teach international call (computer assisted language ... · since the 1960s, computers have been...

Teach International CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) Elective

Table of Contents

UNIT 1 – The CALL Methodology ............................................................................................ 3

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3

Why Use CALL? .......................................................................................................................................... 3

History of Computers in ESL ................................................................................................................. 5

Which methodology is the best? ........................................................................................................... 6

Unit 1 – Activities ............................................................................................................................. 7

UNIT 2 – Implementation ............................................................................................... 9

What can we do with CALL? ................................................................................................................. 9

Whys and Hows of Interactivity ....................................................................................................... 9

CALL Lesson Planning .................................................................................................................................. 10

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous environments ....................................................................................... 16

Special considerations for CALL classrooms ............................................................................................ 19

Unit 2 – Activities .......................................................................................................................................... 21

UNIT 3 – Software ....................................................................................................................................... 24

Types of ESL software .................................................................................................................................. 24

Selection and evaluation of software ........................................................................................................ 25

Choosing software ........................................................................................................................................ 26

Considerations for the use of software ..................................................................................................... 26

Integrating software effectively ................................................................................................................. 26

Authoring Software ....................................................................................................................................... 27

Lesson Ideas .................................................................................................................................................. 27

Unit 3 – Activities .......................................................................................................................................... 29

UNIT 4 – The World Wide Web ................................................................................................................. 32

What is the Internet? ................................................................................................................................... 32

Internet skills and tools ............................................................................................................................... 32

Using the Internet for the ESL Classroom ............................................................................................... 34

Implications and challenges of the Internet ............................................................................................ 36

Unit 4 – Activities .......................................................................................................................................... 37

UNIT 5 – Virtual Worlds ..............................................................................................................................39

Email and Discussion Lists .......................................................................................................................... 39

User Networks/ Newsgroups ...................................................................................................................... 41

Bulletin Boards .............................................................................................................................................. 41

Weblogs and building web pages ............................................................................................................... 41

WebQuests ..................................................................................................................................................... 42

Real Time Conversation Chat ..................................................................................................................... 43

MUDs and MOOs ............................................................................................................................................ 43

Unit 5 – Activities .......................................................................................................................................... 45

UNIT 6 – Other Considerations ................................................................................................................47

Overcoming Challenges ............................................................................................................................... 47

One-computer classroom ............................................................................................................................ 49

The Future of CALL ....................................................................................................................................... 50

Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 50

Unit 6 – Activities .......................................................................................................................................... 51

CALL – Computer Assisted Language Learning © Teach International PTY Ltd.

2 www.teachinternational.com

PLEASE NOTE:

This course is designed for online completion. It is a great idea, however, to print and keep it for further reference (as you have already done!).

Keep in mind that at the end of each unit there are activities to be completed online, which help you check your understanding of the contents. These activities are included within this printable version. We recommend you answer the questions on a separate piece of paper and submit your answers, opinions, etc. when you go online. You MUST complete the online activities, otherwise you will not be able to move forward and sit the exam.

To access the activities and forums, log on to the Student Centre (www.teachinternational.com), access the CALL course, scroll down until you reach the LIST OF UNITS, and click on ‘Unit X – Activities’ (whatever unit you are after). The multiple-choice activities will appear first, followed by the discussion activities, where there will be a direct link to the forums or other websites. You MUST complete the activities in order.

Please bear in mind that, due to the nature of this course (Computers, Internet, Online, Software!), it is highly recommended to be connected to the Internet, due to the amount of links in the course, and also some audio/video clips. If you cannot do this, expect to spend a bit more time online after you complete your readings and activities on paper.

The exam cannot be printed.

http://www.teachinternational.com/



UNIT 1 – The CALL Methodology

In this unit:

• Introduction • Why use CALL • History of computers in ESL • Which methodology is best? • Activities

Introduction

Since the 1960s, computers have been used in the language classroom as a tool for language learning. As technology has developed over the past 40 years, so has its growth in popularity in the realm of education. Computer Assisted Language Learning, also known as CALL by ESL educators, is now beginning to reshape the methods of instruction used by teachers. There are a number of different terms used by educators within this field, and it is important to understand the variations between the acronyms and terms that you may come across. The first and most important term to understand is technology. What does technology actually refer to? The definition of technology has evolved through time. One definition of technology taken from the Wordsmyth English Dictionary, states that “technology is all the means available for dealing with practical problems in the material world”. A newer definition now relates technology to new media, which also considers culture and focuses less on what we think, and more on how we think. To take a quote from Winner (1986), “technologies are not merely aids to human activity, but also powerful forces acting to reshape that activity and its meaning”.

There are also other terms that are commonly used within this field. The following terms and their acronyms are used interchangeably to refer to the basic concept of instruction which offers the learner and/or teacher access to resources on the computer. Commonly used terms are: Computer Based Learning Centre (CBL), Computer Aided Instruction (CAI), Computer Based Education (CBE), Collectively Explorative Learning Labs (CELL), and Computer Aided Learning (CAL). Taking this concept a step further, you might also hear about Computer Management Learning (CML), Computer Managed Instruction (CMI) and Computer Aided Technology (CAT) which, as indicated by the names, are used to describe a program which includes an aspect of management by the program being used. More recent developments of technology have seen the emergence of Intelligent Computer-Aided Language Learning (ICALL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), providing programs that are capable of some form of decision making. More often than not, technology in language schools will involve the former types of technologies, usually implemented through language laboratories.

The most obvious use of technology in the contemporary classroom is the Internet, which is now prevalent in our lives. You are learning this course thanks to the World Wide Web, which shows you how important the medium has become for education. In addition to the Web, there are also numerous educational software applications, some designed specifically for language learners; games designed for mainstream use which can be adapted for use in the ESL classroom; as well as simple word processing programs which have all made CALL a powerful addition to our teaching repertoire.

Why Use CALL?

You still may need to be convinced that CALL is something that can enhance the teaching and learning experience, and is not something to be afraid of. By the end of this section, it should be clearer to you as to how CALL can be beneficial.

Probably the first reason why you should take the plunge and start implementing CALL in your classroom is the factor of student motivation. Hunter (1998) believes that implementing CALL increases motivation in students. The first source of motivation in his students for lessons which he held in the CALL laboratory, was the unique learning environment it creates. Learners who use CALL can have access to a variety of resources available for the acquisition of knowledge and skills. When these resources are used in a supportive way, with the learners and teacher sharing the same perspective and focus, then learners will respond appropriately (Hunter, [Online], 1998, p.1). Learners enjoy using computers and technology as it provides them opportunity to practise skills such as typing, helps them build their learning strategies and to develop their independent thinking skills.

Providing appropriate support within the CALL lab involves a number of considerations. The first of these is the actual lab design and layout. You may not have much control over the way the computer room at your school is




laid out, but keep in mind that it is still important to have plenty of face-to-face communication with your learners. Don’t allow the computer terminal to become a barrier to communication. It is still important for ESL learners to be able to see you, and you also need to be able to have a good view of your students’ computer monitors, so you can check that everyone is on-track. Make sure you have easy physical access to each computer, while also ensuring that there is enough room for students to meet and work in groups. Appropriate support also includes providing small tasks to be completed in the class period. Giving feedback and evaluation of the tasks during the lesson helps to keep learners on-track and interested in the material they have been working on.

A second important issue to consider is the software or programs that you use. In order to be motivational, the

software needs to be easy to master, interactive and requiring student involvement, and also one which allows production by the students. We will talk more in-depth about software in future sections.

Thirdly, you need to work on topics that your students will find interesting and will thus be motivational. Think about areas in which your students can draw upon their personal experiences and backgrounds. Students are much more likely to enjoy work which they are familiar with – not only the topic, but also the English content of that topic. It is also useful if the work done during class on the computer can then be followed up without a computer, so that it can be continued in the regular classroom, or at home for homework. The computer lessons can also be used as a motivation for completing assigned homework. If you give your students work to complete at home, which needs to be completed in order to do the computer-related task, students will be much more likely to do it.

In addition to the motivational aspects, using computers in the classroom means that more of the individual intelligences of your learners can be tapped into. In 1983, Howard Gardner identified seven intelligences that we all possess. Two more intelligences have since been identified, with nine intelligences now recognised by educators. The nine multiple intelligences are:

- Verbal-Linguistic - Logical/Mathematical - Visual/Spatial - Bodily/Kinaesthetic - Musical/Rhythmic - Intrapersonal - Interpersonal - Naturalist - Existentialist

As individuals, we are stronger in some intelligences and weaker in others. In order for our learners to be most successful in their learning, it is important for teachers to provide a range of activities and experiences, so that as many learners’ intelligences are catered for as possible. Using technology can help to facilitate learning in each intelligence area (Lamb, 2001, [Online] p.1). One person in a group activity might enjoy using the word processor for a project while another may enjoy creating spreadsheets, databases, charts, and other data organisation and calculation as their contribution to a group task. Yet another student may benefit from tasks that allow them to think and create pictures or use information that is presented in a visual form, while another may enjoy choosing and composing music for multimedia presentations. The computer is a powerful resource for integrating the multiple intelligences in the classroom.

Work on computers can also allow for greater individualisation (Lee, 2000, [Online] p.3). Use a software program that allows your students to work at their own pace; slower and more inhibited learners will find this style of learning helpful, and faster learners can also fly ahead without disturbing their peers’ learning. The instant feedback that certain programs offer students when doing exercises is also very useful and allows for self- directed and independent learning to take place. This active participation in their learning makes a more enjoyable learning experience.

In this day and age, it is also very important for our learners to possess electronic literacy, that is, the ability to read and write English using the media in which the texts are actually transmitted. Warschauer (1999) has drawn up a list of specific skills required by learners in order to become electronically literate. He lists the following skills:

The New Communication

Finding people Pragmatics of individual/group e-mail




Netiquette Real-time communication Privacy concerns

The New Reading

Reading online Interpreting multimedia Choosing reading strategies and paths Critical interpretation

The New Writing

Writing hypertext Combining media Integrating different source material Web publishing Privacy issues

The New Research

Deciding where to begin Navigating and searching the net Identifying and evaluating net sources Saving and categorising Copyright issues Inquiring for more information

These skills can all be developed within a CALL environment.

Probably the most relevant reason for using CALL is that it offers your students an opportunity to move away from just using their books. They can escape from the stagnant knowledge base of the paper world into the digital world where there is a great variety of different information sources, presented in a non-linear format. This adds variety to their learning and is also more realistic of the learning modes and the sources of information that take place in the real world.

History of Computers in ESL The use of technology in ESL has an interesting history. Warschauer (1996) has discerned three stages in which computers have evolved in the ESL world. Each stage corresponds with a particular stage in the history of language teaching. The first stage, known as Behaviouristic CALL, was conceived in the 1950s and implemented during the 1960s and 1970s. This stage was typified by traditional drill-and-practice methods in which the computer acted as a tutor. These programs were very simplistic and mostly text-based. Basically, computers were programmed to respond to user input. It would ask a question to the learner, receive the answer from the learner and then respond by telling the learner if they were right or wrong. This was similar to the methods of English instruction used during this period in the regular classroom.

The second stage is referred to as Communicative CALL, and is based upon the communicative approach which became prominent in the 70s and 80s. Games and word processing brought about new technological possibilities for educators. Programs used in this era permitted the user to have more choice and control, and were more often than not modelled on games. You may be familiar with educational games such as “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” , “Civilisation” and other computer adventure games that were popular in the late 1980s. This is also the period in which authoring technology was introduced, allowing teachers themselves to develop simple programs. Rather than a tutor role, the computer became more of a resource, or tool to support communicative language teaching activities.

The third and final stage of CALL development in ESL began in the 1990s with the advance of local networks and the Internet. This era is characterised in language teaching with the use of computers for authentic communication. Web browsing and authoring, email and chat all feature in this stage, with the computer functioning as a messenger, communicating information to and from the learners. Warschauer (1996) refers to this stage as Integrative CALL, as the use of hypermedia tools and multi-media learning packages allow for an




integration of skills and a variety of material to stimulate individual learner attention. Integrative CALL stresses the role of teacher as facilitator and students as active participants in learning, and encourages learners to communicate with other learners and native speakers. This fits in line with the current theories of language learning which are presently in use.

While there are three distinct stages in the history of CALL, it must also be noted that one stage does not replace another. Rather, they build upon one another, so that a CD-ROM created and used in the third stage may actually follow the model of instruction used during the computer-as-tutor model featured in the second stage. It is therefore necessary to assess all applications and programs which are available, to ensure they actually follow the pedagogical approach and level of technology that you desire.

Which methodology is the best? So what actually is the best pedagogical approach to follow? As with all areas of education, there are theoretical foundations that underpin all the teaching practices that we implement as educators. Current trends favour the communicative style; however, we can take this further when we teach CALL. In TESOL, we are now moving away from the second stage of CALL and stepping deeper into the third phase. This is possible for a number of reasons, as detailed by Warschauer. One is due to the availability of hypermedia and the other is due to the Internet. There are many ways that these two mediums are so useful in the classroom. They provide an authentic learning environment where all the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening are combined in one activity. Learners can also have greater control over their learning by being able to move at their own pace and focus on specific aspects of language that are relevant to them.

Hypermedia refers to multimedia resources which are all linked together so that learners navigate their own path (Warschauer, 1996, p.5). It is basically a combination of text, video, graphic images, sound, hyperlinks, and other elements that come in the form typical of Web documents. Hypermedia attempts to offer a working and learning environment that parallels human thinking—that is, one in which the user can make associations between topics, rather than move sequentially from one to the next, as in an alphabetic list. For example, a hypermedia presentation on birds might include links to bird migration, geography, the sky, habitats and science. Warschauer states that the major advantage of hypermedia is that it “facilitates a principle focus on the content, without sacrificing a secondary focus on language form or learning strategies” (1996, p.5). This means that students can work on one activity while also running in the background of their computer some other resources, such as educational software or the Internet, which can provide strategies, prompts, information and advice. As a result, they have more control over their learning and can adopt useful learning strategies. The Internet provides one of the best opportunities for the integrated approach to using technology. Students can source information, read articles, critique what they find in groups, write their own work and then publish it. The Internet and email also give students contact with authentic English materials and access to native speakers.

Schneiderman (1997) offers his own unique philosophy for ESL educators to consider when using technology in the classroom. His perspective takes a more holistic stance and aims to guide teachers in an approach they can use regardless of their personal style, course contents, student types or available technology. His philosophy is called Relate-Create-Donate. The ‘Relate’ component emphasises “team efforts to develop communication, planning, management and social skills” (Schneidermann, 1997, p.26). The ‘Create’ component focuses on fusing learning and creative work through team and individual projects. The ‘Donate’ component emphasises authentic, service-oriented projects that are meaningful and useful away from the classroom. In each of these components, technology, in whichever form, can be integrated and used at any stage. For example, in the ‘create’ component, word processors and statistics packages can be used, while in the ‘donate’ component, a project could be as simple as writing a guide to computer viruses for use by students at your school. This approach shows that no matter what the setting, technology can be used within a broader teaching and learning goal.

No matter which role you choose computers to take in your classroom – be it tutor, tool or as a collaborative resource – it is still essential to consider the capabilities of the computer, the language demands of the task, the culture of your students, the needs and motivations of your learners as well as your own and the students’ technological capacity. Essentially, computers should support you and your students in the process of teaching and learning English.




Unit 1 – Activities Remember! You must submit your answers online! You can respond on paper first, but then you need to log in to submit your answers.

1.1 Multiple-Choice

Choose the best answer for each question:

1. CALL stands for:

a. Computer Aided Language Learning b. Computer Assisted Language Learning c. Computer Assisting Language Learners d. Computer Aided Language and Learning

2. CALL can enhance motivation in students:

a. True b. False

3. Electronic literacy refers to:

a. possessing the skills to use technology in order to read and write English b. knowing the language of computers c. being able to use technology d. knowing all the English words involved with technology

4. Which era of CALL history is characterised by authentic communication and hypermedia tools:

a. Behaviouristic CALL b. Communicative CALL c. Integrative CALL

5. Which era of CALL is characterised by use of drill-and-practice programs: a. Integrative CALL b. Behaviouristic CALL c. Communicative CALL

1.2 Tasks

The following tasks are designed to get you thinking about the topics covered and/or to do some of your own research. Read every task carefully, and then select one you are interested in and post your answers, thoughts, ideas or questions on the appropriate forum.

TASK A: Questions to think about… There has been a constant debate over whether the computer acts as a tutor or a tool in the ESL classroom. Can you think of ways that the computer can act as a tool in the classroom, rather than being or running the whole classroom? How can the computer be used in the communicative classroom, i.e. students are still speaking in English in a realistic way?

TASK B: Questions to think about…

It should now be clear that it is not the program but what you do with it that integrates it into the classroom and creates learning opportunities. It is your use of the computer that teaches language, not the program itself, and your use of it as a teacher is crucial. So the question is: What are we teaching when we use technology in the language classroom? Language via technology? Or technology via language? Or neither of these?

TASK C: Do research! Search the Net. Try to find more information about Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and think about how you can utilise these through using technology in the ESL classroom. Use the Google search engine (http://www.google.com) and try the following search terms: “Multiple Intelligences+ ESL”, “Gardner + CALL” or other terms. Post your findings and the website where they came from on the forum.




If you are not sure how to use search engines, try our Internet Searches Tutorial.

Once you have chosen ONE, post your answers, ideas, opinions or findings on the Forum CALL Unit 1.

Please note:

• Keep your postings to a maximum of 250 words.

• If you are starting a new THREAD, label it clearly, for example: “TASK C” or “TASK A” etc.

1.3 References and Further Reading

The following is a short list of print resources on the topics covered in this unit:

• Brumfit, C., M. Phillips & P. Skehan. (1985). Computers in Language Teaching: a view from the classroom.

Pergamon.

• Briedly W. and Kembel I.R.(1989) Computers as a Tool in Language Teaching New York: Ellis Horwood

• Higgins, J. (1988). Language, Learners and Computers. London: Longman.

• Jones, C. & S. Fortesque. (1996). Using Computers in the Language Classroom. UK: Longman.

• Kenning, M. J. (1990) Computers and Language Learning: Current Theory and Practice New York: Ellis Horwood.

• Shneiderman. B. (1997). A teaching/learning philosophy for the cyber-generation. In Computers & Education, 31 (1), 25-39.

• Warschauer, M. (1996). Computer-assisted language learning: An introduction. In S. Fotos (Ed.), Multimedia Language Teaching (pp. 3-20). Tokyo: Logos International

• Warschauer, M. (1999). Electronic Literacies: Language Culture and Power in Online Education. US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

The following is a short list of web resources on the topics covered in this unit:

• Sources of Motivation in a CALL Scenario http://www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/professional/jaist98paper/

• Technology and Multiple Intelligences http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm

• CALL Use in the ESL/EFL Classroom http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa112198.htm


http://www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/professional/jaist98paper/

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic68.htm

http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa112198.htm



UNIT 2 – Implementation

In this unit:

• What can we do with CALL? • Whys and Hows of Interactivity • CALL lesson planning • Synchronous vs. Asynchronous environments • Special considerations for CALL classrooms

What can we do with CALL? Obviously, the use of computers will change the way the language classroom operates. It is important to understand the relationship between teaching, learning and technology, so that you can implement good pedagogy. In the CALL classroom, there will be a different focus for students; instead of the teacher, the computer will have the primary role. This different mode of learning made available requires special classroom management and lesson orchestration, so that computers are part of the classroom, but don’t take over the classroom. Because the learning environment is different to the regular classroom, it will entail more collaboration and co-operation on the part of the teacher and learners. While the computer delivers information in a different way to the human teacher, it still has to be presented in such a way that learning remains meaningful for the students who are using this mode. We have already established that the computer should be a tool, not a teacher replacement. Warschauer (1995a) summarises this very concisely: “the computer is a powerful tool that can help teachers implement good pedagogy; not a magic wand that, once waved, replaces previous pedagogy” (pp.65). By the end of this unit, you should be able to utilise computers in your classroom as effectively as Warschauer hopes.

Whys and Hows of Interactivity

The most important thing to ensure as an ESL teacher is that your lessons remain communicative, even with computers in the room. The key to a successful communicative classroom is one in which students interact with each other, as this enables them to learn English in a way that is most beneficial to them. It has been demonstrated that oral interaction for authentic social purposes and with a knowledgeable partner is essential to second language development (Wells, 1981; Long, 1983). Language learning is largely a communicative process and ESL teachers should endeavour to have this take place even when learners are using computers. Technology needs to be used communicatively so that it is effective for your students’ learning experience. Barker (1994) explains that the best way to use technology is for it to generate interaction. He states “interactivity is a necessary and fundamental mechanism for knowledge acquisition”. Mesher (1999) also claims that interactivity is the “key to successful online learning”. The question, however, is how to implement interaction when there are computers involved?

The concept of interactivity first came about from the theorist Vygotsky (1962), who believed that “learning is fundamentally a social experience”. There are a number of reasons that interactivity is important for learning to take place successfully. Firstly, it serves to stimulate and motivate students. This in turn differentiates the course from independent, self-directed study because a learning “community” is able to be developed. Interactivity also helps learners to define and re-construct the knowledge they are taking in, and offers opportunity to receive feedback which is crucial for developing and expanding new ideas (Vygostky, 1962)

There are two possible types of interaction – social and cognitive. Social interactivity involves contact with real people, and refers to the kind of communication which takes place between people. When you are chatting with friends over coffee or with workmates at lunch, you are taking part in social interactivity. We try to replicate these interactions in our classrooms with our students by encouraging them to participate in communicative activities. For example, when your students work in pairs and groups, they are practising their social interactions. Pair and group work activities give your learners opportunities to practice verbal interactions similar to those they may have outside the classroom. There are many opportunities for social interaction within a classroom – learners can interact with each other, with you, the teacher, with other school students in their school, or with community members. Even though from the outset it would seem that computers encourage independent learning, it is still possible for computers to offer your students chances to participate in communicative activities. One way that you can accomplish this is to ask your students to work in pairs while doing their tasks on the computer. By working with another student to complete a problem-solving exercise on the PC, it will generate conversation and discussion and increase the interactivity that takes place between the students. As Coleman (1996) states




“one of the main benefits of using CALL is the interaction at the computer: between student and student, student and teacher, and student and the computer”. More specific ways of implementing this will be explained shortly.

The second type of interaction that occurs is cognitive interaction. This refers to how people engage their brain in activities such as problem-solving and decision-making. When learners do tasks that encourage cognitive activity, and when they perform such tasks in English, it enables them to learn the language in a meaningful way. The interactions that take place between a learner and the computer are quite unique, and may not be anything like ones that would take place in real life (Lander, 1999). By this, we mean that even though it appears that your learners are working independently and are not engaging in any kind of interaction, they actually are performing communicative activity between themselves and the computer.

The computer offers students opportunities to take control over their own learning. McLoughlin and Oliver (1995) argue that working via the computer gives learners a sense of control over the "pace, sequence and form of the instruction" in which they are engaging. The resources on the computer, which your learners have access to, need to be "activated and operated by participants" (Lander, 1999). This control given to the users can bring about interactivity as the learner engages in activities which require responses which are not arbitrary and which can encourage further pathways for study in areas of interest. Go to this page of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space. A search in the encyclopaedia for "outer space" takes us to this page. We can choose to read what is just on this page, or become even more involved! Everything that is written in blue text can be clicked on, and through just one click, you can be taken to another web page that tells you all about that topic. You may want to find out more about the "universe" or "hydrogen" or may decide just to read on. The user has complete control over the information they read, moving through the various topics which interest them as they see fit. With this particular online encyclopaedia, it's also possible to add content for other users to read in the future! Sites such as Wikipedia truly allow students to take control of their own knowledge and learning.

Another advantage of using computers as an interactive learning tool is the way that computers make complex information easier to understand. As outlined by Lander (1999), computers can offer people useful visual aids that deal with the theory accompanied with colourful diagrams and demonstrations. An example of a program that allows the world to really come alive on the computer screen is http://earth.google.com/. This downloadable free software program lets users see all of planet Earth's geography and points of interest through using a mouse and keypad. It's even possible to locate and fly over your own neighbourhood, wherever you are in the world! This particular program makes the world and its geography an incredibly easy thing for students to understand with such clear visuals and diagrams- and it's fun and interesting too!

Another way that the computer can be used interactively is through completion of investigations. These can be on any topic that is of interest to your learners, and can be completed by students in small groups, using the computer as a resource to collect and research information on a given problem, question or topic. The learners could then present their findings to other students online, or even publish their results onto a web site designed by them. The strategies required to successfully complete an investigation task include decision-making, understanding texts, group work strategies such as social interaction, critiquing and comparing information, clarification and reflection.

It should now be clearer to you, exactly what interactivity entails and how it can be implemented while using computers. If you recall Warschauer’s description of CALL history, the current stage in history is Integrative. We will now explore how to go about planning a lesson that encompasses theories of this era so that you can teach using technology integrated with communicative and interactive tasks.

CALL Lesson Planning You don’t need to be an expert computer user, or even be highly proficient in any particular programs, to be able to design and implement a successful CALL lesson. As has already been discussed, the computer can serve a number of different uses in the language classroom. It can be a tutor which offers language drills or skill practice; it can become a stimulus for discussion and interaction, or a tool for writing and research (Warschauer, 2000). Garrett (1991), brings an important point to the fore, stating that "the use of the computer does not constitute a method". Rather, it is a "medium in which a variety of methods, approaches, and pedagogical philosophies may be implemented" (p. 75). The effectiveness of CALL cannot reside in the medium itself but only in how it is put to use. It is imperative that this is kept in mind when preparing lessons which incorporate technology in whatever form.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space

http://earth.google.com/



Think carefully about the tasks that you select for your students to do. The following is an example of a task that may initially appear to be integrative, but upon closer examination, it is not. Evaluate whether the task at hand could be just as easily done by a teacher using a cassette and video, without using the computer at all.

Activity One

Pre-Intermediate to Intermediate

Listen to these sounds, and then create a story with your partner that has less than 50 words and which incorporates these sounds:

[You will need to access the online unit to play these sounds]

Sound One Sound Two Sound Three

If the computer is being used as an alternate stimulant to the teacher or regular classroom tools, it is not integrative. A rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether the activity being done on the computer could be done just as well from a book or other non-electronic resources. Other examples of tasks that are like those from the communicative era, and which encourage independent study but not interaction, include those found at the following website: http://www.manythings.org/

The following lesson plan does follow the Integrative CALL approach.

Lesson Plan for Integrative CALL Lesson

Dialogue Bubbles Computer Activity

Timing: 45 minutes Class Level: Intermediate

Aims: To integrate practice of the Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous into a communicative computer lesson that will be interesting, useful and motivational for all learners in the class.

Objective: Create a dialogue between people in the workplace that focuses on the Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous, using clip-art and callouts in Word.

Outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students

▪ will have better mastered the use of the Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous tenses

▪ will have practised new vocabulary related to working practices

▪ will have practised using clip art and callout functions of Word

▪ will be more comfortable with using the mouse and keyboard

Topic: Working Practices

Structures:

▪ Using the Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous

▪ Creating a dialogue which has a suitable register for the situation chosen


http://www.manythings.org/



Functions:

▪ Agreeing and disagreeing

▪ Asking and answering questions in formal/informal contexts

▪ Present Continuous for trends

▪ Present Perfect Continuous for progressive actions and plans

Lexis:

▪ Features of a workplace dialogue/interview, including formality of language and tense

▪ Vocabulary learnt in class, related to working practices

Skills:

▪ Speaking: Interacting with other students during small group exercise to complete the task; performing dialogue in a role-play

▪ Listening: Listening to partner’s suggestions; listening to other students’ role-plays

▪ Writing: Transferring learnt knowledge of the tenses and register to write a dialogue with suitable functions

▪ Reading: Reading other students’ dialogues

Materials: Landmark course book for reference, computer with Word, instructional handout

Student Task

This activity will give you practice at using the Callout and Clip Art functions of Word, while also giving you practice in the use of the Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous that we have been learning in class this week

Task: With your partner, write a cartoon with dialogue for your classmates to read from your computer.

• Use Clip Art People and Callouts to create your dialogue

• Focus on using Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous in the dialogue

• The dialogue can be either a job interview, a conversation between friends about work, or an

argument between work colleagues

• Also use this as an opportunity to use some new vocabulary from your vocabulary lists. Have fun! Instructions for using Clip Art

1. Click on the start button and choose Microsoft Word 2. Select the Insert tab from the top toolbar. 3. Select Picture from the drop-down menu, then select Clip Art. 4. The Clip Art menu will now appear on the right hand side of your screen. Do a search for

“people” and then search and select the characters that you want.




5. Once you have chosen your characters, double click on the image you want and it will appear on the screen in your blank Word document.

6. To make the picture bigger or smaller, click and drag on the border of the picture. 7. You can also select pictures from online Clip Art. Select this icon and search and select. You

will need to download these pictures onto your computer, and then select them through Insert/Pictures/From File.

Instructions for using Callouts

8. Now you can start writing the dialogue. To do this, select the View tab from the top Toolbar on

your screen. 9. Select Toolbars, then select Drawing. 10. Check that the Drawing toolbar has now appeared at the bottom of the screen. 11. Now click on Autoshapes from the Drawing toolbar, then select Callouts and choose the

speech bubble that you want by clicking on it. 12. To write words in the speech bubbles, just click on the bubble and type inside. 13. You can make the bubble bigger or smaller by clicking and dragging on the small circles

on the border. You can adjust the direction of the bubble by clicking on the small yellow circle.

14. Don’t forget to save your work regularly to ensure you don’t lose it!

This lesson plan is not only a good example of the integrative approach to CALL, but it also shows that you don’t need to be a computer expert. Even with a basic command of the standard computer programs, you can utilise computers in many ways in your classroom. Think about some of the functions which programs such as Powerpoint, Excel and Word contain, and develop activities that use these programs. Remember that your goal is to provide your students with opportunities to interact with each other as well as with the computer.

Egbert et al (1999) have outlined eight conditions that they believe make the optimal environmental conditions for learning English. These have been based upon research into second language acquisition theory and literature. The authors suggest using this framework to guide you as you begin to use technology in the language classroom.

Condition 1: Learners have opportunities to interact and negotiate meaning

Condition 2: Learners interact purposefully in the target language with an authentic audience

Condition 3: Learners are involved in authentic tasks with an authentic goal

Condition 4: Learners are exposed to and encouraged to produce varied and creative language

Condition 5: Learners have enough time and appropriate feedback

Condition 6: Learners are guided to attend mindfully (to be motivated and cognitively engaged) to the learning process

Condition 7: Learners work in an atmosphere with an ideal stress/anxiety level

Condition 8: Learner autonomy is supported

(From Egbert et al, 1999, p.4)

Even with guidelines such as these, there will be challenges in creating the optimal language learning environment that incorporates computers and which meets the needs of all learners. However, Egbert et al (1999) say that technology can be used effectively to support these learning conditions in a wide variety of settings. Suggestions for how to create interactive CALL activities will now be described.




Creating useful and meaningful interaction between students in any language classroom, whether there are computers involved or not, is not always easy for a teacher. Just by putting your students into groups and telling them to complete a task does not guarantee they will in fact interact, or interact in English, or that they will learn something as a result of the interactions. It is the quality of the social interaction that is integral to your learner’s experience (Egbert, 1999). One suggestion for ensuring that this takes place is to assign problem-solving or decision-making tasks. To support this type of activity, you should delegate roles to each student and organise the task in such a way that each person’s contribution is required to achieve the group’s outcome. From here, you can then integrate computer technology into the task – it may not have a dominant role, or it may form the basis for the entire task. Tasks don’t need to be complicated to be successful, and in fact, keeping it simple is usually better.

The use of utility or generic programs such as Word, Powerpoint and Excel are good to consider using because they are very versatile. Integrating these programs into the classroom is not difficult with some imagination. Check out the education site http://www.edna.edu.au for a host of curriculum ideas which integrate the various generic packages. Let your imagination go wild thinking about how you can turn Paintbrush into an interactive language lesson. To use Paintbrush:

1. From the “Start” button, cruise to “Applications” and choose “Utilities” then “Paint” 2. Click on the little square in the top right corner of the Paintbrush menu bar to enlarge the window 3. In Paint, you click on the tool in the tool box on the right hand side to choose it 4. To choose a colour, you click on the colour you wish in the colour box under the empty frame – clicking

on the colour with the right button gives you a background colour.

Play around a little with this program and think about how you can exploit the program to teach language. Post an idea on the Forum CALL Interest Tasks or respond to other people’s ideas, perhaps adding and adapting to these ideas. Remember to label the thread or post appropriately, or to ‘reply’ to someone else’s post on the same topic.

Excel is also a very useful program for language work. Consider how a graph may promote discussion and theorising. Advanced level students could write a data analysis and IELTS students could prepare for the reading and writing exam questions. Another group of students could do some research or interviews and then produce their own graphs to show their results. The options are limited only by your own creativity and imagination.

For a lesson that integrates all the macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, while at the same time incorporating the use of a computer and which involves good interaction, the following lesson could be used. Any of the ideas suggested here can be adapted to meet the level of your learners, the needs of your learners and also your particular goals.

Lesson Plan for CALL Lesson

Resume Writing Computer Activity

Timing: 1.5-2 hours Class Level: Intermediate-Advanced

Aims: To integrate job finding vocabulary and resume writing skills into a motivational computer lesson

Objective: Create a resume on the computer for another student

Outcomes:

By the end of the lesson, students

▪ will have better mastered the use of their resume writing skills

▪ will have practised new vocabulary related to job finding

▪ will have practised using various functions of Word to create a completed resume


http://www.edna.edu.au/



▪ will be more comfortable with using the computer and interacting with peers

Topic: Looking for Work

Structures:

▪ Using the Past Perfect and Present Tense

▪ Creating a suitable resume for a chosen job

Functions:

▪ Agreeing and disagreeing

▪ Asking and answering questions in formal/informal contexts

▪ Past Perfect for past actions that relate to now

▪ Present tense for current actions

Lexis:

▪ Features of a job interview, including formality of language and tense

▪ Features of a resume

▪ Vocabulary learnt in class, related to resumes and interviews

Skills:

▪ Speaking: Interacting with a partner to complete the task; performing interview

▪ Listening: Listening to partner’s information

▪ Writing: Transferring learnt knowledge of the tenses and register to write a resume

▪ Reading: Reading other students’ resumes and correcting any inaccuracies

Student Task

This activity will give you practice at taking part in a job interview and in using the vocabulary learnt in class to write a resume on the computer

Task: Interview your partner in the style of a job interview, asking the relevant questions required to write your partner’s resume.

1. Individually, think about and write down the questions you need to ask your partner. 2. Conduct an interview in the style of a job interview – you will be the boss and your partner will

be the prospective employee. 3. Record the details down accurately so that you can create a suitable resume to give to your

partner. 4. Swap roles




5. Transfer the information you have recorded into a resume that is laid out as we practised in class. Use the model resumes to help you.

6. Swap resumes with your partner and check for any inaccuracies, and make suggestions for improvement.

7. Compare your resumes with another pair and note any differences and changes you would like to make to your resume.

8. Whole class discussion: What did you learn from this activity?

This task has a simplistic design, but would effectively promote meaningful interaction through stimulating conversation. The students would have to participate with good interaction in order to achieve the task successfully. However, student-to-student interaction is only one type of interaction.

Teacher-student interaction is also of great importance in the language classroom (Egbert, 1999). The success of this relationship lies in you as the teacher finding out as much about your students as possible. Often, language teachers will conduct a needs analysis of their students to find out the areas they are strong and weak in with their language, to find out why they are studying English and their goals for the future, and to also find out personality traits and areas of interest. Knowing this type of information helps teachers to plan their lessons, so that the content is suitable for their learners and as a result, it is more interesting and motivational. A method of getting to know your students which incorporates the computer is the use of electronic journals. In the form of a weekly or daily email sent to you, you would read and edit the entry and respond to your learners. These could be incorporated into your classroom activities, and are a great way to integrate teacher-student interaction, with writing practice and computer use, as well as learning more about your student’s progress. You could give your class a project to complete, and at the end of each week they could write to you via their electronic journal, with their reflections on the progress of the project. An example of a project that would be suitable for the CALL classroom is one where the students have autonomy with you providing the basic guidelines. For example, the steps could be:

1. Choose a business venture 2. Vote on positions/roles for all students 3. Make business cards 4. Develop the product or service 5. Advertise (to other classes in the school) 6. Distribute the product.

(Adapted from Egbert, 1999, p.33)

You would help your students by facilitating and assisting when necessary, but would allow your students to work on the bulk of the problem together. A project such as this not only gives your students opportunity to use their English, but to use it for a real reason, with a real goal. The decision-making is also made completely by the students, thus encouraging interaction, and because it has an end result that other people will see, it is also very meaningful. They also get to use the computer to complete part of the work, but it really only plays a support role. With both cognitive and social interaction, negotiation, realism and authenticity, and the computer as a support to learning, this lesson has all of the best qualities of an ideal CALL lesson!

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous environments

Don’t freak out by what appears to be scary technology jargon. Synchronous and asynchronous are terms that simply describe two different forms of computer interaction. Synchronous networks are ones that occur in real time and the people taking part in the communication must both be available. For example, Internet chat programs such as MSN Messenger allow two people to type messages to each other and receive the responses immediately. On the other hand, asynchronous networks are ones that involve a form of communication which takes place over time and the user you are communicating with does not have to be online at the same time as you. The most obvious example of an asynchronous environment is email.

There are a number of examples of asynchronous networks, with email being the most obvious and prolific. You should be fairly comfortable by now with using email, and being able to use network forum facilities will also be extremely useful for you in your teaching and also research. Another kind of asynchronous network is called a Users Network, otherwise known as USENET. While email is private, USENET is completely public. All the mail that you post goes to an unknown group of users: anyone and everyone who is logged into the network. Basically, USENET is like a room full of public noticeboards. Anyone can come in and read the notices and




anyone can pin up their own notice. Each “noticeboard” or news group has a title, and each group is contained in an area which indicates the content. So the newsgroup can be found in the area “bit” (From BITNET). Most news groups are in fairly obvious places. They can range from the really, really wacky and “out-there” to the more useful and sane. USENET is unwieldy because of its size and can be accessed in a number of different applications. It is commonly referred to as NET NEWS, NEWSNET or NEWSGROUPS. You can access USENET through the internet. Go to http://www.google.com and click on the “groups” link above the search box. Click on one of the forums and then choose a news group that you think will interest you. If you are new to newsgroups, you may like to check out news.answers. Read some of the threads to give you an idea of the types of “conversations” that people out there will post and reply to. You may even find a thread that interests you, and add your own comments! While you are taking a look through the newsgroups, think about how you can use USENET in your English language classroom.

USENET is really huge, and can be a bit overwhelming. However, there are other asynchronous networks on the Internet that are available to you as an ESL teacher. There are also Bulletin Boards or Discussion forums which are more accessible and are a more contained option. Like USENET, instead of posting a message to just one person, you can send a message to a whole group of people who you don’t necessarily know personally. Bulletin boards are also similar to newsgroups in that one person posts a message to many people. However, the people you are posting messages to have all subscribed and are members of the group. All Teach International students have access to discussion forums in the student centre and these are a good example of this type of environment.

The benefits of asynchronous environments in the ESL classroom are that they provide opportunities to be involved in authentic communication with real people. This type of environment also offers learners a chance to see their work published, and this can make learning more meaningful because the writing is being sent to a real source. Email has revolutionised the way that we communicate (Kyba, 1996). Writing using email has reconceptualised the reading and writing process because it entails interactive processes. Email is more direct than writing a letter, and is quicker too! Email also requires a different style of writing which involves shorter sentences written clearly. It also provides second language learners with the opportunity to use vocabulary that is more colloquial and learners can expect to receive replies. Email provides your learners with a reason to practice their written communication skills authentically, thus increasing the motivational factors.

Email is an excellent tool for ESL students because it offers them a chance to use their real voice to speak to a real person and to receive an authentic reply. The first step in using email with students is for them to learn what email is and how it works. Most students these days will probably have their own email account, but a whole lesson could be spent on setting one up if they haven’t already got one, and to then get them to send you an email. They can also progress to sending each other emails, and then you can assign tasks to help them write to a keypal.

Keypals are like the traditional penpals; instead of writing a snail-mail letter to a student abroad, an email is sent. Keypals are a great way for students to learn how to write a letter to a person they don’t know, how to ask questions, and how to use information in a letter when replying to it (Egbert, 1999). More importantly, keypalling allows for authentic communication between and within cultural groups. The advantages of using email means that students can even communicate with native speakers without the pitfalls of pronunciation or accent (Egbert, 1999). To get your students started in keypalling, Egbert (1999, p.73) suggests the following series of activities:

1. Pre-keypalling activities: Find another class or classes that are willing to be keypals. With the other

teacher/s decide on a topic that is relevant to both classes, and formulate questions for students to answer in their letters.

2. Keypalling: Have students write individual letters, making sure to include theirs and their partner’s first and last names. Develop a grid of partners. Have the students send letters to the participating class. As they receive letters, they should respond to them.

3. Post-keypalling activities: Begin the cycle again.

Keypalling can also lead to collaborating with another school or class in a cyber-project. In such a project, students collaborate via email to obtain information from other participants, or to publish work for others to read. The Email Projects Home Page http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm (Gaer, 1997) lists current and completed projects and is a great place to get ideas for your own projects. Other useful sites for projects from around the world are The Global Schoolhouse http://www.gsn.org and Blue Web’n http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/ Participating in online projects is fun for students and is a great way to encourage language learning. Students will strive to do well and are motivated by the fact that their project will appear on the Internet. It also encourages your students to understand and accept different cultures and also different ages of people, because the Internet is not inhibited by sight and sound. Email and email projects are


http://www.google.com/

http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm

http://www.gsn.org/

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/



also an excellent way to help your students read and write, to develop their computer literacy and Internet skills, and to use the computer for real purposes. It is also a useful tool because you can do email projects with students of all ages and proficiencies, adapting the tasks to meet your learners’ specific needs. To get more ideas on how to incorporate email into the classroom, visit http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Meloni-Email.html

Closely related to email is another phenomenon known as electronic mailing lists. This entails becoming a member by subscribing to the LIST and then you receive all the mail that is sent to the LIST address. You can then reply to the individual person (called a poster in the LIST world) via the whole LIST. LISTS are run by machines and software. Some are moderated, which means that any message sent in is checked before it is posted to the list. Others are un-moderated which means your message goes straight to the LIST without being checked first for content. LISTS are usually “owned” by someone who sets up the software package and/or who is responsible for the machine where the software is based.

LISTS are international forums, and as such, there are certain expectations about behaviour within the LIST. Some people get very strict about conforming to Netiquette, or etiquette for the Internet. If you don’t adhere to the rules of netiquette you may find yourself being “flamed”, which is an expression used to describe being abused or yelled at via email. The best way to get to know the rules, content and people within any LIST you are new to, is to “lurk” for a while. This means you just read the messages that come in, and don’t actually respond. Once you feel comfortable, you can start replying to messages if you wish, keeping in mind the rules of netiquette. To read more about netiquette and for comprehensive guidelines on what and what not to do, go to this link http://wise.fau.edu/netiquette/net/ . The best way to learn about LISTS so that you can then utilise them in your classroom with your students, is to actually join a LIST. As ESL educators, you can learn a lot by joining TESL-L. This is one of the major forums for teachers of English as a second language. It is a moderated list and has over 10,000 subscribers in 94 countries. TESL-L also archives its messages which can be extremely useful when wanting to find out more about topics which have already been posted.

You can join TESL-L on the web or directly by email. The instructions for both joining options are here: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/tojoin.html. Joining by email was the traditional way.

These days we do a lot on the web. So, then to see how you would join TESL-L on the web you can go to https://listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa.exe?HOME. Here there are two main menus at the top: ‘Subscriber’s corner’ and ‘Email lists’. From the ‘Subscriber’s corner’ you can get a password (apply and confirm it by clicking on the link in the email sent to you). Then, from ‘Email lists’ you can browse the many lists/context areas available and join any of interest.

Once you have joined a list, when someone on the lists posts a message you, as well as all others on the list, will get the message as an email, which you can reply to if you wish . Likewise, you can create a post yourself from any list you are a member of. You will see the lists you have joined when you select the ‘Subscriber’s corner’, so if you wanted to you can easily cancel your membership of any list you have joined. If you are joining lists at TESL-L or anywhere else you should save the website link as a browser bookmark.

There are now more than 50,000 email discussion lists in operation. Each list is related to a particular topic of interest for the people who are subscribed to the list. Each list will have its own rules for subscribing and unsubscribing, and its own netiquette rules. As well as benefiting your students, lists are an excellent tool for teaching professionals to keep up to date with happenings in the ESL field. TESL-L is a very general list; there are thousands of others that cover other topics and also more specific topics within the TESOL field. Other LISTS that you may find interesting as a teacher are: NETTEACH-L which is a list for teachers using the Internet, or Oz-teachers net has Australian related topics within the teaching field. Do be warned that if you subscribe to a number of lists, you may start to receive an overabundance of emails into your inbox. If you join a list that generates heavy traffic (lots of members writing messages every day) then it can become problematic for you and you may find that you spend a lot of time reading and deleting messages every day.

There are also LISTS for students, which can benefit your learners by providing a network for them to “speak” with other non-native speakers. Discussion lists that students may like to visit are located at http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Discussion/. There are many reasons that you may consider using LISTS as part of your teaching. Firstly, it is a way of empowering your students (Turner, 1992, p. 3) by giving them opportunities to use English in an environment in which they feel comfortable and in which they can be anonymous. It accommodates different learning styles, and also gives learners from all backgrounds and cultures the opportunity to have their say (Berge & Collins, 1995). Probably the most important reason to encourage these types of interaction is because it encourages and motivates students to be involved in authentic projects and to write for a real audience (Berge & Collins, 1995). This makes the communication more relevant and offers a good opportunity to learn skills which they are likely to use in the future. Related to this is the way that it


http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Meloni-Email.html

http://wise.fau.edu/netiquette/net/

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/tojoin.html

http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Discussion/



encourages learners to be real participants and collaborators as they create meaning out of the messages they send and receive (Berge & Collins, 1995).

There are a number of synchronous communication applications which you should also be aware of as CALL teachers. The first we will discuss now is Conference Rooms or Chat Arenas. You may have heard of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) which is a virtual meeting place where people from all over the world can meet and talk in real time. Using IRC involves exchanging text messages from your computer screen and keyboard, so that you can communicate interactively with people from all over the world. IRC provides a real diversity of human interests, ideas, and issues. IRC users are able to participate in group discussions on one of the many thousands of IRC channels, on hundreds of IRC networks, or just talk in private to family or friends, wherever they are in the world. IRC has been compared to a CB radio via the Internet (http://www.mirc.com/irc.html) and is really just as easy to use. To connect to IRC you need to use a client program that will then connect to the chat networks. Using the program of your choice, you log-in to a chat session in the network that you want, and can start “chatting” to other participants by typing instant messages. IRC channels will usually have a name that reflects the general conversation theme; however, there will be many different topics within that theme taking place and constantly changing.

The problem with IRC is that there are some basic commands that you are expected to know. It is important to read help files and FAQs about IRC prior to delving into the chat world. You might find yourself stuck in a chat room and unable to leave, or may mistakenly offend other chatters by using the wrong commands if you don’t learn these beforehand. If you are a mobile phone text messager then you may be familiar with some of the terms, however, others may be completely new! You will also need to create a nickname to use whenever logging on, and this nickname will become the virtual “you”.

With relation to your students, the IRC is a great way for them to meet other English speaking people. However, there are other problems that need consideration before you encourage all your students to use IRC to practise their English. People out in the IRC world can take on personalities that are perhaps not their own. Creation of aliases can lead to men pretending to be women, and vice versa. Sometimes there can be a lot of sleaze and garbage that goes on in the IRC natterings, which some students, depending upon their age, should not be exposed to. At the same time, IRC can offer a lot of useful, positive communication, and choosing a channel such as one that delivers the latest world news or other topics of interest can be a great opportunity for your students to talk to people from around the world about anything at all. It is also possible to set up your own private IRC channel. This allows you to have private conversations with someone or a group of people by typing the relevant command. This could be a useful tool for use in your classrooms. Creating a channel that only your class and another class across the playground (or the globe) can have access to will prevent any of the problems that can exist with content, while also keeping the benefits of synchronous communication.

Special considerations for CALL classrooms

There are many advantages and benefits for English teachers who implement CALL. It may seem like there is a lot to learn with regards to computers and technology in order to implement pedagogically sound teaching practices. However, this is not necessarily the case. As English teachers in the digital age, it is important to come to grips with at least the basics. As you become more involved with computers, you will see your skills as a teacher improve as you open up powerful opportunities to your students. Tanguay (1997) has made some suggestions which you may like to do in order to prepare for the future of English teaching:

1. Get access to a computer with an Internet connection 2. Learn how to search for information on the World Wide Web 3. Learn how to send and receive E-mail 4. Learn how to join and participate in newsgroups, and find colleagues with similar interests 5. Learn how to attach documents and other files to E-mail 6. Learn how to create, publish, and update a home page 7. Learn how to type with both hands without looking at the keyboard

By enhancing your computer skills, you will in turn be able to accommodate more of the different needs and learning styles of your students. As part of this, it is important to recognise that your role in the computer classroom will be slightly different to the role you may normally take. The role of the teacher as an authority source and expert will change. According to Warschauer (1998), the teacher who implements CALL performs completely different tasks to the one in the traditional ESL classroom. You won’t need to redirect the topic, pose questions, nominate students, or evaluate students. Together, with effective use of computer applications and activities, you will be able to explain old ideas in new ways that may assist students in their understanding (Forero, 2004).


http://www.mirc.com/irc.html)



It is important that you don’t rely too much on the technology or to think of the use of CALL as a separate entity (Brown, 2000). Just as you would plan a regular lesson to ensure that it has clear linguistic goals, you need to also do this with CALL lessons. Brown (2000) suggests that successful CALL lessons depend upon the teacher and the way they use CALL materials. Pilus (1995) states “an aspect indispensable at any stage of CALL is the integration of the computer programs in teaching”. Don’t forget that there is more to the general classroom interaction than the activity being completed on the computer. According to Coleman (1996) “spontaneous talk around the computer is more purposeful than a task set by the teacher to stimulate the students talk”. Plenty of pair and group work gives your students opportunities to use and improve their language in a motivational way (Nunan, 1993). There are many opportunities for student to student collaboration prior to working on the computers, while using the computers, during a pause in the computer use as well as after using the computers (Brown, 2000). Kaufmann (1992) insists that the “teacher has a critical role to play in every stage of the process- choice of programs, choice of text exercise, the nature of the pre or post activities that are used. The computer itself cannot teach”. This is a significant point which emphasises how important your role is within the CALL classroom. As a teacher you should consider what yours and the students’ goals are, think always about integration, provide necessary support, and involve students in your decisions (Warschauer, 1997). Your role in the CALL classroom should see you on the move, checking over your students’ shoulders, teaching little mini lessons when required by individual students and you should also be motivating.

Brown (2000) suggests several considerations that you should make when planning any CALL lesson.

1. Ensure that you and your students are both familiar with the program to be used prior to commencing

the task that uses it. 2. Ensure you specify which parts of the program you want your learners to use 3. Consider the aims of the lesson and how you will achieve these aims 4. What part of the learning cycle is the computer playing? Could you achieve these aims in better and

different ways? 5. Link the computer part of the lesson to the regular classroom by pre-teaching vocabulary and setting the

context or other prior activities in the classroom. 6. Think about whether the work will be done individual, in pairs or in groups and why 7. Consider using handouts and follow-up activities to consolidate the CALL lesson 8. Try and link the computer lesson to the curriculum and devise a logical lesson structure

Considering all of these and previous factors, a sample communicative CALL lesson procedure could run in the following way:

Pre Teach Vocabulary and/or language structures prior to or at the beginning of the lesson Allocate Pairs Consider English level, computer expertise and nationalities Explain what and why Have clear goals to increase interest and motivation Demonstrate Guide the students about what to do Monitor, troubleshoot, assist Assess/Follow up

One final point to make with regards to interactivity is related to the situation of the computer/s in the classroom. Forero (2004) stresses the importance of doing research into the distributions of computers in the lab to ensure that they promote interaction and language development. Check that the positioning of computers is such that they facilitate communication, and are not in long rows. An ideal situation would be for you to have a main screen which all students can view. They can work on their own terminals, following as you show them on the projected screen. This means they are free to work in pairs or groups while still having a visual aid and you on hand to provide any necessary assistance. This is of course the ideal, and may not always be possible. We will discuss how to deal with difficulties when they arise in future units.





2.1 Multiple-Choice

a. Involves contact with real people, and refers to the kind of communication which takes place between people.

□ Social interactivity □ Cognitive interaction

b. This refers to how people engage their brain in activities such as problem-solving and decision-making.

□ Social interactivity □ Cognitive interaction

c. A good example of synchronous communication is MSN Messenger.

□ True □ False

d. Asynchronous communication involves messages sent and received instantly.

□ True

□ False

e. Technology needs to be used communicatively so that it is effective.

□ True □ False

2.2 Tasks


TASK A: Think

Consider how email and discussion forums differ in the way that they mediate and how interaction takes place. Who are you when you write an email? Do you have the same personality when you post on a discussion forum? How do you feel when you write in a public forum?

TASK B: Think and create

Can you think of ways that discussion lists can be useful to teachers and students? Are discussion lists a resource or a community? What is the difference?

TASK C: Do some research! Search the Net. Investigate and explore UseNet and Bulletin Boards via Google (http://www.google.com). Dave’s ESL Café uses a couple of bulletin boards. The message exchange is quite good at http://www.eslcafe.com/mx/. Also take a look at the free bulletin board services offered through Yahoo egroups http://groups.yahoo.com/. See what other ESL related forums you can find.


Please note:

• Keep your postings to a maximum of 250 words. • If you are starting a new THREAD, label it clearly, for example: “TASK C” or “TASK A” etc.


http://www.eslcafe.com/mx/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

CALL – Computer Assisted Language Learning © Teach International PTY Ltd. 2005


2.3 Further interest tasks

Want more?! Do the following activities just for fun!

• Check out Blogging. Weblogs are halfway between pages and bulletin boards in that they are a personal bulletin board that generates web pages that become online diaries and journals. Read all about Blogging and create a blogger account at http://www.blogger.com. Think about how you could use Weblogs in the ESL classroom.

• Check out how computer stuff works on http://www.howstuffworks.com. Look at the section on computers to find out everything you need to know about computers and computing.

Post any thoughts/opinions or questions about these tools on the Forum CALL Interest Tasks. Remember to label the thread or post clearly, or to ‘reply’ to other posts on the same topic.


The following is a short list of print resources and references on the topics covered in this unit:

Barker, P. (1994). Designing interactive learning. In T. de Jong & L. Sarti (Eds.) Design and Production of

Multimedia and Simulation-based Learning Material. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

Berge, Z. & M. Collins (1995). Computer-mediated communication and the on-line classroom: overview and perspectives. Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine, 2 (2), 6-17. Retrieved September 21, 2004 from http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1995/feb/berge.html

Brumfit C, Phillips M., Skehan P.(1985) Computers in English Language Teaching London: Pergamon Press and British Council

Brown, I (2000). Muddled Methodology- CALL in the classroom is not always communicative but it can be. Retrieved September 30, 20004 from http://elc.polyu.edu.hk

Coleman, G.(1996). 'Integrating CALL into the language syllabus'. In ON-CALL Vol 10 (1). Retrieved from http://www.cltr.uq.edu.au/oncall/coleman101.html

Egbert, J. & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.). (1999). CALL Environments- research, practice and critical issues. Virginia,

USA: TESOL Inc.

Ehrmann (1995). Asking the right question: what does research tell us about technology and higher learning?

Forero, J.H.L. (2000) Computer Assisted/Aided Language Instruction. Retrieved; September 17, 2004 from

http://www.monografias.com

Francis R. (1997) Information technologies in English Languages Teaching Norwich: School of Modern

Languages and European Studies UEA

Hardisty, D., Windeatt, S. (1989) CALL Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jones, C., Fortescue, S. (1987) Using Computers in the Language Classroom London: Longman. Kenning, M.- M.

Karaliotas, Y. (1998). Interactivity in the learning environment. Retrieved on October 1, 2004 from http://users.otenet.gr/~kar1125/iaction.htm#r11

Kaufmann, H (1992) Computers and Workplace Literacies. In ON-CALL Vol 8 (1)


http://www.blogger.com/

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1995/feb/berge.html

http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/

http://www.cltr.uq.edu.au/oncall/coleman101.html

http://www.monografias.com/

http://users.otenet.gr/~kar1125/iaction.htm#r11



Lander, D. (1999). Online Learning: Ways to Make Tasks Interactive. UltiBase RMIT University.Pp.1-7

Last R.W. (1989) Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Language Learning New York: Ellis Horwood

Long, M. (1983). Linguistic and conversational adjustments to non-native speakers. Studies in Second Language

Acquisition, 5, pp.177-194.

McLoughlin, C. & Oliver, R. (1995). Who is in Control? Defining Interactive Learning Environments. ASCILITE95

Conference, University of Melbourne, Melbourne. December.

Mesher, D. (1999). Designing Interactivities for Internet Learning, Syllabus, Vol 12 (7).

Pilus, Z. (1995) Teachers' interest in CALL and their level of computer literacy: some implications. In ON-CALL Vol 9 (3). Retrieved from http://www.cltr.uq.edu.au/oncall/pilus93.html

Stokes, A. (1997) 'Making a Success of CALL' English Teaching Professional August

Tanguay, E. (1997). "English teachers, prepare yourself for the digital age". English Language Teachers' Association Berlin-Brandenberg. Retrieved July 29, 2004 from http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tanguay/english- teachers.htm

Turner, T. (1992). Literacy and machines: an overview of the use of technology in adult literacy programs (Technical Report). Philadelphia: National Centre on Adult Literacy.

Underwood, J. (1984) Linguistics, Computers, and the Language Teacher: a Communicative Approach. Rowley,

MA: Newbury House

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language - Ed. and trans. Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar \Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press (Originally published in Russian in 1934)

Warschauer, M. (1995a). Computer-mediated collaborative learning: Theory and practice. Hawai'i: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Centre, University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

Warschauer, M. (1998). Interaction, negotiation, and computer-mediated learning. In M. Clay (Ed.) Practical applications of educational technology in language learning. Lyon, France: National Institute of Applied Sciences.

Wells, G. (1981). Learning through interaction: the study of language development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


If you want to find out more about IRC, go to http://www.thefreedmans.net/irctutor/index.html This site has all the basics about starting out in IRC.

An article all about communication on IRC. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue2_11/murphy/index.html

Email in the Virtual EFL/ESL classroom http://iteslj.org/Articles/Nagel-Email.html

Using email in the foreign language classroom http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Meloni-Email.html

Blogging in the Classroom http://institutes.edweblogs.org/archives/bringing_blogging_to_the_classroom/

International student discussion lists http://www.latrobe.edu.au/education/sl/sl.html


http://www.cltr.uq.edu.au/oncall/pilus93.html

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tanguay/english-

http://www.thefreedmans.net/irctutor/index.html

http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue2_11/murphy/index.html

http://iteslj.org/Articles/Nagel-Email.html

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Meloni-Email.html

http://institutes.edweblogs.org/archives/bringing_blogging_to_the_classroom/

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/education/sl/sl.html



UNIT 3 – Software

In this unit:

• Types of ESL software • Selection and evaluation of software • Considerations for the use of software • Integrating software effectively • Authoring Software • Lesson ideas

Types of ESL software

Software refers to sets of instructions or data that tell a computer what to do. Software is often divided into two categories: system software, which includes the operating system (e.g., Windows 95, MacOS) and all utilities that enable the computer to function; and applications software, which includes programs that perform specific tasks (e.g., word processors, spreadsheets, databases, etc)(iet.ucdavis.edu/glossary/). The type of software referred to in this unit is applications software.

Software is an important media tool that is easily available to ESL teachers. Software can be used as a supplement to regular courses, by students at home as a supplement to class work, and can also increase the interaction that students have with the computer. There is a huge variety of software now available for use by ESL teachers. When considering which software packages to use with your class, you should think about how using it will enhance the learning experience that your students will have. The use of software is a great way to offer your students alternatives to the regular learning modes. It is now known that every student will learn in different ways, and that each student needs to be cognitively engaged in a way that suits their learning style (Wenden & Rubin, 1987). Software can play an important role in addressing the multiple learning styles that will exist within your classroom. This is because software can present ideas to students using a variety of modes (Ngeow, 2002).

As CALL teachers, there are two types of software to choose from. There are those that are content-based and those that are content-free. Content-based software is that which has been designed specifically for the purpose of learning English, and as such has content that is focused specifically on the functions and grammar of English. Examples of this kind of software are:

Study Skills Success www.clarityenglish.com/StudySkillsSuccess. This software has content that is designed to help students prepare and study for tests such as IELTS.

Body Builder www.idiomware.com/products.html#ws. Students learn the words for the parts of the body and the face, answer and ask questions using this vocab and form sentences, pronounce new words and have access to an online glossary.

I love spelling http://www.myfamilysoftware.com/I-Love-Spelling-p/i%20love%20spelling.htm helps students learn the rules and exceptions of English in the guise of a game show.

Tense Buster www.clarity.com.hk/program/tensebuster.htm This package focuses on helping students improve their understanding of 29 key grammar areas ranging from Some/any at Elementary level to Phrasal verbs at Advanced level.

Content-free software is that which has content that is not directly related to learning and studying English.

Examples of content-free software include:


http://www.clarityenglish.com/StudySkillsSuccess

http://www.idiomware.com/products.html#ws

http://www.myfamilysoftware.com/I-Love-Spelling-p/i%20love%20spelling.htm

http://www.clarity.com.hk/program/tensebuster.htm



Borrico's A-Z Animals www.borrico.com is designed for kids, and provides detailed information in English about animals that start with each letter of the alphabet.

Earth Browser www.earthbrowser.com. This program allows users to get a hands on experience of the Earth. It includes Current weather conditions and forecasts, real-time earthquake notifications, current cloud cover and webcam images from around the globe, and also includes a 3-D model of the Earth.

Eyewitness Encyclopaedia of Nature www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Encyclopedia-Nature-Version-1-0-win/dp/0789400413 is an interactive natural history resource with graphics, texts and audio.

Valley of the Shadow http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu. This acclaimed site on the internet allows users to gain an unmatched ground-level view of the coming of the American Civil War. Explore it!

Selection and evaluation of software We have already stated that it is very important to ensure that in our teaching, we use the computers and don’t let computers use us, and that interactivity is the key to achieving this. This theory also applies to the type of software that is used, and the way that it is used. While software has developed in leaps and bounds since its early days, there are still some kinds of programs which are more effective to use than others.

There are hundreds of software packages available on the market, but it is unlikely that any piece of software is perfect for every teaching situation, and what will and won’t work will depend upon a number of factors. Which software works in each specific setting will be different for every teacher. While content-based software probably seems the most obvious to use in the ESL classroom, don’t discredit the value of content-free software. With a bit of creativity, you can find ways to also include this type of software into your lessons so that they are being used by your students in a communicative and educational way.

In deciding which software to use out of the mountains available, the first step should be to conduct a needs analysis. Healey & Johnson (2002) suggest asking the following questions, with the answers providing a bearing on what software will work best for you in your setting.

1. Who are the users you are targeting?

2. What are the goals of the students you are targeting?

3. What setting will the software be used in: independent study lab with no teacher available, lab

associated with a class, a teacher-led class with one or a few computers?

4. How much do the teachers/lab assistants who will work with the students know about CALL?

5. What do you have now in the way of hardware and technical assistance?

6. How much money do you have to spend?

Whilst some of these questions may seem quite straightforward, they are very important for different reasons.

Question 1 will determine the level of English used in the software, and the level of the tasks to be performed in it. Obviously, kindergarten children and mature adults will have different needs and therefore different software will be suitable for each group.

Question 2 is also a key question to consider. People who come from different backgrounds will have different purposes for learning English. It is unlikely someone who is studying English for business will require the same software as someone who is a refugee. There is no one type of software that would be perfect for both these teaching scenarios.

Question 3 is relevant because you will need to consider how much explicit instruction is included in the actual package. Students who work independently will need to easily understand the software without it being explained to them, whilst more complicated software may best be used for whole class work.


http://www.borrico.com/

http://www.earthbrowser.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Encyclopedia-Nature-Version-1-0-win/dp/0789400413

http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Encyclopedia-Nature-Version-1-0-win/dp/0789400413

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/



Question 4 is closely related to Question 3. If a lab assistant rather than a trained ESL teacher is taking the students for their CALL lesson, then the curriculum would need to be built into the software, whilst more skilled teachers would be able to use software packages that are content-free and adapt it for specific learning purposes.

Question 5 is pertinent because the amount and type of technology that is available will affect the software which you can even consider. If your system is old, slow and clunky, you will need to choose programs that require little support, which are simple to install, run and operate. Your decision may also be limited by the availability of CD- ROM drives, internet connection and whether there is a Mac or Windows operating system in place at your school.

Question 6 is obvious. You might be limited to freeware or shareware and resources on the Internet if your spending budget is nil. Alternatively, you can source high budget software if necessary and your budget allows.

Choosing software Before choosing a software program to use in your classroom, you need to think about how it will act as a tool for your students’ learning. There is no point in incorporating software from which your students won’t benefit. There are many aspects of the software package you need to look at before selecting it. Hubbard (1992) suggests that you should first look at the objectives of the software and find out what it says that students will achieve by using it. Also look to see that it will assist you by supplementing material you are currently teaching in-class. Next, you need to find out what approach to language teaching the software follows. Do the authors support communicative and interactive methods and does it take into account the differences in learning a language to mainstream education methods?

The following questions can guide you in your evaluation of a particular type of software’s usefulness.

1. Does this software meet my teaching needs i.e. does it reinforce my curriculum? 2. Is the language and content useful? 3. Is it possible to incorporate authentic materials into the program? 4. Is it fun and engaging for most students? 5. Does it encourage communication and interaction? 6. Is the software easy to use and does it give informative feedback to your students?

Considerations for the use of software In addition to assisting in encouraging interactivity, computers in the classroom can accommodate differences in the learning styles of all your students. As previously mentioned, every person learns in a different way, and it is important for teachers to incorporate as many different learning styles as possible into their lessons (Egberts, 1999). You will find a profusion of learning styles in any particular classroom and it would be very difficult to cater for all of the learning styles. Computers can help language teachers address the multiple learning styles in a way that ensures active engagement and maximum learning potential of all your students. While many computers these days are equipped to handle an array of software packages, it is still very important to remember that the software used is only as good as the way it is taught and the tasks that are given to complete with it. Most software packages, even those that are multimedia, cater only to one learning style. Remember that the computer is just another means of presenting materials, albeit a motivational and interesting one. The way that software is used will still depend on how you as the teacher get your students to use it.

The first step in successfully coordinating software into your lessons is to ensure that the objectives of the individual class are linked to the use of the software (Gaer, 1998). Just like every part of a text book is not always relevant, the same goes with software. Gaer (1998) advises previewing and evaluating the software to determine which parts of the program are useful for a particular class. It is of key importance that the objectives of your class are linked in some way to the software. We will now look at how we can do this effectively.

Integrating software effectively Once you have selected your software, you need to then find interesting ways of integrating it into your lesson. Ngeow (2003) suggests combining two or more software programs into an activity so that it is “meaningful for students with different learning preferences and also has the added benefit of learners working together” (p.309). An example of an activity that uses two separate programs could entail:




1. Students work in groups to make decisions to complete part of a simulation game such as Amazon Trail

http://www.broderbund.com/jump.jsp. They should be encouraged to discuss all their decisions and the consequences of them with their group members.

2. In their group, students then use Powerpoint http://www.actden.com/pp/ to present and explain the

choices and decisions they made to the class.

3. Students individually write a short story based on the simulation, using a program such as Word.

4. Students then email their story to their classmates. Such a task incorporates three different types of software program and integrates computers throughout the whole series of activities. This also allows learners from many different learning styles to have the opportunity to perform well and in a way that suits them best. This task would be suitable for teenagers and adults at an intermediate level, but could be adapted to make it appropriate to learners from a different age group and English level quite easily.

Authoring Software Sometimes you may not be able to find software that is just right for the lesson you are planning. This is where authoring software comes in handy. This kind of software basically provides you with a template that you complete with the information that you want it to include. They are generally quite simple to use, require just a little effort, and allow you to tailor your lessons specifically to your needs. One particular program that is recommended by ESL teachers is Hot Potatoes http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/hot_pot_website.php by Half- Baked Software http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/index.php. This software is designed for and by English teachers and allows you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises to be run on the Internet or off-line. Another useful authoring program along the same lines as Hot Potatoes is Crossword Creator http://www.centronsoftware.com/ This is one of many crossword generators available online which take the drudgery out of making crosswords by letting you enter the word and definition, while it figures out where to put the word, then prints the crossword, clues and answers. There is a suite of programs available from Wida – Gapmaster, Matchmaster, Storyboard, and Choicemaster http://www.wida.co.uk/frame.htm allow teachers to create a variety of exercises without spending large amounts of time in the process. The programs are straightforward to use, though require more work than HotPotatoes. Take a look at Storyboard at http://www.wida.co.uk/frame.htm (click on ‘The Authoring Suite’).

StoryBoard is a total text reconstruction program where the student rebuilds a text from zero. Some words, for example, can be given away as clues, and so relies on students being able to use their knowledge of word patterns, collocation, and topic-based vocabulary to build up a text. The program allows you, the teacher, to write a text to be reconstructed which is targeted specifically at your students. It is also possible to have the students as the author of an exercise for their classmates to complete. The creation of a StoryBoard exercise could be a stimulating follow-up activity to a writing exercise. Here students are motivated in that they are writing for a real audience who will be required to rebuild the texts. It is therefore a particularly useful program which can be used for just about any aspect of an ESL lesson plan. You could integrate Storyboard in any number of ways, from practising grammar, practising description or testing your students on a specific language structure. It is best to put your students into pairs to complete cloze activities so that they are interacting, and this program would definitely require you to pre-teach the vocabulary and grammar structure. You could also allow your students to write a Storyboard exercise themselves for their classmates.

Individualising the activities you give your students through programs such as this allows integration of computer activities to take place simply, and ensures lessons are more useful and meaningful for your learners.

Lesson Ideas

Let’s imagine that you are teaching a class of younger learners who are at a lower intermediate level. They are doing a unit in their curriculum that is based on animals. You want to integrate some computer work into their lessons in this unit. You may adapt some of the exercises in their course book and then integrate this work with a software package. But don’t just choose a package that is about animals and give it to your class to play. You need to think about how the program can be made interactive and useful, so that it consolidates the material you are now practising.


http://www.broderbund.com/jump.jsp

http://www.actden.com/pp/

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/hot_pot_website.php

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/index.php

http://www.centronsoftware.com/

http://www.wida.co.uk/frame.htm




What you could do is use the Storyboard program to create an interesting, individualised lesson. Pre-computer:

The Target Language section has covered the appropriate grammar and vocabulary.

Computer:

1. Use the authoring suite to write a short story about a Day at the Zoo. 2. Put the learners into pairs, and give them a handout with pictures depicting the story you wrote of the

day at the zoo. 3. Ask the pairs to re-create the story. They will need to interact with each other to negotiate the answers

and complete the story. 4. Students could then go about writing their own story for their classmates to then solve.

Post-Computer:

This could then be followed up with students re-enacting a role-play of the story in their pairs or in small groups.

This is one teaching scenario that you may encounter. Another possible group and an integrated CALL lesson, could be teaching upper intermediate adult business English students. For this group, an appropriate activity could be:

Pre-computer: Students are given a text and are asked to speed read it. They then work in small groups to brainstorm the main idea of the text and to predict the rest of the text. They can then re-read the text and discuss their predictions. These key words are then used to write in their group a short summary of the main ideas.

Computer:

1. Use the authoring program ChoiceMaster to create multiple choice exercises which relate to the text,

and include feedback on the responses. 2. In pairs, the students will then answer a range of specific questions. 3. Once completed, the pairs can join with another pair to discuss the answers and to analyse the content. 4. Students then re-form their pairs and use the GapMaster program for some vocabulary work, where they

can practise expressions and meanings from the text.

Post-Computer:

A class discussion or a class debate could follow, to consolidate the new vocabulary and structures.

You may also find that students have “free time” available to them in computer laboratories. Self-paced English tutorials would be ideal for your students to do in this scenario. There are many programs designed for students to work on individually, without the need for a teacher to be present. One program, for example, is Issues in English http://www.englishsoftware.com.au/esl/issues.htm which provides a variety of language and literacy activities based on informative, stimulating and current topics, and due to it being very user-friendly, it is great for teens and adults to work on independently. This program has four levels of difficulty, and includes video clips, sound and graphics, as well as worksheets, information screens & test results which can be printed. You could also use such a program in your regular classroom, using the topics as part of a class debate for example.


http://www.englishsoftware.com.au/esl/issues.htm




3.1 Multiple-Choice

a. There are basically two types of software: System software and Applications software.

D True D False

b. Applications software …

D includes the operating system. D includes programs that perform specific tasks.

c. Content-based software has been designed specifically for the purpose of learning English.

D True D False

d. Generally speaking, ESL teachers are better able to utilise content-free software in the ESL classroom.

D True D False

e. Authoring software means that you develop new software for use in the ESL classroom, therefore requires programming skills.

D True D False

3.2 Tasks


TASK A: Questions

Are there any other questions that you think should be included in a software needs analysis? What would they be and why would you include them?

TASK B: Think and Create

How would you integrate your choice of two of these programs into a lesson for learners who you wish to teach (the links will take you to a short description of the program):

Powerpoint http://www.actden.com/pp/ Excel http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/ Access http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/access/ TimeLiner http://www.tomsnyder.com/timelinerxe/ Hyperstudio http://www.mackiev.com/hyperstudio/index.html Widget Workshop http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/software/widget.html Ace Detective http://www.mindplay.com/opp/AceDet.html IdioMagic http://www.idiomagic.com/ Study Skills Success http://www.clarityenglish.com/StudySkillsSuccess/ Icon Poet http://www.iconpoet.com/index.html Storyboard http://www.wida.co.uk/frame.htm


http://www.actden.com/pp/

http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/

http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/access/

http://www.tomsnyder.com/timelinerxe/

http://www.mackiev.com/hyperstudio/index.html

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/software/widget.html

http://www.mindplay.com/opp/AceDet.html

http://www.idiomagic.com/

http://www.clarityenglish.com/StudySkillsSuccess/

http://www.iconpoet.com/index.html




TASK C: Research!

Search the Net. Do a search and find the titles and descriptions of some software packages, either designed especially for ESL/education or for fun. Think of an interesting way that you could incorporate it into a communicative lesson.


Please note:





Egberts, J. & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds). (1999), CALL Environments- research, practice and critical issues. Virginia, USA: TESOL Inc.

Gaer, S. (1998). Using Software in the Adult ESL Classroom. National Centre for ESL Literacy Education. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on July 25, 2004 from http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/SwareQA.htm

Healey, D & N. Johnson (2002). A place to start in selecting software. In CAELL Journal. Vol 8 (1). Retrieved

from www.onid.orst.edu/~healeyd/cj_software_selection.html

Hubbard, P. (1996). Elements of CALL methodology: development, evaluation and implementation. In M.C. Pennington (Ed.), The Power of CALL (pp.15-32) Houston.

Hubbard, P (1992). CALL Software Evaluation Guide. CALL Cookbook. Retrieved on July 29, 2004 from http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling417/guide.html

Huss, S. Using Computers with Adult ESL Literacy Learners. In ERIC Digest. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on January 21, 2005 from http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-4/esl.htm

Ngeow, K. Y.H (1999). Classroom Practice: Enhancing and Extending Learning Styles Through Computers. In Egbert

Ryan, K (2004). Multimedia Software and Language Learning. Showa Women’s University. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on July 17, 2004 from http://www.kevinryan.com/research/mm.html

Silc, K. F. (1998). Using the World Wide Web with Adult ESL Learners. In ERIC Digest. Fall Church, VA: National Centre for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE) Available: http://www.otan.us

Soo, K.S. (1999). Theory and Research: Learning styles, motivation and the CALL classroom. In CALL Environments. Egbert, J. & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds) Virginia, USA: TESOL Inc.

Wenden, A. & J. Rubin (Eds.). (1987). Learner strategies in language learning. NJ: Prentice Hall International


A list of English software which could be adapted for the ESL classroom http://www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6- 6-2.html

English language learning software reviews http://esl.about.com/bltopicreviews.htm

CALL software database http://www.fredriley.org.uk/call/call/index.htm


http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/SwareQA.htm

http://www.onid.orst.edu/~healeyd/cj_software_selection.html

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling417/guide.html

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling417/guide.html

http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-4/esl.htm

http://www.kevinryan.com/research/mm.html

http://www.otan.us/

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6-

http://esl.about.com/bltopicreviews.htm

http://www.fredriley.org.uk/call/call/index.htm



CALL software design and implementation http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-2.htm

English language software and downloads http://www.usingenglish.com/download.html


http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-2.htm

http://www.usingenglish.com/download.html



UNIT 4 – The World Wide Web In this unit:

• What is the Internet? • Internet skills and tools • Using the Internet for the ESL classroom • Implications and challenges of the Internet

What is the Internet?

For something that is now so prolific in many aspects of our lives, the Internet still manages to remain a mystery to many. This may be because the Internet, or World Wide Web, is purely a notional entity, a name to describe something that does not really exist in three dimensional form. The WWW is abstract and non-dimensional. It is actually a worldwide interconnection of large and small computer networks. The Internet began in 1962 as a computer network for the U.S. military and over time has grown into a global communication tool of many thousands of computers that share a common addressing scheme. The Internet has a decentralised design, so that each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. (Webopedia: www.oln.org/student_services/definitions.php)

The Internet is an extremely valuable tool to us as teachers. The WWW offers us and our students the chance to receive a world of information at our desktops easily and conveniently. At first, it can be a little overwhelming to know how to handle and use so much information, and how to utilise all that the Internet offers in the classroom. However, with a few strategies, the Internet can be considered a teacher’s gold mine of lesson plans and teaching ideas, and a student’s treasure trove of self-teaching materials and learning aids. Incorporating the Internet into your CALL class is inevitable; however, it must still be adapted so that it meets your own teaching beliefs and classroom practices.

This unit will outline some of the valuable tools which the Internet provides to us and our students, and how to integrate these into communicative and interactive CALL lessons. It is assumed that there is some level of understanding in how to navigate the Internet, and so will outline practical ideas for creating Internet class activities. [If you are uncertain as to how to navigate the Internet, see our Tutorials]

Internet skills and tools

Searching and researching

The first WWW tool that should be utilised is one of the search engines such as Google www.google.com or Yahoo www.yahoo.com to conduct a search to uncover sites that offer teaching resources. There is an abundance of comprehensive ESL teaching sites; the trick is being able to sift through the many resources to find something that is going to be really useful. Whenever you do come across a particularly useful site, ensure that you bookmark the site in your Favourites so that it will be easily accessible again in the future. Also consider sites that your students might find useful, and encourage your students to also bookmark sites which they find beneficial to their learning. Being able to conduct a search of the information available on the WWW is a skill that your students will also benefit from. Searching the internet with success involves more than just typing key words into the search engine. To get really efficient results you need to refine your searching. This is a skill that ESL learners will also be able to transfer into other aspects of their language learning. So you should teach your students very early on the usefulness of the words “and”, “or” and “not” with the keywords they are searching for. The operator AND means that the word that follows has to be in the text of the pages that are to be listed. Pages including the words following AND NOT will not be listed. This helps to refine your search considerably and can alleviate frustration. By inserting “” before and after an expression or phrase, it also tells the search engine that you only want pages that contain these words in that order, again reducing the number of irrelevant pages considerably. For more help and hints with web searching, and for a directory of search engines, go to this link http://pandia.com/powersearch/index.html

Researching and obtaining information


http://www.oln.org/student_services/definitions.php)

http://www.oln.org/student_services/definitions.php)


http://www.yahoo.com/

http://pandia.com/powersearch/index.html



Once your students are able to successfully search the internet, they can then use it for researching and obtaining information. It is a good idea to encourage your students to evaluate the material which they read online. The nature of the Internet is such that it is not regulated and materials can be written by anyone, anywhere. Make it clear to your students that not everything they read should be taken as gospel, and that some information should be taken with a grain of salt. Not all web-based materials are necessarily accurate or truthful, so web searching can help your students to develop their critical literacy skills. A good “using the internet” exercise could be actually conducting an evaluation of a website.

You could make an evaluation sheet which your students would complete in pairs or small groups. After conducting a search on a chosen topic, ask them to evaluate several different sites, with questions that allow your students to think about the following areas:

Purpose – Who is this information intended for, and are its content and style suitable for its audience?

Source – Who is the author? Do they have credentials? Does it have a link that allows you to email questions and comments to the author?

Content – Is there a particular point of view or bias in the information? Is the source of the information clearly

stated? When was the information written? Has it been updated recently and is all material current?

Links – Are all the links relevant and appropriate?

Style and functionality – Is the site laid out clearly and logically? Is it easy to navigate with clearly labelled links and indexing? Does it have a search capability?

Allowing your students to closely study websites helps to make them look at the Internet with more of a critical eye. Not all sites have equal authenticity, quality and usefulness. By browsing through sites and evaluating them, your students and you can then decide if the site is one that is credible and also useful. If it is, and they think they will return to it, encourage them to bookmark it.

There are some great sites that offer guidelines to you and/or your students on how to evaluate websites’ authenticity and quality:

A Student’s Guide to WWW Research http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.2/news/youcanuse/craig/index.html.

Thinking Critically About WWW Resources http://www2.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/11605_12337.cfm.

Evaluating websites http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tbarcalow/490NET/Evaluation.htm.

Language Skills With so much information on so many different topics, it can be overwhelming as a teacher to know which sites to begin considering for your students to use. There are many useful sites that have been created specifically for English language learners. Many of these sites will contain grammar exercises and grammar self-study quizzes. The following sites are just a few of many that may be found from conducting a basic web search:

Grammar Self Study Quizzes www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/index.html

ESL Quiz Centre http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/

Karin’s ESL Partyland Quiz Centre http://www.eslpartyland.com/quiz%20center/quiz.htm

Intensive English Institute Grammar Safari http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/student_grammarsafari.html

These could be recommended to your students to do from home or in their spare time if they want extra grammar practice.

There are also some great sites for practising listening online. A good site to check out is Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab http://www.esl-lab.com . It is also possible to listen to news broadcasts, historical speeches and


http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.2/news/youcanuse/craig/index.html

http://www2.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/11605_12337.cfm

http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tbarcalow/490NET/Evaluation.htm

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/index.html

http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/

http://www.eslpartyland.com/quiz%20center/quiz.htm

http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/student_grammarsafari.html

http://www.esl-lab.com/



films, which give your students the benefit of being able to replay as many times as possible, while still remaining authentic in their content.

The whole process of using the Internet inadvertently gives your students opportunities to also practise reading and the sub-skills of reading which include skimming and scanning. We use these skills in our everyday lives when reading newspapers, for example, but it can be a difficult skill for ESL learners to become good at. The way most web pages are designed, with hyperlinked menus, means they provide good skimming and scanning practice. Hyperlinks are the highlighted words, phrases and images which you click on to allow you to move to another section of the page or site, and using them facilitates the use of many reading skills.

You do need to be careful about the level of English web pages contain. English language websites are written for English speakers, so sometimes the level of difficulty is high and the content would be more suitable for intermediate and advanced learners. If you are teaching lower level learners you could find websites that are relevant to your course content and your students’ interests, which also contain graphics such as charts and graphs. If you pre-teach the relevant vocab, your learners will still benefit from using the Web.

Flannery (1998) makes many suggestions for how ESL students can get writing practice as a result of using the Internet. They can respond to articles, request further information on topics, register complaints and provide information about themselves on forms, send emails, request information and write comments for bulletin boards and guest books. These kinds of tasks are particularly beneficial because they are authentic, and therefore engaging and meaningful.

Speaking skills can also be practised when your students respond to their research findings; they can present an oral presentation on something they have read about, and can also interact with their classmates in small groups when completing Internet tasks.

Finally, when your students use the Web, they are using many other beneficial skills which will benefit their experiences outside the classroom. Skills such as analysing and evaluating information, working cooperatively and in a team, and developing technology skills such as using a mouse, understanding icons and keyboarding will be developed when surfing the Net.

Multimedia Resources

The beauty of the Internet is that it provides a vast range of free resources quickly and easily to people all over the world. It is also a multiple media, in that it provides not only text, but also photos, sound and videos. Think of creative ways to utilise these resources and this technology to create activities and tasks for your students.

Accessibility to the globe

One of the best characteristics of the WWW is the accessibility it gives your students to English speakers from around the world. Your class can easily interact with other language learners and native speakers through discussion forums and email. These forms of communication are quick and easy to use, and can offer your students the chance to practise communicating with real people.

Using the Internet for the ESL Classroom

Procedure for a web-based ESL lesson

The way that you choose to use the Internet in your CALL lessons is really up to you and the possibilities really are endless. You could incorporate the Net in any of the following ways:

- Get your students to take an electronic “excursion” to online museums, galleries and historical sites

- Compare prices of products through an online shopping trip

- Find out information that relates to the theme and topic of your current unit of work, searching for details on such things as health and travel

- Compare details of different cultures and religions by conducting online research




In whatever way you incorporate the Net, ensure the lesson has very clear goals and objectives, focused activities and an evaluation/consolidation at the end (Silc, 1998). There are three essential steps for Web- based activities, as outlined by Silc (1998):

1. Prepare learners for the activity. This could involve asking your students to define a problem and then

identify possible sites or sources that may contain information that will help them to explore the problem. Brainstorm the possible keywords to use in the search engine. Ensure there is a clear and easy way to record the information they gather – maybe a prepared worksheet, making their own notes or printing the pages to review later. Also define how much information they will need to gather.

2. Students perform the activity online. This would be done best in pairs or small groups. As the

teacher, you need to facilitate closely and be available for technological support. 3. Process the information. Your students will need to organise the information that has been collected

and it should then be presented. This could be done individually as a written report, or orally as a group, depending upon the skills you want them to practise and the level of your students. Evaluate as a class the information gathering process and the type of information gathered.

Sample Lesson: Monitoring the Weather

The following is an example of a Web-based lesson adapted from Bogarde (1995). Although written for younger learners, the lesson is also useful for adults.

1. Review some weather expressions such as “hot”, “cloudy”, “rainy” and also review the formula for

converting Fahrenheit and Centigrade temperatures. 2. As a class, choose cities which will be monitored and locate them on a map. Decide whether to monitor

the weather daily, weekly or monthly. 3. Ask students to suggest some Web sources for weather or brainstorm some keywords for finding

weather sites through a search engine. 4. Decide what information will be recorded, for example: temperature, other conditions, etc. 5. Record the information on a chart in the classroom, keeping a different chart for different cities, or

tracking the details on the same chart. 6. To perform the activity online, have individuals or groups search for weather sites that contain

information on the selected cities and record this information 7. To process the information, learners can organise the information they have gathered and write a group

report on their findings. They can also evaluate the various sites they used – were some better than others, and why?

Sample Lesson: City Net

This lesson is adapted from Rosen (2004) and allows your students to “travel” to their favourite countries via the Web. This lesson can be done with any age and language level as most of the countries offer information in both English and the target language.

1. Students in groups are asked to think of places they would most like to visit and what they know

about these places. Share the countries with the class and then choose one which they will visit for this lesson.

2. Students visit the Virtual Tourist website http://www.virtualtourist.com/ where they can either click on the hypertext or type in the name of their chosen country.

3. Students decide who will be travel agents and who will be clients. In their groups, they will put together a travel package that would suit the interests of their clients. Agents can research and obtain important details, including contact numbers for airlines and hotel information. Clients can research where they want to go and think of questions to ask the agents about their trip and preparations.

4. Students should make the imaginary trip planning as real as possible, and should gather as much of the information that would be needed for a real overseas trip. Even consider filling out passport/visa forms.

5. Students can then share their findings. An evaluation session of the activity should follow. This lesson could become a series of lessons for imaginary travel and a scrap book of their “world travels” could be collated.


http://www.virtualtourist.com/



Implications and challenges of the Internet While the Internet has many benefits in the ESL classroom, there are also some obstacles and disadvantages to it being used. Many of these problems relate to the technical nature of the WWW. For example, it can sometimes be very slow to use, making browsing and accessing of information very difficult and frustrating. If teachers are not familiar or confident with using the Internet then potential implementation issues during lessons could arise. It may be necessary for schools to train teachers, which could be costly. It may also be costly for schools to actually have computers and Internet access with technology funding possibly limited, particularly in government-run school scenarios. In rural schools in some countries it is probably not affordable or possible to even provide Internet access.

Censorship may also be of concern, as the Internet offers access to all types of issues and topics, and while precautions can be made, it is extremely difficult to monitor everything that students can potentially access online. Finally, it is important not to devalue the face-to-face human interaction between teachers and students, something which can potentially happen if interaction becomes solely something that takes place between students and the computer. Don’t overuse the computer and the Net; use it as an extra or additional tool for your lessons, to aid in your students’ learning and understanding. Don’t rely on the Net completely!


http://www/



Unit 4 – Activities

Remember! You must submit your answers online! You can respond on paper first, but then you need to log in to submit your answers.

4.1 True or False?

a. Using the Internet can help students develop critical literacy skills.

D True D False

b. Choosing websites to use in the CALL classroom is easy, as any website will be suitable.

D True D False

c. The Internet also provides challenges such as cost, censorship, implementation issues, amongst others.

D True D False

4.2 Tasks


TASK A: Questions

Would you use the website evaluation sites listed in “researching and obtaining information” in this unit with your students? If so, how? Are there any other problems you can foresee with using the Internet in the ESL classroom?

TASK B: Do research!

Search the Web. Do a search and find some sites that you think would be useful in the classroom. Think of an interesting way that you could incorporate it into a communicative lesson.

Use http://www.google.com, http://www.yahoo.com or a search engine of your preference.


Please note:


• If you are starting a new THREAD, label it clearly, for example: “TASK B” or “TASK A” etc.



Bogarde, E. (1995). Enhancing a weather lesson: using the WWW in K-12 language classes. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual Connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners (pp. 315-317). Honolulu: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Centre, University of Hawaii.

Cowles, S. (1997). Teaching and learning with internet-based resources. Literacy Leader Fellowship Program






Reports, III (2). Washington DC: National Institute for Literacy.

Flannery, K. (1998). Using the World Wide Web with Adult ESL Learners. Retrieved on July 26, 2004 from www.cal.org/ncle/digests/WWW.htm

Kitao, K & K. Kitao (1997). Internet. Retrieved on July 26, 2004 from www.ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-inte.htm

LeLoup, J. W. & Ponterio, R. (1997). Internet Technologies for authentic language learning experiences. ERIC Digest. Washington DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.

Moran, C., & Hawisher, G. E. (1998). The rhetorics and languages of electronic mail. In L. Snyder (Ed.), Page to screen: Taking literacy into the electronic era (pp. 80-101). New York: Routledge.

Rosen, L. (2004). Teaching with the Web. Retrieved on June 25, 2004 from http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/teach/teachlink.html

Singhal, M. (1997). The Internet and Foreign Language Education: Benefits and Challenges. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol III (6).

Thornton, P. (1997). Can You Tell Me...?. In T. Boswood (Ed), New ways of using computers in language teaching (pp. 73-74). Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.


http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/WWW.htm

http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/WWW.htm

http://www.ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-inte.htm

http://www.ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-inte.htm

http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/teach/teachlink.html

http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/teach/teachlink.html



UNIT 5 – Virtual Worlds In this unit:

• Email and Discussion Lists • User Networks • Weblogs and building web pages • Web Quests • MOOs and MUDs

If CALL is about increasing interaction in the communicative ESL classroom, then there are certainly many options available which enable your students to interact on a variety of different levels and in many different communities other than that of the classroom. The virtual world offers many opportunities for communication and interaction with people from all over the world.

Email and Discussion Lists

Electronic mail, or email, is as valuable to use in the classroom as it is in our everyday lives outside the classroom. Email has been described as a conversational writing medium, a “crossbreed language with elements of both written and spoken language” (Moran & Hawisher, 1998). There are many advantages to its use:

- Email provides the perfect venue for meeting and communicating in English with people from all around

the world.

- Email also has the benefit of not operating in real-time, so students can communicate with others at any time of day or night from just about anywhere where there is an Internet connection. These time and spatial possibilities increase the amount of time during which English can be written and read.

- Email communication is REAL and provides authentic interaction outside the artificial classroom setting.

- Email provides an informal, interactive and meaningful communicative environment.

- Email is in written form, which is an advantage over face-to-face communication because your students

can keep the communication and refer to it in the future.

- Email promotes student-centred learning, as the students have control over the learning by being able to choose the topic and change the direction of the discussion.

- Email offers a real, meaningful end goal – communication with another person through a mistake-free

composition.

- Email connects students quickly and cheaply with native speakers.

As an ESL teacher, it is your role to encourage your students to use email. Ask your students to email on topics which relate to those learnt in class. Email gives your students the opportunity to take part in more free communication than that which takes place in class and offers an additional context for discussions that do take place in the classroom. So how should you actually incorporate email and encourage your learners to use it?

1. Group Email Exchanges: You could plan for email activities to use within a class or between two or

more classes in different locations. This kind of communication is a good step for helping students prepare for face-to-face classroom discussions in a non-threatening, low-pressure environment.

Listerserv: You can also help your students set up a class email list, or a listerserv which your students, and other interested people, can subscribe to (Gonglewski, 1999). [The procedure for this was detailed in Unit 2 of this course]




2. Email interaction within the class: You can easily design email assignments as pre-class, post-class

or supplementary activities. Gongelewski et al (2001) suggest tasks that would fit into each of these categories.

a. Pre-class activities – A pre-class email assignment can prepare students for the lesson ahead.

Students could collaborate via email on potential assignment topics, share background knowledge on a topic that will be covered in class, or get your students to debate a topic you have given them prior to a debate in-class.

b. Post-class activities – Create tasks to reinforce or extend what they have done in the

classroom. The activities should allow your students to utilise and revise vocabulary and structures they were exposed to in class. Possible ideas include asking students to write via email a report on a conversation topic activity done in class, or build on an in-class reading by writing a collaborative class response to the reading with each student contributing parts and adding to the report as it is emailed back and forth.

c. Supplemental activities – These don’t have to relate to class work but can encourage

extended reading. Groups of students could be given a different reading each, and after reading the article, poem or story, they can email their reactions to other people in their group. MacNeill (2000) also suggests students write weekly summaries of news stories to a class email list. Students could then share their opinions on the issues raised and relate these issues to their own experiences and/or society in general.

3. Email interaction between classes: Your students could also interact with learners outside the

immediate classroom and start communication with students from another university, city or country. A collaborative group project would take time and organisation, but could be an ongoing, year-long project such as one outlined by Junghans (1995) which entailed the creation of a bilingual slang dictionary. Two groups from different language speaking backgrounds can act as the authority on its language and learn about the target language in the process.

4. One-on-one email interaction: This kind of communication provides a more personal learning

experience, but can also be more time consuming for both parties involved. One-on-one exchanges can take place between a language learner and teacher, or a fellow language learner, or a native speaker of English. The communication can be in informal, simple and unstructured exchanges, or the exchange could be linked to course content. Teachers could use email to respond to students’ homework or to give feedback on assignments, as well as offering email as a way to submit work for correction. Either way, email needs to be responded to promptly, and the frequency of the exchanges should be outlined to the students from the outset to avoid an overload of work.

Dialogue Journals are also a useful way to utilise email in a one-on-one type of interaction. Journals have long been used by teachers in all fields as a way to allow students to develop fluency in writing and thought. An electronic journal has all the advantages of paper journals, but allows for quicker response and saves use of paper. You can ask your students to write an entry per week or per lesson, which can either relate to topics from class or on any topic of their choice.

5. Email between two individual ESL learners: This type of communication is often more favourable for

teachers, as it takes the responsibility of having to respond to potentially hundreds of emails a week away from the teacher, putting the onus on the learners themselves. Peer to peer communication also allows your students to experience a different type of relationship to that of communication with the teacher. Students tend to consider teachers as the authority on their language usage, so the relationship can be skewed. Communication with a peer is more balanced, yet they can still receive feedback and input on an individual basis.

Keypals [this was also covered in Unit 2 of this course] is the word which has been coined to describe the exchange between two language learners. Keypals are considered as penpals of the electronic age, who correspond via a keyboard. There are a variety of articles written by various authors who have evaluated the use of keypals in the classroom, and which outline ways of introducing them to your classroom. This link http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/keypals.html is very useful if you want to learn more about this form of email exchange. Basically, teachers assign students keypals from either the same class or from a more distant location. These keypals are found through lists posted on the Web. This is one such keypal site which exists for students of all ages http://www.cl.aoyama.ac.jp/~dias/EsllinksKeypals.html , but there are many, which are dedicated to certain age groups, languages other than English, as well as specifically for kids or for university level students. You could also network with teachers you know in other locations to tee up the names and email addresses of potential keypals. Once you have distributed the keypals to your students, integrate their


http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/keypals.html

http://www.cl.aoyama.ac.jp/~dias/EsllinksKeypals.html



exchanges with topics covered in class. The keypals can engage in discussions to further their understanding of course materials and to improve their language ability (Goglewski et al, 2001). You could also arrange with your students to complete tasks which are unrelated to the course content, whereby the exchange will be enjoyable yet challenging. Thornton (1997) suggests information gap activities, where each partner is given a different picture, they then have to write and email sentences or questions to find similarities and differences in the two pictures.

User Networks/ Newsgroups

User Networks, otherwise known as USENET or NEWSGROUPS are another public forum facility. Unlike a listserv, where there is a known group of users on the mailing list for all posts sent, USENET goes to anyone and everyone. USENET is basically like a room full of public noticeboards. Anyone can come in and read the notices and anyone can pin up their own notice. Each “noticeboard” has a title, for example, TESL-L have their own group, and each group is contained in an area which indicates its content. Newsgroups range from the extremely useful such as news.answers to the very odd and strange such as alt.alien visitors. USENET is unwieldy given its size, and there are a large number of different applications with which to access it. There are 15,000 newsgroups on the Internet and each newsgroup is about a single subject such as sport, computers, and education.

There are classifications that indicate the content of that group, and then each group is further divided and classified. For example, comp. is for topics on computers, rec. is mostly for discussions about hobbies and recreation, sci. is for discussions relating to science and soc. is for discussions about social issues.

To access USENET Newsgroups through the web, you can use any of the search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Instead of doing a search on the Web, click on “Groups” and do a search from the groups search page. You can do a search for “TESOL” or type in the actual list name if you know it. You can try bit.listserv.tesl-l or misc.education.language.english to get an idea of what USENET is actually like.

The following lesson could be used with your students and uses USENET Newsgroups.

1. As a class, discuss what students know about newsgroups. Start the discussion with “what is a

newsgroup?” 2. Give your students the names of some newsgroups and ask them to find out what they are about.

They could look up rec.games.go, soc.culture.japan, talk.politics.china, for example. 3. In pairs, students discuss questions that they would like to find answers to, and think about which

newsgroups they may be able to post their questions to. 4. In pairs, students search a chosen newsgroup archive, to see if their question has already been

posted. If not, they should then post their questions or reply to existing questions. 5. Students can then follow the thread over coming days to see if they receive a response

Bulletin Boards

If you think USENET is too large and unwieldy for your students, then a more accessible, more contained option could be discussion forums. Bulletin Boards allow you to discuss any topic under the sun and are similar to the forums that you have been using to post responses to as part of this online course. Discussion forums include mailing lists, group calendars, poll-making functions, file sharing, and more. There are many, many other bulletin boards on the web which your students (and you) can utilise. Dave’s ESL Café uses many; one you can try is the message exchange http://www.eslcafe.com . Yahoo also has free bulletin board services. Yahoo groups range from the serious to the extremely frivolous. It's important to choose a group with care. Decide on a group that deals with a topic of interest to you and has had some activity in the previous few months. Read a few messages on the group's message board to judge its level of seriousness. You could also use this link to browse through a wide variety of email discussion groups or start your own if you can't find one that suits your needs. You'll need to register before you can begin to use the system. Like Yahoo Groups, it's free http://lists.topica.com/ . You can encourage your ESL learners to use bulletin boards as a way to practise their reading and writing in much the same way as they can with email.

Weblogs and building web pages

Weblogs are halfway between web pages and bulletin boards. They are actually personal bulletin boards that generate web pages, and are often used as online diaries or journals. Setting up a weblog is as easy as setting


http://www.eslcafe.com/

http://lists.topica.com/

http://lists.topica.com/



up a free email account like Hotmail. Go to www.blogger.com to set up a free weblog. Setting up a class blog is a great idea to encourage communication between classmates, or they can go to a normal, authentic blog which welcomes English language learners – they can then read and make comments. There is a directory of these kind of blogs at http://free-esl-blogs.com/ This directory is focused specifically on ESL related topics. It is important for your students to talk about real and meaningful topics, so also try a directory like this one, which lists ESL friendly weblogs on topics such as sports, politics and travel so your students can talk about something other than ESL http://www.eslgo.net/

If you feel confident in doing so, you may also like to build a class website, which you can use to publish students’ work and other class input. It could be a collaborative class effort, monitored by you. This type of ongoing activity would be extremely meaningful and relevant as there is a very real outcome for your students – a webpage for all the World Wide Web to see. There are numerous sites dedicated to how to build a web page, such as http://www.webs.com/ or http://www.weebly.com/.

WebQuests

Yet another way to utilise the Internet with your students is through WebQuests. WebQuests are an inquiry- oriented activity in which some or all of the information which students interact with comes from resources on the Internet (Dodge, 1997). As the name indicates, WebQuests are designed for students to explore and research on given topics via the web. They can be equated to a modern-day information scavenger hunt. There are both short term and long term Webquests. Short term WebQuests are designed to take place over 1-3 lessons and have the learning goal of knowledge acquisition and understanding. Long term WebQuests, on the other hand, are more about extending and refining knowledge, with information not just being found but also analysed; there is also demonstrated understanding through the creation of an end-product that others can respond to. These WebQuests can take anywhere from one week to one month to complete.

WebQuests were originally designed for native speaker learners, but there have now been WebQuests developed specifically for ESL learners. WebQuests are beneficial to students as it gives them a goal or a reason to actually surf the net – they provide efficiency and purpose to learners who want to use the Internet as a learning tool.

WebQuests generally contain six parts, as described by Dodge (1997) at his site dedicated to WebQuests http://webquest.sdsu.edu/

1. An introduction that sets the stage and provides some background information. 2. A task that is doable and interesting. 3. A set of information sources needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the

resources are embedded in the WebQuest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information sources might include web documents, experts available via e-mail, searchable databases on the net, and books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift.

4. A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The process should

be broken out into clearly described steps. 5. Some guidance on how to organise the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions,

or directions to complete organizational frameworks such as timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams as described by Marzano (1988, 1992) and Clarke (1990).

6. A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and

perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.

An example of a short term WebQuest is available to view at this link http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/travelsim/, or why not do the WebQuest about WebQuests http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestwebquest-ms.html

There are recommended steps for designing and creating WebQuests.

1. The first stage is to become familiar with the resources available online in a content area with which you are familiar. From the WebQuest page there is a catalogue of websites for teachers which can be used as a starting point for exploration broken down by subject matter http://edweb.sdsu.edu/links/index.html


http://www.blogger.com/

http://free-esl-blogs.com/

http://www.eslgo.net/

http://www.webs.com/

http://www.weebly.com/

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/

http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/travelsim/

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/webquestwebquest-ms.html

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/links/index.html



2. Next you need to organise your knowledge of what is available – organise the available resources into categories such as searchable database, reference material, project ideas, etc.

3. Now identify the topics that fit in with your curriculum and also those which are appropriate materials for

your learners (remembering that much of what is in English online is written for native speakers so may be very difficult for ESL learners).

4. A template is available that guides teachers through the process of creating a short-term WebQuest

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm

WebQuests are only interactive for your students if they interact with each other and with the web resources in English. The challenge for you as the teacher will be to ensure all discussion takes place in English only and that your students don’t try and access web materials that are in their native language as it definitely defeats the whole purpose of the activity. Also, if you are using an existing WebQuest, make sure you adapt it for your students’ needs, to ensure it is meaningful and relevant to them, and to also make sure the level of English is not too difficult for your learners.

Real Time Conversation Chat Real Time Chat is another interesting aspect of the Internet that is useful for language teachers and students due to it being a real time conversation with an authentic audience. The conversations that take place can be one-on-one or many-to-many, and can take place through writing in simple text or in graphic worlds. You may already be familiar with chat programs which exist, such as MSN Messenger http://messenger.msn.com/ and Yahoo Chat http://chat.yahoo.com/?myHome. Another program which is becoming popular among ESL learners and teachers, which is also free to access, is Skype http://skype.com/ . This software makes your computer into a telephone, and allows users to talk to anyone in the world for free so long as both users have the software and a microphone. This program can be used in class, and also used by your students in their own time, to communicate with other ESL learners and even native speakers from other countries. With Skype, you can have up to five people on a conference call at the same time, so discussions can take place quite easily. As the teacher, you would need to provide your students with a direction in which to take their conversations. Ideally, students in a class on a Friday afternoon in Japan could link up with students in Korea and exchange ideas together in English. In this scenario, the time zones are the same; however, to avoid time zone problems, ensure everyone uses GMT to talk time to expand opportunities to link up. Organising a regular partner class for your students to chat with could be highly beneficial, as well as fun and motivational for your learners.

MUDs and MOOs What are these strange acronyms all about? Dirt and animal sounds? No! A MUD is otherwise called a Multiple User Dimension or Multiple User Dialogue and a MOO is a MUDs Object Oriented. Okay, so what exactly does that mean? In laymans terms, MUDs and MOOs are like text chat zones, similar to MSN Messenger and Yahoo Chat for example. They allow private conversations like these chat zones, but also permit multiple user conversations. Essentially, a MUD is a computer program which users can log into and explore. Each user takes control of a computerized persona or character (often also referred to as an avatar). You can walk around, chat with other characters, explore dangerous monster-infested areas, solve puzzles, and even create your very own rooms, descriptions and items. You can also get lost or confused if you jump right in, so be sure to read about MUDs carefully before starting. A MOO is also a virtual space on the internet The Mizzou MOO web page describes MOOs:

“MOOs are text-based virtual realities housed on computers connected to the Internet. MOOs have become a vastly popular form of communication and learning. They serve a variety of functions, both social and educational, and are not simply games (although certainly people do play games of one sort or another on MOOs, often involving skill or intellectual challenge). Some people use them to work on their programming skills – the MOO server code has a built-in programming language for developing objects and verbs (commands) in the virtual reality interface and making them interactive and interesting. The language is a combination of C and LISP, but it is its own language altogether in some respects. The MOO Programmer's Manual, written by Pavel Curtis, is the official guide to this language.”

So a MOO is a place, not a physical place, but a virtual place created on the Internet. MOOs are a way of talking to people on the Internet by typing. What you type is shown almost immediately to both you AND all the other people connected to the same MOO at the same time. You can have a conversation almost as fast as talking (depending on how fast you can type and think of course!). Most MOOs are all in writing, unlike the WWW with lots of pictures.


http://webquest.sdsu.edu/designpatterns/all.htm

http://messenger.msn.com/

http://chat.yahoo.com/?myHome

http://skype.com/



MOOs are written in a special computer language called MOOCode. Users of MOOs can get what is called a Programming Bit (basically a level of access to the core computer) that allows them to program in MOOCode. Most MOOs have information about this by typing 'help programming'.

MOOs can be divided into three main groups:

1. Educational, Foreign Language, EFL/ESL (English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second

Language), and research MOOs; 2. Gaming MOOs 3. Social MOOs.

These categories are in no way mutually exclusive. Often social MOOs, and sometimes educational and research MOOs, are set in a science-fiction (sci-fi) or fantasy setting, much like a gaming MOO. All MOOs have social aspects. Educators are excited by the possibilities that this technology offers. The most powerful aspect in ESL terms, is that all of the MUD space creatively occurs in the form of text (not pictures), MOOs are therefore worlds which are read, rather like a book, but one in which you can interact and make up the story. It is possible to “build” a room, garden or even a country within which to “talk”. These rooms can be populated with objects quickly and easily. They are therefore a new way of encouraging students to write, and they can connect classes worldwide.

The best way to learn about MUDs and MOOs is by actually exploring one. Like finding a website, you have to go to a MOO site before you can connect. One MOO famous in the realm of ESL is SchMOOze and can be found from a link at http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu/. Once you enter SchMOOze, you will have to read everything carefully from the screen.

1. Click into the typing window and type “connect guest”. 2. You will be asked to give yourself a name. 3. You will be asked if this is the name you want. Choose yes [Y] or no [N]. 4. SchMOOze also asks you to give yourself a description – just a single sentence will do. 5. Once more you will be asked if this is what you want – respond with a Y or N. 6. You should now be in the SchMOOze entrance gates. Use the commands given at this link to

“speak” and “move” through the space: http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu/commands.htm

The following instructions may help you in your first MOO adventure. As you try these, consider ways you could get your students to use a MOO in class.

From the “entrance gates” at the start of SchMOOze, head north [n] Type “look” to see obvious exits. Continue to the north until you reach the Oyster Fountain. This is a good place to have as a base, and you can encourage your students to head back here after they complete any task you give them. You should also get your students to undertake each task with a partner to talk to.

1. Read [look] the zone descriptions, use the map and make your way into the Student Union Building.

Enter the Games Room and make a note of any games available that might be useful to a class 2. Read [look] the zone descriptions, use the map and make your way to the Dormitory area. Go up the

stairs to the fourth floor and have a look at the students’ room in 410. 3. Fine your way to classroom 101. Try the Online teaching facility. Do you think it is useful or do you think

a student would need more assistance and input?

This is a link to a good article on how you may consider using MOOs with your students http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Backer-SchMOOze.html . Another educational MOO you may like to use with your students is SaMOOrai at http://samoorai.lc.chubu.ac.jp/mootcan/


http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu/

http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu/commands.htm

http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Backer-SchMOOze.html

http://samoorai.lc.chubu.ac.jp/mootcan/




5.1 True or False?

a. Keypals can be used in the CALL classroom to encourage students to practise reading and writing.

D True D False

b. A Moo is a physical place.

D True D False

c. Webquests, Weblogs and Bulletin Boards are the only available tools on the Internet for the ESL classroom.

D True D False

5.2 Tasks


TASK A: Question

Can you think of any disadvantages of using email in the classroom?

TASK B: Think Of all the tools discussed in this unit, which do you like the most and why? How would you use them imaginatively and creatively with your students?

TASK C: Research!

Search for some other listservs that exist. How useful do you think discussion lists might be to the teacher and the student? Which ones would you consider using, and in which way?


Please note:




The following is a list of resources and references covered in this unit:

Bauman, J. (2000). Extend class discussion activities via cyberspace. In K. Ryan (Ed.). Recipes for Wired Teachers (pp.54-55). Tokyo: Japan Association of Language Teaching.

Dodge, B. (1997). Some thoughts about WebQuests. San Diego State University.

Gonglewski, M. R. (1999). Linking the Internet to the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning. Foreign Language Annals, 32(3), 348-362.

Gonglewski, M., Meloni, C. & Brant, J. (2001). Using Email in Foreign Language Teaching: Rationale and




Suggestions. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VII, No.3.

Junghans, C. (1995). Creating and using a slang dictionary via email. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual Connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners (pp. 109-115). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Kitao, K & Kitao, S.K. (2000). Keypal opportunities for students. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on February 18, 2004 at http://www.ling.lancs.ac/uk/staff/visitors/kenji/keypal.htm

MacNeill, A.J. (2000). Email news journals. In K. Ryan (Ed). Recipes for Wired Teacxhers (pp.56-57). Tokyo: Japan Association for Language Teaching.

Moran, C., & Hawisher, G. (1998). The rhetorics and languages of electronic mail. In I. Snyder, (Ed.), Page to screen. Taking literacy into the electronic era (pp.80-101). London: Routledge.

Shield, L. & Hewer, S. (1999). A Synchronous Learning Environment to Support Distance Language Learners. OU: UK.

Schneiderman, B. (1998). Relate-Create-Donate. In Computers and Education, Vol 31 (1), pp.25-39

Schweizer, J. (1998). Reading Usenet Newsgroups- Internet Basics for ESL students. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on March 21, 2005 at http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/s/ib/newsgroup.html

Turbee, L. (1996). MOOing in a Foreign Language: how, why and who? Retrieved from the World Wide Web on October 16, 1004 at http://web.syr.edu/!lmturbee/itechtm.html


http://www.ling.lancs.ac/uk/staff/visitors/kenji/keypal.htm

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/s/ib/newsgroup.html

http://web.syr.edu/!lmturbee/itechtm.html



UNIT 6 – Other Considerations In this unit:

• Overcoming Challenges • One-Computer Classroom • The future of CALL • Conclusion

Overcoming Challenges The benefits of using computers and the Internet with your students have been outlined in detail in this course. Technology is motivational, can help to develop many language skills and provides another medium through which to learn. However, there are also a number of challenges which you will face as an ESL teacher when using computers and technology with your students.

Computer literacy and ESL teachers

As previously discussed, the Internet has a huge potential for information. Unfortunately, this is also one of its limitations, in that the freedom of expression and limited accountability means that there is no way to validate the information available. In addition, the accessing of information can be difficult because search tools are still relatively crude, Web pages and links are unpredictable and unstable, and technical support is invariably limited.

To minimise these problems, teachers should develop their personal skills and knowledge so that they are able to provide some technical support to students. This also applies to the inflow of new jargon, which may include technical terms, acronyms and abbreviations, which both teachers and students will need to deal with.

There are quite steep costs involved with training teachers to be competent in the use of computers and the Internet in classrooms. It has been said that for every dollar spent on computers and software, another should be spent on staff development. Teachers need to learn about new technologies and the best ways to integrate them into their teaching, which takes resources, time and money. Even though computers can facilitate independent learning, teachers are still needed to clarify, assist and to work on technical problems which occur (Terrill, 2000). It is important for teachers not to allow computers to get in the way of good pedagogy. That is, every computer lesson has to be planned just like any other lesson would be, and as a teacher you need to know how to use any of the equipment and programs which you want your students to use in class. If a school is to run CALL lessons and have a computer lab, it has to be prepared to provide professional development, so that CALL is used effectively and is a benefit to the students. This kind of computer literacy is not always going to be available, or even offered by overseas employers, so it may be left up to you, the individual teacher, to keep up-to-date and informed of this technical know-how.

Computer literacy and ESL students

Whilst for the majority of learners CALL lessons will be thought of as exciting and motivational, there will still be a small number of students who are not computer literate or who are afraid of using new technologies.

When planning, you will need to consider your students' technical skills and experience, which may cause your streamed language class to become divided in terms of the overall abilities of the students. While it is important to ensure that tasks encourage the weaker learners to actually practise and learn the technical skills, you should try and group the students in a way that encourages peer support so that weaker students are not left out and fall behind in the tasks. Try utilising computer literate students to your advantage, who can act as experts and can assist with peer teaching.

The amount of time students have to use computers, either inside or outside the class, is also important. If a student is expected to complete a Web related task or project successfully, they will need a certain amount of time using the Internet. Many of the activities, once demonstrated, will need to be practised in order to be properly learned. Always allow enough time to do the tasks in class, as not all students will have computer access outside class. This can pose difficulties when you may only have one computer class a week!




Classroom management You may not have much choice over the layout of the computer lab your lessons will run in, and this could create difficulties in terms of classroom management. If you have a board to use, then utilise this, getting your students to move their chairs away from the computer. Otherwise, using a photocopied handout could suffice if there are instructions to give your students. If your lab has a projector, you could demonstrate the operation of exercises or particular software straight from your computer. Another alternative is to make an electronic document perhaps saved on a shared hard drive or via email or class weblog which your students can access and follow directly from their computers.

Regardless of how the instruction occurs, you will have to be vigilant about monitoring your students and assisting them in their pairs and small groups whenever necessary. You will also need to ensure your students stay on task and focused on the lessons’ outcomes at all times, as the nature of computers and the Internet means your students have freedom over what they do. This careful observation, to ensure they are not accessing native language content and personal emails, is crucial especially in the beginning when student responsibilities may not be so clear and when their skills will not be as developed (and therefore tasks will be more difficult to complete). Also be prepared to assist with technological difficulties that could arise.

Content and language

Many of the educational software programs which you will come across, as well as the Internet itself, are designed with native speakers in mind. This means that there is a divide which separates language learners from native speakers, as the language used is often too difficult for non-native speakers. Additionally, the content offered is not always relevant, with the content often designed to communicate with just one or two cultures, not many, diverse ones. There are limitations on every program which you choose to use, and do consider if there is another, more effective way of getting your students to practise particular target language rather than the computer and software program. Always ensure the software or CALL activity is in line with the desired course outcome!

Language learning is a communicative process

Think back to the very start of this course, when you learnt about the importance of interaction in the communicative classroom. As a CALL teacher it is your responsibility to ensure that communicative activities still take place, even when your students are sitting behind a computer screen. Don’t let the computer become a barrier for communication. Always get your students to work in pairs or small groups, and to perform collaborative projects so that they are still practising their language skills, communication skills as well as developing their team work skills. This may sometimes be more difficult than a lesson without computers, but it is crucial if the lesson is to be beneficial for your students’ learning.

High costs

Not only is there potential high costs for training teachers to teach CALL, but there is also the high costs involved with initially acquiring the technology, and then maintaining it. Whilst the Internet itself may appear free, the cost of supplying the necessary hardware to access it, and the telephone and provider charges, all need to be considered, and may become a limiting factor in providing adequate availability of services. Many countries where you can potentially be teaching as an ESL teacher are still developing and may not have the budget or finances to fund expensive and high quality systems and software. If this is the case, just make the most of what you have and utlise the available tools to the best of your ability. Don’t underestimate the value of utlity programs such as Word.

Pedagogical implications

From an education and learning standpoint, using technology requires a different set of skills to the ones that we use for languages which are performed face-to-face or with paper. This is particularly the case for the macro skill of reading, which requires extra and/or different micro skills than those that we use when reading paper print texts. When students read a newspaper, for example, the words are written in columns, there may be illustrations in form of photos, advertising remains static and there is limited function for footnotes and references. On the other hand, anyone reading electronic media has to learn how to scroll through multiple columns or frames, there are imbedded links to photos and graphics, links to other pages and many commercial distractions through pop-up advertising, for example. As a teacher you need to consider this – these are skills that in this day and age are very important for your students to be able to perform, but could lead to added




difficulty for some of your students (Hanson-Smith, 2003). Just be aware that this is an added challenge that needs to be considered. You will need to help your students to manage the “chaos” that an average web page can present to an ESL learner. Also bear in mind that it is good teaching practice to encourage your students to think and inquire, and that learning strategies such as predicting, opportunities to practise social interaction as well as self-directed learning go part and parcel with using technology and the World Wide Web (Hanson-Smith, 2003).

It is also worthy of note that the use of technology creates a new learning environment which involves special consideration. Before establishing the use and the need for computers, consider:

1. Why will you use the computer over conventional methods? 2. Ensure the use of computers meets the aims and objectives of your class and your learners 3. Are you prepared to put in the extra work and planning required for technology to be successfully

implemented and effective in your lessons? 4. Will all students be able to perform the tasks you set successfully, and if not, how will you deal with

potential technology anxiety or phobia?

One-computer classroom Whilst there will be some occasions where you may have access to fully equipped, modern computer labs at your school, do not assume that this is the norm, and that you will have ready access to many computers, all hooked up to the Internet. Many schools around the world are still struggling with out-of-date equipment, or in many cases, just one computer that has no Internet access at all. This brings to fore a whole new set of issues, but ones which can be resolved through careful pre-planning. Don’t become disheartened if teachers at other schools seem to have it better with fancier, modern software and/or an up-to-date computer lab whilst all you have is one old, clunky, un-wired computer – remember that you still have a valuable resource that many teachers can only dream about, and also remember that not all modern software and technology is necessarily all that useful!

Kanuski (2004) and Wong (2004) offer suggestions for dealing with the one-computer scenario. You need to firstly recognise that the computer should be used to interest and challenge your students. Secondly, set your objectives – what do your students need to know, which skills will they acquire? The computer should be used as a way to support these goals. So how to actually utilise the one-computer effectively:

1. It will be best to put your students into groups, to perform a task that requires the computer to complete

part of the task. The groups could work in a rotation, so that they each get the necessary computer time. Try dividing students into 5 groups based on the goals of the lesson and create at least 5 stations or tasks. These could be projects, worksheets, hands-on activities, reading, and more. If you have one computer, one of the activities will be on the computer. If you have more, change the activities to match your situation. You would float from group to group as facilitator. Groups can remain stationary for a set amount of time, or could move to the next group each day until all tasks are completed. Not all groups would do all 5 tasks but all groups would have had technology use for at least one day.

2. The computer could also become an independent research station where the computer may be used for

all students to gather information as they need it. You would need to set up a roster system to ensure this is fair for everyone.

3. Use the computer to gather updated information on a daily basis. For example, world events, weather

charts, etc. could be researched and reported back to the class daily by a different assigned student for that day or week.

4. Use specialised software designed specifically for use with one computer. Tom Snyder makes software

which includes projects which require only intermittent computer use. Take a look at Tom Snyder software such as "Europe Inspirer” & “Decisions,Decisions” at http://www.teachtsp.com/.

5. Complete whole class activities, such as sending and receiving emails from your classroom to another,

with collaborative letters and responses made.

6. There are many, many more suggested lesson ideas for one-computer classrooms on various websites. They are not all specifically for the ESL classroom, but contain many ideas that can easily be adapted. Try http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech092.shtml or http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic84.htm for more in-depth ideas and discussions on this common challenge for teachers.


http://www.teachtsp.com/

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech092.shtml

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic84.htm



The Future of CALL Computers have evolved enormously in the past 30 years, in line with advances in technology, the rise of the Internet, and research into software and its effectiveness in the field of education. We have come a long way in terms of the quality of the technology which is available to us, and as further research is made into the field of CALL, it is likely that only further advancement will happen in the future. With the rapid pace of computer evolution, you will need to stay on top of changes, so that you remain knowledgeable in the most up-to-date aspects of the field. In the next 30 years, it is thought that the use of computers in the ESL classroom will go into two main directions (Warschauer, 1996).

1) Warschauer (1996) predicts that there will be an increased emphasis on electronic literacy. The question has been put forward in relation to preparing students to function in an increasingly networked society, so that instead of asking “what is the role of technology in the language classroom?” we will begin to ask “what is the role of the language classroom in the technological society?”. This is pertinent particularly in the language classroom, where English is likely to remain the key language in the global society, and in a world where cultures and languages maintain a presence on the Internet. It is likely that many of our students will need to develop new electronic literacy skills so that they are effectively able to access and respond to the vast amount of English language material available online. For English teachers, this will entail finding ways to teach our students the best ways of finding, evaluating and critically interpreting net-based information, as well as being able to write effectively online. Distance learning is also likely to grow in popularity in the field of ESL, which is likely to create new issues in terms of quality and conditions of the instruction.

2) Warschauer (1996) also foresees an increased incorporation of Intelligent CALL into the classroom. By this he means that computers will not be considered as a human replacement, but as a way to offer students easy interaction with course material, in a way that uses multiple media to benefit many students’ learning styles. This also means ensuring students know how to make the most of technology for their own learning purposes. John Underwood (1989) has also predicted there will be advances in artificial intelligence, hypermedia and simulations, to create new ways of approaching language teaching with computers. For example, the creation of an intelligent computing system that could take in a typed or spoken sentence and respond to it, would allow learners more flexibility in the types of activities they can do and get help with. Software which could respond intelligently to what learners speak or type would enable high quality natural language processing, although such technology is still many years away.

Conclusion The role of computers in language teaching has changed significantly in the past 30 years, from being used for drills and exercises, to new technological advances which now allow computer technology to be integrated into the language learning process. The Internet now allows a myriad of opportunities to our students and future developments in the field of software design also look bright. It is becoming more apparent to educators the importance of computers being integrated into the language learning process rather than acting as a tool, and technology has assumed a very rightful place in the field of education, languages and learning. It is now up to you as a teacher, to implement technology effectively, so that the potential of technology can be fully realised by our students, as well as the school administrators who will provide the necessary funding to ensure that the technology used is the most up-to-date and beneficial for our students.





6.1 True or False?

a. Using technology in the classroom never presents challenges or difficulties.

D True D False

b. However, this course has been invaluable in giving me insight into how to run a CALL class.

D True D False

c. I am now ready to sit the exam and ace it!

D True D False


The following is a LONG list of further reading, CALL Resources, Journals, Organisations, Internet Resources and Journal Articles.

Allwright, D. and Bailey, K.M. 1991. Focus on the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press:Cambridge

Chun, D.M. 1994. Using Computer Networking t o Facilitate the Acquisition of Interactive Competence. In System, 22:1, 17-31

Dyrli, O.E. and Kinnaman, D.E. 1995. Connecting Classrooms: School Is More Than a Place!. In Technology and Learning, 15:8, 82-88

Goodwin, A.A., Hamrick, J. and Ste wart, T.C. 1993. Instructional Delivery Via Electronic Mail. In TESOL Journal, 3:1, pp. 24-27

Hanson-Smith, Elizabeth (2003). Reading Electronically: Challenges and Responses to the Reading Puzzle in Technologically-Enhanced Environments. The Reading Matrix (pp.1-11) Vol 3 (3).

Hanson-Smith, E. 1994. Confessions Of a TESL-L Junkie. In CAELL Journal, 4:4, 39-40

Hoffman, R. 1994. Powerful, personal: electronic mail and the L2 writing process. In ReCALL, 6:2, 53-62

Jonassen, D.H.1995. Supporting Communities of Learners with Technology: A Vision for Integrating Technology with Learning in Schools. In Educational Technology, July-August, pp. 60-63

Kanuski, T. (2004) One Computer Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.tisdaleschooldiv.sk.ca/kanuski/teachers/onecomputer/one.htm

Kenning, M.-M., & Kenning, M. J. (1990). Computers and language learning: current theory and practice. New York: Ellis Horwood

Kroonenburg, N.1994/5. Developing Communicative and Thinking Dkills Via Electronic Mail. In, TESOL Journal,

Winter, 24-27

Langan, M.1995. Surfing the Internet. In Education News,10:3, 1-16


http://www.tisdaleschooldiv.sk.ca/kanuski/teachers/onecomputer/one.htm

http://www.tisdaleschooldiv.sk.ca/kanuski/teachers/onecomputer/one.htm



Terrill, L (2000). Benefits and challenges in using computers and the Internet with Adult English Learners. National Centre for ESL Literacy Education, July 2000.

Taylor, R. P. (Ed.) (1980). The computer in the School: Tutor, Tool, Tutee. New York: Teachers College press.

Warschauer, M. (1996b). Computer-assisted language learning: an introduction. In S. Fotos (Ed.), Multimedia Language Teaching , 3-20. Tokyo: Logos.

Wong H. & R. (2004) Effective Teaching. Retrieved from http://teachers.net/wong/OCT04/

Selected CALL Resources

Recent Books

Athelstan. (1997). Technology and language learning yearbook, vol. 8. Houston, TX: Athelstan.

Boswood, T. (1997). New ways of using computers in language teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Bush, M. (1996). Technology enhanced language learning. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Debski, R., Gassin, J., & Smith, M. (Eds.). (1997). Language learning through social computing. Melbourne: Applied Linguistics Association of Australia.

Healey, D. (1995). Something to do on Tuesday. Houston: Athelstan.

Healey, D., & Johnson, N. (Eds.). (1997). 1997 TESOL CALL Interest Section software list. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Levy, M. (1997). Computer-assisted language learning: context and conceptualization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pennington, M. (Ed.) (1996). The power of CALL. Houston: Athelstan.

Sperling, D. (1997). The Internet guide for English language teachers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Regents.

Thompson, J, & Parsons, J. (1995). ReCALL software guide #4, 1995. Hull, UK: CIT Centre for Modern

Languages, University of Hull.

Warschauer, M. (1995). E-Mail for English teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Warschauer, M. (Ed.) (1995). Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center (University of Hawaii Press).

Warschauer, M. (Ed.) (1996). Virtual Connections: Online Activities and Projects for Networking Language Learners. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center (University of Hawaii Press).

Journals

CALICO Journal The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium Southwest Texas State University 317 Liberal Arts San Marcos, TX 78666 http://calico.org/


http://teachers.net/wong/OCT04/

http://calico.org/

http://calico.org/



CÆLL (Computer-Assisted English Language Learning) Journal 1787 Agate St., Eugene OR 97403 U.S.A. [email protected] http://www.iste.org/publish/caell.html

Computer Assisted Language Learning P.O. Box 825 2160 SZ Lisse The Netherlands [email protected] http://www.swets.nl/sps/journals/call.html

Internet TESL Journal http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj

Language Learning & Technology http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/llt

On-CALL Language Centre Bond University Gold Coast Queensland 4229 Australia http://www.cltr.uq.oz.au:8000/oncall/ochome.htm

SYSTEM Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard Langford Lane Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1 GB, UK

TESL-EJ http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/

Organisations

ATELL (Australian Technology Enhanced Language Learning Consortium) http://adhocalypse.arts.unimelb.edu.au/~atell/

CALICO (Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium) Southwest Texas State University 317 Liberal Arts San Marcos, TX 78666 http://calico.org/

EUROCALL CTI Centre for Modern Languages University of Hull HULL HU6 7RX, UK [email protected] http://www.cti.hull.ac.uk/eurocall.htm

JALT CALL N-SIG (Japan Association for Language Teaching CALL National Special Interest Group)

JALT Central Office

Urban Edge Building 5th Floor


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.iste.org/publish/caell.html


http://www.swets.nl/sps/journals/call.html

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj

http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/llt

http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/llt

http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/

http://adhocalypse.arts.unimelb.edu.au/~atell/

http://adhocalypse.arts.unimelb.edu.au/~atell/

http://calico.org/

http://calico.org/


http://www.cti.hull.ac.uk/eurocall.htm



1-37-9 Taito

Taito-ku, Tokyo 110 Japan http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/

MUESLI (Micro Users in ESL Institutions) c/o IATEFL 3 Kingsdown Park Tankerton Whitstable, Kent England CT5 2DJ http://www.man.ac.uk/IATEFL/

TESOL CALL Interest Section c/o TESOL 1600 Cameron St., Suite 300 Alexandria VA 22314 U.S.A. [email protected] http://www.tesol.edu

Internet Resources

CALL & TESOL Links http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~cjw/call/links.htm

Dave's ESL Cafe on the Web http://eslcafe.com/

ExCHANGE http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/exchange/

LLTI (Language Learning and Technology International) http://thecity.sfsu.edu/~funweb/neteach.htm

NETEACH-L (Using the Internet for teaching ESL) http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/education/sl/sl.html

OPPortunities in English http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob

TESL-L (Teachers of English as a Second Language) TESLCA-L (Computer-Assisted sub-branch of TESL-L) [email protected] (send message subscribe tesl-l yourfirstname yourlastname)

International Student E-Mail Discussion Lists Nine lists for ESL/EFL college and university students http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/education/sl/sl.html

Journal Articles

Abraham, R. & Liou, H-C. (1991). Interaction generated by three computer programs: analysis of functions of spoken language. In P. Dunkel (Ed.), Computer-assisted language learning and testing , 85-109. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Abraham, R. (1985). Field independence-dependence and the teaching of grammar. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 689- 702.


http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/

http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/

http://www.man.ac.uk/IATEFL/



http://www.tesol.edu/

http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~cjw/call/links.htm

http://tiger.coe.missouri.edu/~cjw/call/links.htm

http://eslcafe.com/

http://eslcafe.com/

http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/exchange/

http://thecity.sfsu.edu/~funweb/neteach.htm

http://thecity.sfsu.edu/~funweb/neteach.htm

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/education/sl/sl.html


http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob







Ahmad, K., Corbett, G., Rogers, M., & Sussex, R. (1985). Computers, language learning and language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Al-Juhani, S.O. (1992). The effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction in teaching English as a foreign language in Saudi secondary school. Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 52, 2383-A.

Athelstan. (1997). CALL bibliography. [Internet document] http://www.nol.net/~athel/athelbib.html. Accessed 10/20/97.

Bates, M., Borrow, R.J., & Weischedel, R.M. (1993). Critical challenges for natural language processing. In M. Bates and R.M. Weischedel (Eds.), Challenges in natural language processing (pp. 3-34). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Botiono, B.D. (1992). The effect of three feedback forms on learning through a computer-based tutorial. CALICO Journal, 10, 45-52.

Bowers, R. (1995). Web publishing for students of EST. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners , 363-364. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Brown, H.D. (1991). TESOL at twenty-five: what are the issues? TESOL Quarterly, 25, 245-260.

Bush, V. (1945). As we may think. Atlantic Monthly, July.

Castells, M. (1993). The informational economy and the new international division of labor. In M. Carnoy, M. Castells, S. S. Cohen, & F. H. Cardoso, The new global economy in the information age: Reflections on our changing world , 15-43. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Chapelle, C. & Jamieson, J. (1986). Computer assisted language learning as a predictor of success in acquiring English as a second language. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 27-46.

Chapelle, C. & Jamieson, J. (1989). Research trends in computer-assisted language learning. In M. Pennington (Ed.), Teaching languages with computers , 45-59. La Jolla, CA: Athelstan.

Chapelle, C. & Jamieson, J. (1991). Internal and external validity issues in research on CALL effectiveness. In P. Dunkel (Ed.), Computer-assisted language learning and testing , 37-57). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Chapelle, C. & Mizuno, S. (1980, December). Student strategies with learner-controlled CALL. CALICO Journal, 25-47.

Chapelle, C. (1990). The discourse of computer-assisted language learning: toward a context for descriptive research. TESOL Quarterly, 24, 199-225.

Chapelle, C. (1995). A framework for the investigation of CALL as a context for SLA. CÆLL Journal, 6 (3), 2-8.

Chen, J.F. (1997). Computer generated error feedback and writing process: A link. TESL-EJ, 2 (3). [electronic document] Available at http://violet.berkeley.edu/~cwp/TESL-EJ/ej07/a1.html. Accessed 10/19/97.

Chun, D. (1994). Using computer networking to facilitate the acquisition of interactive competence. System, 22(1), 17-31.

Crookall, D. Coleman, D.W., & Versluis, E.B. (1990). Computerized language learning simulations: form and content. In D. Crookall & R.L. Oxford (Eds.), Simulation, gaming, and language learning , 165-182. New York: Newbury House.


http://www.nol.net/~athel/athelbib.html

http://violet.berkeley.edu/~cwp/TESL-EJ/ej07/a1.html



Daiute, C. (1985). Writing and computers. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Dalgish, G.M. (1991). Computer-assisted error analysis and courseware design: Applications for ESL in a Swedish context. CALICO Journal, 9, 39-56.

De Felix, J.W., Johnson, R.T., & Schick, J.E. (1990). Socio- and psycholinguistic considerations in interactive video instruction for limited English proficient students. Computers in the Schools, 7 (12), 173-190.

Didio, L. (1997). Microsoft teaches PCs new languages. Computerworld, 31 (32), 55-56.

Dole, J.A., Duffy, G.G., Roehler, L.R., & Pearson, P.D. (1991). Moving from the old to the new: research on reading comprehension instruction. Review of Educational Research, 61, 239-264.

Dudley, A. (1995). Communicative CALL: Student interaction using non-EFL software. CÆLL Journal, 6 (3), 25-

33.

Dunkel, P. (1991). Simulations and games in L2 learning. CÆLL Journal, 2 (2), 8-16.

Dziombak, C.E. (1991). Searching for collaboration in the ESL computer lab and the ESL classroom. Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 51, 2296-A.

Englesberg, R. (1997). An evaluation study of a multimedia package for learning English. CÆLL Journal, 8 (1), 15-20.

Evans, M. (1993). Nicolas: Using HyperCard with intermediate-level French learners. System, 10, 213-229.

Feldman, M. (1995). Import/export e-mail business simulation. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners , 216-217. Honolulu, Hawai'i: University of Hawai'i

Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Gaer, S. (1995). Folktales around the world. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners , 146-148. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Gay, G. (1987). Interaction of learner control and prior understanding in computer-assisted video instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 225-227.

Girard, K. & Dillon, N. (1997). Market grows for voice applications. Computerworld, 31(32), 55-56.

Grimes, T. (1990). Audio-video correspondence and its role in attention and memory. Educational Technology Research & Development, 38 (3), 15-25.

Healey, D. (1993). Learner choices in self-directed second language learning. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services.

Higgins, J. (1997). CALL: A bibliography. [Internet document]. http://www.stir.ac.uk/Departments/HumanSciences/EPD/celt/staff/higdox/callbib.htm . Accessed 10/20/97.

Hsu, J.J., Chapelle, C., & Thompson, A.D. (1993). Exploratory learning environments: what are they and do students explore? Journal of Educational Computing Research, 9, 1-15.

Johanesen, K.J. & Tennyson, R.D. (1983). Effect of adaptive advisement on perception in learner-controlled, computer-based instruction using a rule-learning task. Educational Communication and Technology, 31, 226- 236.

Johanesen, K.J. & Tennyson, R.D. (1983). Effect of adaptive advisement on perception in learer-controlled, computer-based instruction using a rule-learning task. Educational Communication and Technology, 31, 226- 236.


http://www.stir.ac.uk/Departments/HumanSciences/EPD/celt/staff/higdox/callbib.htm

http://www.stir.ac.uk/Departments/HumanSciences/EPD/celt/staff/higdox/callbib.htm



Johns, T. & King, P. (Eds.) (1991). Classroom concordancing. ELT Journal 4, 27-45.

Jones, C. (1986). It’s not so much the program, more what you do with it: the importance of methodology in CALL. System, 14, 171-178.

Jones, C., & Fortescue, S. (1987). Using computers in the language classroom. London: Longman.

Kelm, O. (1992). The use of synchronous computer networks in second language instruction: A Preliminary Report. Foreign Language Annals, 25(5), 441-454g

Kelm, O. (1995). E-mail discussion groups in foreign language education: Grammar follow-up. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Telecollaboration in foreign language learning: Proceedings of the Hawai'i symposium , Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Kendall, C. (1995). Cyber-surveys. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners , 97-100. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second language teaching and curriculum center.

Kenning, M.-M., & Kenning, M. J. (1990). Computers and language learning: current theory and practice. New York: Ellis Horwood.

Kern, R. (1995). Restructuring classroom interaction with networked computers: Effects on quantity and quality of language production. Modern Language Journal, 79(4), 457-476.

Kleinmann, H.H. (1987). The effect of computer-assisted instruction on ESL reading achievement. Modern Language Journal, 71, 267-276.

Kozma, R.B. (1991). Learning with media. Review of Educational Research, 61, 179-211.

Levy, M. & Hinckfuss, J. (1990). Program design and student talk. CÆLL Journal, 1 (4), 21-26.

Li, R.-C. (1995). English as a second language home page. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners , 349-350. Honolulu, Hawai'i: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Liu, M. (1992). The effect of hypermedia-assisted instruction on second language learning: a semantic-network- based approach. Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 53, 1134-A.

Lixl-Purcell, A. (1995). German area studies on the net. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners , 292-294. Honolulu, Hawai'i: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Meskill, C. (1993). ESL multimedia: a study of the dynamics of paired student discourse. System, 21, 323-341.

Murillo, D. (1991). Maximizing CALL effectiveness in the classroom. CÆLL Journal, 2 (2), 20-25.

Neu, J. & Scarcella, R. (1991). Word processing in the ESL classroom: a survey of student attitudes. In P. Dunkel (Ed.), Computer-assisted language learning and testing , 169-187. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Oxford, R.L. (1990). Language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Parks, C. (1994). Closed captioned TV: a resource for ESL literacy education. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. (ED372662)

Phillips, M. (1987). Communicative language learning and the microcomputer. London: British Council.

Phinney, M. (1991). Computer-assisted writing and writing apprehension in ESL students. In P. Dunkel (Ed.),




Computer-assisted language learning and testing , 189-204. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Pinto, D. (1996). What does "schMOOze" mean?: non-native speaker interactions on the Internet. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning: Proceedings of the Hawai'i symposium , 165-184. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center.

Price, K. & Imbier, E. (1993). A videodisc project for ESL: "Who should do the housework?" In J. Boettcher (Ed.), 101 success stories of information technology in higher education: The Joe Wyatt challenge. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. (also online at http://educom.edu/stories.101/Videodisc-Project-for-ESL.txt)

Pujol, M. (1995/96). ESL interactions around the computer. CÆLL Journal, 6(4), 2-11.

Robinson, G.L. (1989). The CLCCS CALL study: Methods, error feedback, attitudes,and achievement. In W.F. Smith (Ed.), Modern technology in foreign language education: Applications and projects. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Robinson, G.L. (1989). The CLCCS CALL study: methods, error feedback, attitudes, and achievement. In W.F. Smith (Ed.), Modern technology in foreign language education: Applications and projects. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Rosen, L. (1995). City net: travel the world from your desktop. In M. Warschauer (Ed.), Virtual connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners , 308-309. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Rubin, J. (1987). Learner strategies: theoretical assumption, research, history, and typology. In A. Wenden and J. Rubin (Eds.), Learner strategies in language learning (pp. 15-30). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Schaeffer, R.H. (1981). Meaningful practice on the computer: Is it possible? Foreign Language Annals, 14 (2), 133-137.

Schcolnik, M., Kol, S., Abarbanel, J., Friedler, J., Heymans, Y., & Tsafrir, Y. (1995/96). Multimedia reference materials in advanced EFL courses: A project report. CÆLL Journal, 6(4), 34-38.

Sedgwick, R. (1997). Annotated bibliography of the effectiveness of CALL. [Internet document]. http://www.cltr.uq.oz.au:8000/interest/biblio.html. Accessed 10/20/97.

Sells, P., Shieber, S.M., & Wasow, T. (Eds.) (1991). Foundational issues in natural language processing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Sharp, S.K. & Liu, P. (1997a). Computer-assisted language learning bibliography [Internet document]. http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/ARHU/Depts/langctr/flit/biblio/bibliography.html. Accessed 10/20/97.

Soh, B.-L., & Soon, Y. P. (1991). English by e-mail: creating a global classroom via the medium of computer technology. ELT Journal, 45(4), 287-292.

Spanos, G., & Smith, J. (1990). Closed captioned television for adult LEP literacy learners. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. (ED 321 623)

Stenson, N., Downing, B., Smith, J. & Smith, K. (1992). The effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation training. CALICO Journal, 9 (4), 5-19.

Sullivan, N., & Pratt, E. (1996). A comparative study of two ESL writing environments: A computer-assisted classroom and a traditional oral classroom. System, 24(4), 491-501.

Tella, S. (1991). Introducing international communications networks and electronic mail into foreign language classrooms (Research report No. 95). Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki.

Tella, S. (1992a). Boys, girls and e-mail:aA case study in Finnish senior secondary schools. (Research report


http://educom.edu/stories.101/Videodisc-Project-for-ESL.txt)

http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/ARHU/Depts/langctr/flit/biblio/bibliography.html

http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Colleges/ARHU/Depts/langctr/flit/biblio/bibliography.html



No. 110). Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki.

Tella, S. (1992b). Talking shop via e-mail: a thematic and linguistic analysis of electronic mail communication.

(Research report No. 99). Department of teacher education, University of Helsinki.

Thaipakdee, S. (1992). Relationships among writing quality, attitudes toward writing, and attitudes toward computers in a computer-mediated technical writing class for English as a foreign language students. Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 53, 1135-A.

Tribble, C. & Jones, C. (1990). Concordancing in the classroom. Harlow, Essex: Longman.

Tribble, C. (1990). Small scale corpora in ELT: an investigation into vocabulary use. CÆLL Journal, 1 (4), 13-20.

Underwood, J. (1984). Linguistics, computers, and the language teacher: a communicative approach. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Underwood, J. (1989). On the edge: intelligent CALL in the 1990s. Computers and the Humanities, 23 (1), 71-84.

Van Der Linden, E. (1993). Does feedback enhance computer-assisted language learning? Computers and Education, 21, 61-65.

Van Dijk, T.A. & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Verano, M. (1989). USAFA interactive study in Spanish. In W.F. Smith (Ed.), Modern technology in foreign language instruction. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Walker, B. (1994). EFL teachers' attitudes about CALL. CÆLL Journal, 5(3), 12-15.

Wang, X. (1993). A CAI tutorial: teaching the English simple past tense to native speakers of Chinese. Dissertation Abstracts International, 51, 2354-A - 2355-A.

Wang, Y. M. (1993). E-mail dialogue journaling in an ESL reading and writing classroom. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon at Eugene.

Warschauer, M. (1996a). Comparing face-to-face and electronic communication in the second language classroom. CALICO Journal, 13(2), 7-26.

Warschauer, M. (1996b). Computer-assisted language learning: an introduction. In S. Fotos (Ed.), Multimedia Language Teaching , 3-20. Tokyo: Logos.

Warschauer, M. (1997) Electronic literacies:lLanguage, culture, and power in online education. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai'i.

Warschauer, M. (Ed.) (1995). Virtual connections: Online activities and projects for networking language learners. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed all the readings and activities in the CALL Online Elective. You are

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