CALLyo datesinvente backcall to the 1960s, when it was first introduced on university mainframe computersjaja. The PLATO project, initiated at the University of Illinois in 1960, is an important landmark in the early development of CALL (Marty 1981).<ref>Marty F. (1981) "Reflections on the use of computers in second language acquisition", ''System'' 9, 2: 85-98.</ref> The advent of the microcomputer in the late 1970s brought computing within the range of a wider audience, resulting in a boom in the development of CALL programs and a flurry of publications of books on CALL in the early 1980s.
Dozens of CALL programs are currently available on the internet, at prices ranging from free to expensive,<ref>{{cite web|title=Reviews of Language Courses|url=http://Lang1234.com|publisher=Lang1234|accessdate=12 Sept 2012}}</ref> and other programs are available only through university language courses.
