Computer-assisted language learning: Difference between revisions

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During the 1970s and 1980s standard microcomputers were incapable of producing sound and they had poor graphics capability. This represented a step backwards for language teachers, who by this time had become accustomed to using a range of different media in the foreign language classroom. The arrival of the multimedia computer in the early 1990s was therefore a major breakthrough as it enabled text, images, sound and video to be combined in one device and the integration of the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (Davies 2011: Section 1).<ref name=daviesmodmm>Davies G. (2011) Introduction to multimedia CALL. Module 2.2 in Davies G. (ed.) ''Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers'' (ICT4LT), Slough, Thames Valley University [Online]: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-2.htm</ref>

Examples of CALL programs for multimedia computers that were published for multimedia computers on CD-ROM and DVD from the mid-1990s onwards are described by Davies (2010: Section 3).<ref name=daviesmodmm/> CALL programs are still being published on CD-ROM and DVD, but Web-based multimedia CALL has now virtually supplanted these media.

Following the arrival of multimedia CALL, multimedia language centres began to appear in educational institutions. While multimedia facilities offer many opportunities for language learning with the integration of text, images, sound and video, these opportunities have often not been fully utilised. One of the main promises of CALL is the ability to individualise learning but, as with the language labs that were introduced into educational institutions in the 1960s and 1970s, the use of the facilities of multimedia centres has often devolved into rows of students all doing the same drills (Davies 2010: Section 3.1).<ref name=daviesmodmm/> There is therefore a danger that multimedia centres may go the same way as the language labs. Following a boom period in the 1970s, language labs went rapidly into decline. Davies (1997: p.&nbsp;28) lays the blame mainly on the failure to train teachers to use language labs, both in terms of operation and in terms of developing new methodologies, but there were other factors such as poor reliability, lack of materials and a lack of good ideas.<ref name=davieslessons>Davies G. (1997) "Lessons from the past, lessons for the future: 20 years of CALL". In Korsvold A-K. & Rüschoff B. (eds.) ''New technologies in language learning and teaching'', Strasbourg: Council of Europe, p. 28. Also on the Web in a revised edition (2009): http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/coegdd1.htm/</ref>