Introduction to CALL

CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) is often considered a language teaching method, but this is not really the case. In traditional CALL, the methodology was often claimed to be based on a behaviouristic approach as in “programmable teaching”, where the computer checked the student input and gave feedback (reward?) and moved on to an appropriate activity exercise. In modern CALL, the emphasis is on communication and tasks.

The role of the computer in CALL has moved from the “input – control – feedback” sequence to management of communication, text, audio, and video. Few people may realise that a DVD player is really a computer. Future domestic appliances will integrate and merge video, television, audio, telephone, graphics, text, and Internet into one unit as, in 2010, can be seen in newer generations of “mobile telephones / communicators”.

When planning to use CALL, it is important to understand how a language is learned; language learning is a cognitive process, i.e. it is the result of the student’s own processing of language inputs. What is learned is mainly the result of this process and not just explanations, rules, and questions presented by a teacher or a computer. Based on her/his existing knowledge of the topic being worked on, the language and the language acquisition, the student processes the input and fits it into the language system s/he possesses. Language knowledge is not just recorded, but rather constructed by the student.