Stephan Bax argues that, "Our aim should be to attain a state of 'normalisation' in which the technology is invisible and truly integrated"
The following article refers to three matters on how ‘Computer Assisted Language Learning’ has been in the past, where it is now and how it will be in the future. It is in temporal order, starting with the classification of the history of CALL then going on to the present state of CALL and ending of briefly on how it will or should affect the future.
1. CALL’s past nature
Professor Delcloque briefly summarizes his view about CALL.
a. By doing a proper, thorough analysis along with dated and objective endings.
b. Or by using the second route, coming to a subjective ending along with the advancement and ways in this subject, thus analyzing its progress in a less intended goal.
Although he chooses to methods, it is clear he prefers the second method. But he chooses to do so by using Professor Warshauer, Ahmad and other’s researches as method one and using his own research as method two. Therefore he does it by focusing on the factual side of CALL by using the practical side of computers to see the truth. He unfortunately didn’t succeed, forcing him to choose option one as his preferred method as it needed a far more in depth analysis into its past and present outlook – starting with Professor Warschauer’s side.
Professor Warschauer starts with the three basic functions of a computer, the communicative side, the behavior side and the integrated side.
Table 1, summarizes the way computers have affected our lives according to his reasearch – structurally, communicatively and integrated - by starting with the basic mainframe computer and internet connection followed by more advance technologies of grammar structure, word spelling and translation software.
Despite the look and popularity of ‘Table 1’ we find a weaker side to it.
The dates are approximate and he refers to computers as ‘paradigms’ or ‘perspectives’ meaning it is a standard example thus causing confusion. Accordingly he believes CALL focuses on using forms rather on the forms themselves and avoids telling students when they are wrong but rather is flexible to alternate options.
This list has a weird side as it doesn’t focus on technology or communication, which is the main aim of CALL and contrary to his belief there are loads of software programs to contradict him. It can be seen that Professor Delcloque is not agreeing with this layout of information as he re-summarizes his thoughts in Table 2 and also adds his personal opinion on Professor Warschauer’s argument.
Table 2, summarizes the pros and cons of CALL. It is not a perfect table but it distinguishes better than table 1, in the useful purposes of CALL – the student’s activity on the pc, type of feedback given by the computer, the teacher’s role and the curriculum.
2. CALL’s present nature
It must be noted that from 1980 onwards there was a greater need for computers but owing to limited software and hardware being available CALL did not expand much. Nowadays there is no shortage of communication tools and CALL has finally gotten the chance it always looked for, expanding in the best possible ways. As quoted by Sanders ‘ We are still a long way from achieving it, and it is important therefore to start to reconsider how the profession can move towards that general aim.’
3. CALL future
According to Roger’s research, there is much possibility of expanding CALL as technology has pushed limits. Accordingly he describes how technology has become a norm in today’s society mainly youth, using a wristwatch, touch pen and shoes etc to such an extent it is being taken advantage of and people just expect the best of technology. He acknowledges CALL itself has not reached this state but he sees a bright future for it – with ideas of PALL and BALL. He believes CALL will eventually reach this stage as computers reach manifestation. It will reach a stage where CALL will be normality in schools and teachers and students will not be able to do without it.
Professor Delcloque ends of by encouraging schools, universities and teachers to make CALL an integral part of the daily studies. He adds a few case studies of how CALL did not seem good at a certain seminar and because of technology students expected more, therefore we should push technology to its limits when we use CALL eventually leading to it being the best version available. We should also carry on doing researches everyday to expand and identifying the problem to tackle CALL.
4. In my conclusion, I’d like to add CALL could therefore be added in our schools and universities in KSA, thus making students lives easier by doing things online rather having to write out an essay and correct it after, making it look untidy and scrappy, we could rather go for CALL and do it on a word processing software, thus correcting the grammatical errors automatically and cutting short time and adding a more purposeful use for CALL.
It could be used in universities where another language is taught, like for example our university learning English, we could use CALL by interacting once a week with English students from other universities thus perfecting our language skills through the blessings of CALL – video conferencing and at the same time pushing CALL to limits and later researching on how it has helped the students.
