Computer-assisted language learning facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is a way of using computers and technology to help people learn new languages. Think of it as using apps, websites, or special computer programs to practice English, Spanish, French, or any other language!

CALL uses many different kinds of technology. This includes old-style practice programs from the 1960s and newer things like online learning spaces and learning through the internet. It also uses things like special text collections (called corpora), smart whiteboards, online chats, and even learning languages in virtual worlds or on your phone (called MALL).

The idea behind CALL today is to give students tools to learn on their own. These tools are often interactive, meaning you do things with them, and they let you learn at your own speed. CALL helps teachers make language learning easier. It can help you practice what you learned in class or give extra help if you need it.

CALL materials are designed based on how people learn languages. This includes ideas about how our brains learn new things.

When you mix face-to-face classroom teaching with CALL, it's called blended learning. This is a popular way to learn, as it combines the best of both worlds.

How CALL Started
Different Types and Stages of CALL
Flashcards
Designing CALL Software
Multimedia in Language Learning
The Internet and Language Learning
Corpora and Concordancers
Virtual Worlds
Human Language Technologies
Impact of CALL
Professional Associations
See also

How CALL Started

CALL began in the 1960s. Back then, it used big university computers. One important early project was called PLATO, which started in 1960.

When smaller computers (microcomputers) came out in the late 1970s, more people could use them. This led to a big increase in CALL programs and books about them in the early 1980s.

Today, you can find many CALL programs online. Some are free, and some cost money. Others are only available through university language courses.

People have written about the history of CALL. For example, Sanders (1995) looked at CALL in North America from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. Delcloque (2000) covered the worldwide history of CALL from the 1960s to the year 2000.

Different Types and Stages of CALL

In the 1980s and 1990s, people tried to sort CALL programs into different types. They found many kinds, like:

Gap-filling and Cloze programs (where you fill in missing words).
Multiple-choice programs.
Free-format programs (where you type your own answers).
Adventures and simulations (like games where you pretend to be someone).
Sentence-reordering programs (where you put words in the right order).
Exploratory programs (where you discover things).

Many of these older programs still exist today in newer versions.

Since the 1990s, it's been harder to put CALL into neat categories. Now, CALL includes using blogs, wikis, social networking, podcasting, and other online tools. It also includes interactive whiteboards and language learning in virtual worlds.

Some experts, like Warschauer, described three main stages of CALL based on how they taught languages:

Behavioristic CALL: This was from the 1960s and 1970s. Programs were mostly "drill-and-practice." The computer gave you something, and you responded. It would tell you if you were right or wrong. While these still exist, most teachers now prefer other ways of learning.
Communicative CALL: This stage was from the late 1970s to the 1980s. The focus shifted to using the language to communicate, not just memorizing rules. Grammar was learned by using it, not just by studying it. This stage also saw the rise of personal computers. Programs started to offer more varied practice, like reading games. Sometimes, even regular games like Sim City or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? were used to help with language learning.
Integrative CALL: This started in the 1990s. It aimed to combine different language skills into bigger tasks or projects. This stage also saw the rise of multimedia (text, pictures, sound, video) and online communication. Instead of just drills, computers became a way to learn beyond the classroom. Early examples included interactive video discs and later role-playing games (RPGs) on CD-ROMs.

Another expert, Bax (2003), suggested slightly different stages:

Restricted CALL: Mostly drill-based, from the 1960s to 1980s.
Open CALL: More flexible, including simulations and games, from the 1980s up to around 2003.
Integrated CALL: This stage is still being worked on. Bax believes true integration will happen when using CALL is as normal and easy as using a pen.

Flashcards

One simple way CALL is used is for learning new words with flashcards. These programs often use a method called spaced repetition. This means the program shows you words you need to remember at longer and longer time gaps until you know them well. This has led to many apps like Anki and SuperMemo, which are great for learning new vocabulary.

Designing CALL Software

When making CALL software, it's very important to think about how people learn. Creating CALL software is a big job that needs many different skills. Big projects are usually done by a team:

A language teacher who provides the actual language content and ideas for teaching.
A programmer who writes the computer code.
A graphic designer who creates pictures, icons, and decides on fonts and screen layout.
A photographer for images.
A sound engineer and video technician if the program uses a lot of sound and video.
An instructional designer who helps make sure the technology is used in the best way for learning.

CALL helps students learn on their own. This means the student has more control over their learning goals. It's easy to just make simple multiple-choice exercises, but CALL can do much more. For example, some programs let students actively "build" new knowledge from what they already know. In this approach, the teacher helps guide the learning rather than just giving out information.

Multimedia in Language Learning

Language teachers have always loved using technology. Long ago, they used records to play native speakers' voices. Later, they used tape recorders and film projectors. In the 1960s, "multimedia" courses started to appear, combining books with tapes or filmstrips.

In the 1970s and 80s, early computers couldn't play good sound or show good pictures. This was a step backward for language teachers. But when multimedia computers arrived in the early 1990s, it was a huge step forward! These computers could combine text, images, sound, and video all in one place. This helped combine the four main language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Many CALL programs were published on CD-ROM and DVD from the mid-1990s. While some still are, most multimedia CALL is now found on the internet.

Educational places started having multimedia language centers. These centers offer many ways to learn languages by combining different media. However, sometimes these centers were just used for students to do the same drills, like old language labs. It's important to train teachers how to use these tools well and to create new teaching methods.

Managing a multimedia language center needs people who know languages, teaching methods, and technology. They also need to manage budgets and find creative ways to use the technology. These centers are great for self-study, but students don't automatically learn independently just because the center exists. It takes a lot of time to create good materials and a helpful atmosphere.

Self-access language learning centers have grown partly because of these challenges. In these centers, students focus on learning independently, often with staff available to help. Many of these centers use a lot of technology and offer online learning options.

The Internet and Language Learning

The internet, or "the Web," changed how everyone uses computers in the early 1990s. While email existed before, the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, launched in 1993. This made online communication much easier. Language teachers quickly saw the potential.

The Web allowed teachers and students to access thousands of real foreign-language websites. This was amazing! However, it could also lead to a lot of wasted time if people just browsed without a plan. So, teachers started creating more structured activities and online exercises.

Tools like the free Hot Potatoes program, which came out in 1998, made it possible for teachers to create their own interactive online exercises.

At first, the Web couldn't compete with CD-ROMs for sound and video quality. But now, the Web has caught up! Sound and video are high quality, and interaction is much faster.

Since the early 2000s, there's been a boom in what's called Web 2.0 applications. This isn't a new version of the Web, but a shift towards more interaction and sharing. Teachers now use Web 2.0 tools like:

Sharing images and videos.
Social bookmarking (saving and sharing links).
Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, and social networking.
Chat rooms and virtual worlds.
Podcasting (audio shows).
Tools for creating animations and comics.
Mashups (combining different web services).
Blog-assisted language learning (BALL).

The Web has become a major focus for language teachers, who are using its many features in creative ways. Using Web 2.0 tools also makes teachers rethink their role in the classroom.

Corpora and Concordancers

Corpora are large collections of real texts (like books, articles, or conversations) that are stored on computers. They have been used for a long time to study language and create dictionaries.

Concordancers are computer programs that let you search these corpora. They can show you every time a certain word or phrase appears in the texts. This helps you see how words are actually used in real sentences.

Tim Johns (1991) made the idea of using concordancers in the classroom popular with his concept of Data-driven learning (DDL). DDL encourages students to figure out their own rules about words and how they are used by looking at examples from a corpus. Teachers can also use concordancers to find examples for grammar points or to create exercises.

You can even use Google like a concordancer, but it has some downsides. For example, you can't control the type of texts you find, and the results aren't always as easy to read as with a special concordancer.

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are online spaces where you can interact with others using a digital character called an avatar. They started with adventure games and simulations in the 1970s, which were text-only. Players typed commands to interact with the computer. Language teachers found they could use these games as a basis for discussion.

These early games led to MUDs (Multi-user domains), which were text-only but allowed many people to play online together. Then came MOOs (Multi-user domains object-oriented), which teachers used for teaching languages and understanding different cultures.

The next big step was adding graphics. Lucasfilm's Habitat (1986) was one of the first virtual worlds with pictures, though it was 2D. Your avatar could chat with other avatars using text.

Later, 3D virtual worlds like Traveler and Active Worlds appeared in the 1990s. Traveler even allowed voice chat. In Active Worlds, students used it for projects like a "Virtual Wedding."

The 3D world of Second Life launched in 2003. It became popular with language teachers, who started using it for language learning projects. Many experiments and projects focus on learning languages in Second Life.

Some people argue that Second Life is too difficult or unreliable for most teachers. But many others disagree, and interest in virtual worlds for language learning continues to grow. There are now many areas in Second Life dedicated to language learning, like those run by Language Lab or the Goethe-Institut.

Human Language Technologies

Human language technologies (HLT) are about using technology to make communication easier in a world with many languages. For language teachers, the most interesting parts of HLT are natural language processing (NLP), especially parsing, and speech synthesis and speech recognition.

Speech synthesis (text-to-speech) has gotten much better. It's often used in online dictionaries to help learners hear how words are pronounced. It works well for single words. For whole sentences, it can sometimes sound unnatural, even if you can understand it. Text-to-speech is also very helpful for people who can't see well.

Speech recognition (automatic speech recognition or ASR) is when a computer tries to understand what you say. It's not as advanced as speech synthesis. In CALL programs, ASR often asks you to imitate a native speaker. But it's not always perfect and might not understand you even if you pronounce a word correctly.

Parsing is used in CALL to analyze sentences. It can show you the parts of a sentence and how they are put together. Parsing is also used in some CALL programs to check what a student types and find mistakes. Some experts believe computers can be very good at finding errors, while others are more cautious.

Research into speech synthesis, speech recognition, and parsing for CALL is a big focus for groups like EUROCALL and CALICO.

Impact of CALL

People have often wondered how much CALL helps language learning and teaching. Studies look at how much technology is used, if hardware and software are available, costs, internet access, and how teachers and students feel about CALL. They also look at how language learning and teaching methods change.

It's important to tell the difference between the impact (how much it's used and changes things) and the effectiveness (how well it works compared to traditional methods) of CALL. In developed countries, new technologies are used comfortably. But in developing countries, costs and internet access can be big problems.

There's a lot of different evidence about how effective CALL is. Many questions still need answers. Some studies suggest that CALL has positive effects on spelling, reading, and writing. But more research is needed for other areas, especially speaking online.

Students often like CALL, but the technology needs to work well and be supported. Technical problems can get in the way of learning. Also, older students might not feel comfortable with computers, and younger students might need help learning how to use the new tools effectively. Training in computer skills for both students and teachers is very important.

Many resources are available for teachers to learn how to use technology in language teaching. Professional groups like EUROCALL and CALICO also have special interest groups for teacher training in CALL.

Professional Associations

These groups are dedicated to sharing research and ideas about using new technologies in language learning and teaching. Most of them hold conferences and publish journals about CALL.

APACALL: The Asia-Pacific Association for Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
AsiaCALL: The Asia Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning, Korea.
CALICO: Established in 1982 in the USA.
EUROCALL: Founded in 1986 in Europe.
IALLT: The US-based International Association for Language Learning Technology.
IATEFL: The UK-based International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.
JALTCALL: Japan.
IndiaCALL: The India Association of Computer Assisted Language Learning.
LET: The Japan Association for Language Education and Technology.
PacCALL: The Pacific Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning.
TCLT: Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, USA.
WorldCALL: A worldwide group that connects all CALL associations.