Designing CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning)

June 12, 2009

Computer At the beginning of this article I would like To write about language learning using the method of CALL with its advantages and disadvantages. I am no expert but I am convinced that tools are helpful if we are able to provide a reason for use and a safe atmosphere to use them. In This topic I offer a solution based on Communicative Language Teaching through designing CALL programs is a careful plan consisting of number of tasks needs to be performed that would be reflected in each activity by having appropriate exercises enhance the designing CALL in language-teaching learning, also a realistic use of language, thus providing a reason to learn. There is a little doubt that we, the English teachers, need to focus on the use of language, and ICT make it easy for us to do so. Bringing a sense of reality also contributes to facilitate learners be less dependent , fostering their autonomy. And each of task will be perform as below.

Initial Planning

The initial process of designing a model of self – access computer assisted language learning program which comprises a set of tasks:

1. DETERMINING OBJECTIVE

The self-access computer-assisted language learning program aims to provide a self – access

learning, such as in English grammar and to improve other language skills and component.

2. CHOOSING TYPES OF THE PROGRAMS

Drill and Practice
Simulations
Games
Tutorials
Problem solving
Demonstrations

SELECTING MATERIALS.

TENSES
CONJUCTIONS
NOUN PLURAL NOUNS
SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT
ARTICLE (DIFINITE AND INDIFINITE ARTICLE)

4. choosing software

ASYMETRIX MULTIMEDIA TOOLBOOK 3.0 : ABLE TO MANAGE A COLLECTION OF INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED NON-SEQUENTIALLY.

FOR DESIGNING A SELF-ACCESS COMPUTER-MEDIATED LANGUAGE LEARNING PROGRAM AROSE DUE TO :

≈ TOOLBOOK 3.0 IS A HYPERMEDIA SYSTEM. IT ENABLES LEARNERS TO EXPLORE AND READ MATERIAL OR ANY IN FORMATION WHICH ATTRACTS THEIR OWN INTEREST.

≈ AS HYPERMEDIA SOFTWARE. TOOLBOOK HAS THE POTENTIALLY ABILITY TO CREAT AN INTERACTIVE TUTORIAL PROGRAM.

≈ TOOLBOOK IS RUN ON PCs (IBM). THIS PROGRAM IS INTENDED TO BE DEVELOPED IN INDONESIA.

5. determining tasks

TASKS IN COMPUTER ARE ESSENTIAL IN SIMULATING INTERACTION BOTH BETWEEN LEARNERS AND THE COMPUTER, SO DESIGNER OF CALL MUST BE ABLE TO ANALYZE WHAT LEARNING TASKS SHOULD BE PROVIDED TO STIMULATE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE LEARNER AND THE COMPUTER.

To help learner use the program easier
THE CALL PROGRAM CONSISTS OF THREE PARTS:

EXPLANATIONS ABOUT THE TUTORIAL PROGRAMS
SCREEN SHOWING MATERIALS HIGHLIGHTED IN THE PROGRAM
INTERACTIVE EXERCISES

7. structuring program design

Principles for designing and testing the call program

interactivity
usability
content appropriateness
effectiveness
performance

Why we use CALL?

Research and practice suggest that, appropriately implemented, network-based technology can contribute significantly to:

Experiential Learning.

The World Wide Web makes it possible for students to tackle a huge amount of human experience. In such a way, they can learn by doing things themselves. They become the creators not just the receivers of knowledge. As the way information is presented is not linear, users develop thinking skills and choose what to explore.

Motivation.

Computers are most popular among students either because they are associated with fun and games or because they are considered to be fashionable. Student motivation is therefore increased, especially whenever a variety of activities are offered, which make them feel more independent.

Enhanced Student Achievement .

Network based instruction can help pupils strengthen their linguistic skills by positively affecting their learning attitude and by helping them build self-instruction strategies and promote their self-confidence.

Authentic Materials for Study

All students can use various resources of authentic reading materials either at school or from their home. Those materials can be accessed 24 hours a day at relatively low cost.

Greater Interaction.

Random access to Web pages breaks the linear flow of instructions. By sending E-mail and joining news groups, EFL students can communicate with people they have never met. They can also interact with their own classmates. Furthermore, some Internet activities give students positive and negative fed back by automatically correcting their on line exercise.

Individualization.

Shy or inhibited students can be greatly benefited by individualized collaborative learning. High fliers can also realize their full potential without preventing their peers from working at their own pace.

Independence from a single Source of Information.

Although students can still use their book, they are given the chance to escape from canned knowledge and discover thousands of information source. As a result, their education fulfills the need for interdisciplinary learning in multicultural world.

Global Understanding.

A foreign language is studied in a cultural context. In a world where the use of the internet becomes more and more widespread, an English Language teacher’s duty is to facilitate students’ access to the web and make them feel citizens of a global classroom, practicing communication on a global level.

What can we do with CALL?

There is a wide range of on-line applications which are already available for use in the foreign language class. These include dictionaries and encyclopedias, links for teachers, chat-rooms, pronunciation tutors, grammar and vocabulary quizzes, games and puzzles, literary extracts. The World Wide Web is a virtual library of information that can be accessed by any user around the clock. If some wants to read or listen to the news, for example, there are a number of sources offering the latest news either printed or recorded. The most important newspapers and magazines in the world are available on line and the same is the case with radio and TV channels.

Another example is communicating with electronic pen friends, something that most students would enjoy. Teachers should explain how it all works and help students find their keypals. Two EFL classes from different countries can arrange to send E-mail regularly to one another. This can be done quite easily thanks to the web sites providing list of students looking for communication. It is also possible for two or more students to join a chat-room and talk on-line through E-mail.

The advantages of using ICT designing CALL in teaching learning language has many impact to the teachers and the students such as :

1. For teachers .

2. For students

The disadvantages of using ICT designing CALL in teaching learning language has many impact to the teachers and the students such as:

For teachers.

The teachers must have a lot of knowledge of ICT, they must use various method like ( guided discussion, reflective discussions, small group discussion, interactive lecture etc.)The teachers also have teaching techniques (giving information, motivating, listening, questioning, and managing )and strategies ( active and cooperative teaching). It is not easy to be update, and this is a social requirement, if not a demand. In many cases these new virtual environments are not so teacher friendly as they are required to be, but this is no excuse to prevent teachers from using these resources. I believe that we cannot be stopped by technological challenges. Again, teachers’ attitude may allow a role of a teacher as an average user, not a master. Probably this simple lack of reliability in a role of teacher not holding the strings of knowledge in a class is the single most outstanding obstacle to the extension of ICT in teaching, at least in language teaching by using a designing CALL.

b. For the students.
1. Technological Equipment availability
2. Class control
3. Explaining the learning process
4. The teacher act as a facilitator, motivator, and stimulator
5. The mastering of the material for the teacher
6. The way or method of presenting the material
7. The ICT techniques in teaching
8. The teachers media in teaching
9. The effect of the ICT to the class

It is not easy to define the key question “ how students learn”, In my view I believe that students learn by using the language and by reflecting after their language use. My main task is then providing opportunities for meaningful language use, and building up a sense of community between the students and myself, so that we generate a relaxing environment. A second aspect to be taken into consideration is the issues that may come in a classroom as a consequence of a different role demanded for teachers and students: a more open flexible class structure may defy certain educational institutions or administrators. The accepted role of the teachers as “controller” in a language classroom, in what Jeremy Harmer calls” lockstep” ( teacher ex-planning everything, providing all the contents and students assimilating the information received), is severely defied. So we, and our institutions, are to adopt more flexible patterns of classroom distribution and clearly redefine the pattern of behavior. One last aspect to be borne in mind would be, especially in the institutions that I have had the opportunity to teach .

The problem of ICT language teaching using designing CALL.

This program has problem because it is not necessary to reinforce the links between the school members, and it is a must that the collaboration among the institution departments to carry the common processes. This particularly relevant to the projects which has a good way to incorporate more and more teachers into collaboration, and bridging the departments gaps. and society demands that the students we teach have high technological proficiency, the difference that may allow them to be active members of a specialized labor market. Yet, I still wonder if we are contributing or not to widening the gap between worlds.

We know that the language teachers have a lot to teach other subject about learning. In the 1960s educationalist like Jerome Bruner argued that people learn best when they learn in an active rather than a passive manner. He used the example of how we learn language. It is claimed that this is the most difficult thing we have to do in our life, yet we learn it so young and so quickly, so easily in fact, that some experts in this field have argued that language is, to a certain extent, an inherited skill. Burners argues that the reason we learn language so quickly is due to the method we use. As we are introduced the words, we use them. We test them out. Words immediately became practical. So we can quickly see why it helps us to know these words.

The Designing CALL is one of the efforts to improve the English education in Indonesia used in the teaching learning process and the instructional process which is delivered in English. There are many characteristics of the learners. They are included:

1. The characteristic of learners included hepatic, visual, auditory, concrete, analytical, communicative, auditory-oriented learners.The characteristics of the teachers in the ICT or designing CALL class in the process of teaching learning are as the facilitator, motivator, stimulator, controller, organizer, assessor, and tutor of the roles facilitator and motivator are the most important ones.
2. Teaching materials play an important role in the ICT class. Having the knowledge on hand, learners are expected to be able to solve their life problems, so the Designing CALL class in the process of the teaching-learning develops schools potential, learners ability and gives learners’ need and the needs of society around the school. Moreover, it provides a real audience for communication and permit for interaction on both local and international scales based on the using of language, explaining style and presenting materials.
3. The teachers must use various method of Designing CALL, teaching techniques, and strategies, question and answer activity, playing films, presentation, discussion, group work activity in order to avoid the individualism.
4. The teacher uses the media for supporting the teacher to achieve her goals the teacher also used various media to teach English to her learners in the ICT using the Designing CALL such as : Hard ware, Soft ware, the facilities of internet connections that provided in the ICT designing CALL must be a multiple computer classroom and the wireless technology classroom although the setting of the classroom does not enable learners to move freely, the learners have a good sense to learn English, and the teacher builds a good relationship with the learners.
5. Grammar should be taught along with communicative skills. In foreign language learning context, the role of grammar may be considered as the “skeleton” of the language, which contributes to the development and functions of the target language. Thus, highlighting both language components( particularly grammar) and skills within a broadly communicative frame work will result in enhanced language learning;
6. It has always been argued that teaching grammar is time consuming. The time allocated for classroom contact is limited and therefore English teachers often ask the students to study grammar by themselves and the teachers concentrate on other skills, such as speaking, listening, and reading. To cope with this dilemma, a self-access CALL program may be an appropriate and promising solution;
7. Apart from the benefit of self-access CALL program, a number of issues should be considered in developing such an instructional program. This should include considering the cost of purchasing equipment, choosing suitable software, selecting materials, determining objectives, choosing the type of intended program, and designing the layout of the screens. More importantly, CALL designers or developers should accessibility’ and appropriateness’ understand clearly the principles of creating the program such as ‘interactivity’, ‘flexibility’, ’accessibility’ and ‘ appropriateness’.
8. As far as a self – access computer- assisted language learning program is concerned, students’ individual differences variables should also be taken into consideration when designing, developing, and implementing a self-access CALL program. If designing properly, such a program can even encourage and stimulate students thereby increasing their motivation and intention to learn the material provided. Beside students’ attitude-motivation’-related variables, computer – related variables also be taken into account in establishing the CALL environment. It is essential to provide a short orientation on how to use computers and computerized-learning program in particular

The students usually spent their time on the internet, become more individually, for the students who has a limited knowledge about ICT will try to copy their friend’s job, not so much for creativity because new applications are developed that intend to provide resources, and websites provide free software or support to generate or adapt existing materials by using a copy –paste only.

In teaching English using The ICT designing CALL needs some requirements and also some preparations they are:

The problem of ICT language teaching using designing CALL.

Learning a languages takes time. If you grow up in a country or live in a country for a long period then you are exposed to the language continually and for many hours per day. This is why you make good progress. If you learn a language at school then you get very little exposure in comparison and therefore make slow progress. ICT and other aids such as audio and video materials can speed up the language learning process by offering additional opportunities for practice outside the classroom.

The findings of Hartoyo’s (1998)study also indicates that social psychological differences among students affect learning improvement. The analysis also reveals that a positive correlation was shown to exist, i.e., the greater the students’ knowledge of computers, or positive attitudes to learning English, the better their improvement scores were. In addition, as far as the CALL program is concerned, other related variables such as students’ attitudes toward and familiarity with computers, and time spent learning via the program also need to be taken into account. This study supports the theory that posits certain individual differences as probable salient variables in learning a language, such as that of Gardener (1978, 1979,1985), Gardner and Smyth (1975, 1976, 1981), Therefore, it can be argued and recommended that:

CONCLUSION

An ideal CALL courseware remains not an alternative but a complementary tool in reinforcing classroom activities. Apart from relying on the ability of educators to create suitable CALL courseware, the effectiveness of CALL depends on the teacher’s readiness to adopt new attitudes and approaches toward language teaching. The teacher should avoid being skeptical about the use of computer in language teaching and begin to re-evaluate this method in the light of computer’s tremendous teaching potentially and boldly address to the challenges offered. The computer can be best assist teachers if it is seen not as a replacement for their work but as a supplement to it. By the way, the computer, will not replace the language teachers, but, used creatively, it will relieve them of tedious tasks and will enable students to receive individualized attention from both teachers and machines to a degree that has hitherto been impossible. What really matters is how we use technology, computers can or will never substitute teachers but they offer new opportunities for better language practice. They may actually make the process of language learning significantly richer and play a key role in the reform of a country’s educational system. The next generation of students will feel more confident with information of technology than we do, As a result, they will also be able to use the internet to communicate more effectively, practice language skills more thoroughly and solve language learning problems more easily.

GOOD LUCK

Reference:

1. Murphy, T.H.& TERRY,R,Jr.(1998). Adoption of CALL technologies in education: A national delphi. Proccedings of the Forty Fourth Annual Southern Agricultural Education Research Meeting 112-123

2. Sperling, Dave, The Internet Guide for English Language Teachers, Prentice-Hall Regents, 1998

3. Hartoyo, M.A.,Ph.D.INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

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