2. About Second Language
Acquisition:
2 points of interest to understand SLA:
• Process of obtaining
• People involved
It is, however, still uncertain.
3. About CALL (Computer Assisted
Language Learning):
A very changing field. Why?
CALL or classroom teaching? Which one comes first?
Found influences in:
Behaviorism & Constructivism, eg. Repetition & Creation
Machine Translation, from the first teaching method
Schema theory, internalization of ideas.
4. Why use CALL for SLA?
Benefits in regular computer usage. How to
get attention from the learner?
Exposition to language. Collaboration and,
consequently, negotiation of meaning.
The power of simulation. “Real” situations as
the key to learning.
“The sky is the limit”.
5. Fundamentals of CALL:
Framework Fundamentals Evaluation Module
Computer - teacher/materials - learner Levels of adequacy
6. How to evaluate CALL resources?
Identify resources: Think specific, think organizational, think current
book publishers. Mind courseware.
Identify environments: Be it local, online, or even mobile. Take the
possibilities into account.
7. Krashen: Optimal Input in CALL
According to Krashen, there are four characteristics for optimal
input:
• It is comprehensible.
• It is interesting/relevant to the acquirer.
• It is not gramatically sequenced.
• It is provided in sufficient quantity.
Problem: How do computers “grade”?
Solution: Difficulty level. CAT (Computer-adaptive testing)
10. Seven hypotheses relevant to CALL
development
1. The linguistic
characteristics of L2 input
need to be made salient
Notice important
structures/forms in L2 that
should be given more
importance, e.g. formality
markers.
CALL allows easy solutions
such as highlighting,
underlining, etc.
11. 2. Learner needs help
concerning
semantic/syntactic
aspects of input.
The offering of
modifications in input is
useful to ease the
comprehension process.
Expanding linguistic
knowledge requires
modifications.
12. 3. Learners should
have opportunities to
produce L2 output.
Expectation: To be
understood. Hence,
the program must be
able to accept the
plethora of answers
available. As such,
good syntax and
pragmatic
appropiacy are
required, which is
another push
towards their
improvement.
13. 4. Learners need to
notice their own output
errors.
The program gives the
opportunity of what we
consider the classic
“check before turning it
in”. This is based on the
learner’s perception or
“linguistic intuition”.
14. 5. Learners need to correct their linguistic output.
The program may provide hints towards common errors, references
and even show certain special marks for errors, effectively providing
a new opportunity.
15. 6. Learners need to
engage in L2 interaction
whose structure can be
modified for negotiation of
meaning.
Interaction with the
computer is required.
Hence, the use of
hypertext links, speech
recognition systems and
even personal knowledge
are needed.
16. 7. Learners should engage in L2 tasks to maximize opportunities for
good interaction.
How to create interaction? Preferred type is for communicative
tasks. This means, use of real language over linguistic forms.
17. Sources:
Hubbard, P. (2014) An invitation to CALL: Foundations of Computer
Assisted Language Learning. (Online resource)
Beatty, K. (2010) Teaching and researching computer-assisted
language-learning.
Johnson, K. (2005) Facilitating Second Language Acquisition through
Computer Assisted Language Learning. (Online resource taken from
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/are/artmanscrpt/vol1no1/cobb_am.pdf on
October the 5th, 2014)
Chappelle, C. (1998) Multimedia CALL: Lessons to be learned from
research on instructed SLA. (Online resource taken from
http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num1/article1/ on October the 5th, 2014)
