Introduction Statement
This
module consists of providing the reader with an important understanding and
background of the main concepts used through this website. Indeed, following a
vivid call made by The National Education Technology Plan (NETP, 2010) to
transform the American educational system via the insertion of advanced
technologies used in people’s daily lives, a diversity of instruments and digital
devices started abounding instructional practices. The belief behind the
incorporation of advance technologies is that students would improve their
learning and better their practices. The Computer Assisted Language Learning
(CALL) is one of the technologies used in language instruction. This
technological frame refers to “the sets of instructions which need to be loaded
into computer for it to be able to work in the language classroom” (Gündüz, 2005,
p. 193).
Therefore,
when computers are added an intercommunicative function (via Internet), the use
of constructivist theory for teaching language seems justifiable. The
constructive theory for learning/teaching is an approach in which “students
construct knowledge and meaning for themselves as they learn” (Rolloff, 2010,
p. 290).
Computers
entered the school life in the late 1950s. Their fast development over the
years made them powerful, faster, easier to use, more convenient and cheaper.
At the end of the 20th century, with the incorporation of
communication function and the Internet, computers started to be used for
language learning. The technical term used for this new phenomenon is
Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL). These new features of computers made
language learners able to synchronously communicate with others learners or
speakers of the target language around the world (Gündüz, 2005).
In fact,
there are several types of CALL. Behavioristic CALL appeared in the late 1960
and was used under the audio-lingual method:
it used mechanical and repetitive language drills. In the 1980s,
communicative CALL corresponded to cognitive theories which focused on the learning
as a discovery or developmental process. During the 1990s, interactive CALL
emphasized the use of a language in authentic situations process: time has come
for project-based, task-based, and student-centered approaches. By the 2000s,
multimedia CALL combined a diversity of media such as text, graphics,
animation, sound, and later film clips (Gündüz, 2005). Web-based CALL actually offers enormous
material and potential in language teaching and learning. Modern CALL is these
programs that are designed by teachers with no skills in computer programming
(Ferguson & Mojica, 2012). However, in second or foreign language teaching
with emphasis on communication between learners, the role of a ‘live’ teacher
is indispensable and cannot be reduced to automate instruments (Dhaif, 1989).
While Gündüz (2005)
considers CALL as an aid/help to the teaching practice, its relationship with
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories turns to be challenging (Chapelle, 2009)
when it comes to create learning opportunities and demonstrate learning
achievement. In instructional design, Garrett (1991) reaffirmed that SLA has been
seen as a natural phenomenon free of instructor’s influence (Garrett as cited
in Chapelle, 2009, p. 742). Yet, communicative CALL paired with cognitive
theories of SLA which stressed that “learning was a process of discovery,
expression and development” (Gündüz, 2009, p. 199), so
the communicative function of CALL should be focusing on the use of forms, or
on the acquisition of practice. But calling on the forms and the language
practice means also looking into the ways of modifying the natural and normal
process for the sake of fasting and bettering the learning (Chapelle, 2009). Module
two, rationale for using CALL programs in teaching foreign languages, will
retake this insight on the influence of CALL on SLA theories.
Regarding
the constructivist theory in education, it assumes that learners are not like
empty glasses to be filled or refilled, “but rather active organisms seeking
meaning” (Driscoll, 2005, p.387). Accordingly, skills related to constructivist
theory consist of the development of critical thinking, collaboration, and
sense of inquiry. Under this theory, instructors’ role consists of introducing
principal concepts or rules, adding complex concepts after students master the
basic ones (Rolloff, 2010). This is called scaffolding students (Alexander
& Murphy, 1998).
