Introduction to Computer-Assisted Language Learning

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is a constantly evolving academic field that explores the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in language learning and teaching. It includes a wide range of activities and initiatives, both in the development of teaching materials and in pedagogical practice, as well as in research.

Within the field of CALL, a wide variety of foreign language teaching methodologies have emerged that have created highly interactive to promote listening comprehension, conversation, reading and writing. There is a large amount of multimedia material; teachers interact more and more with technologies in order to take advantage of their benefits; students use the Internet to communicate with others in the target language and search for free material for their learning.

https://youtu.be/lEoGULFM_tM

In this case, the teacher will serve as a source of consultation for all those problems that may arise for the student. Apart from this, it is possible to use various functions of the computer for the teaching of foreign languages. Thus, for example, a word processor allows you to test, modify, rework and practice various forms and styles in your written composition, and email can favor the exchange of correspondence between students from different educational institutions. The world of the Internet can also offer multiple possibilities for its exploitation in the classroom.

Warschauer (1996) and Warschauer & Healey (1998)  took a different approach. Instead of focusing on the CALL typology, they identified three historical phases of CALL, classified according to their underlying pedagogical and methodological approaches:

Behaviorist CALL: Conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and 1970s.

Communicative CALL: 1970 to 1980.

Integrative CALL: Multimedia and Internet Adoption: 1990s.

Since the 1990s, it has become increasingly difficult to categorize CALL, as it now extends to the use of blogs, wikis, social networking, podcasting, Web 2.0 applications, language learning in virtual worlds, and interactive whiteboards.

References

Warschauer M. (1996) "Computer Assisted Language Learning: An Introduction". In Photos S. (ed.) Multimedia Language Teaching, Tokyo: Logos International [online]: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm

Warschauer, M.; Healey, D. (1998). "Computers and Language Learning: An Overview". Language teaching. 31(2): 57–71. doi:10.1017/s0261444800012970.