true/real interaction, this experience has been proved to be highly motivating, since many of the graphic environments that programs offer turn out to be quite realistic. Thus, if learners concentrate on the activity, they may feel -up to a certain extent- just as if they were really speaking to a hostess in the airport, or to a bobby in Market Square. Out of the above-mentioned interactive programs, there are many other programs that offer the possibility of listening to English, mainly with an American accent -in the case of the majority of games- or with a British accent. These programs include, among others, many encyclopaedias and the already mentioned games. Finally, as it will commented in the following section, it is a must reminding teachers and learners the endless source of listening material that the web offers.

5) CALL and the Internet
Since attention has been already paid to the technical devices that are necessary for navigation on the web (section 2.1.), we will focus our attention on a

set of some of the most important web sites related to TESL -some in a direct way, others in a more indirect way-. Secondly, special section will be devoted to the subject of computer conferencing and its benefits in relation to CALL.

5.1) Subjects Related to L2 Teaching and Learning that can be found in the Internet
The following sections will serve to make a bit more evident the endless source of material for teaching and learning English as a second language that the web represents. Many of the sites that are going to be enumerated contain hypertext, graphics, audio and e-mail, thus providing students with multimedia learning environments for second language learning.

5.1.1) Sites for Business English
Business Meetings. Contents: Thought for learners who wish to review English structures associated with business. It covers various skills: starting meetings, presenting opinions, accepting and rejecting proposals, presenting alternatives, building up arguments, summarising, and concluding. Procedures: The site takes the form of a business decision maze, where the user is presented with a business problem and is invite to select the most appropriate response from a number of possible alternatives. On selection of a response, the user is linked by hypertext to a linking page and presented with further choices. Other features: On-line help features include instructions for students and teachers, and a function and structure list. A vocabulary list provides downloadable audio files of target language. It also presents an on-line follow-up test. International Financial Encyclopaedia. It contains a searchable on-line data bank of financial terminology. Topics covered include economics, marketing, finance and business strategy.

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