The hardware available for computer-assisted language learning is rapidly improving. Software development continues to lag, and the empirical foundation for second language acquisition research is inadequate. A strategy for remedying these deficiencies is outlined. Networked microcomputers whose software for computer-assisted language learning generates logs of user activity for analysis of second language acquisition offer interesting possibilities both for practical applications and in research. With access to a national network of data, testing, and teaching materials, such local networks will support advanced workstations and software allowing more complex interactions with the learning environment.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
1. John Fought, Interactions with Computers (Paper delivered at the Temple University Conference on Culture and Communication, Philadelphia, PA, 1983).
2.
Wilga M. Rivers , Speaking in Many Tongues: Essays in Foreign-language Teaching, 3rd ed., (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 131-140, surveys the topic from the current perspective. Labs are used more for listening nowadays and less for exercises.
3.
3. Audiolingualism arose from instructional methods developed by the Army Specialized Training Program during World War II. Small classes, a live informant, and a supervising linguist were featured. Although there were theoretical points at stake for the linguists who developed the methods, the linguists were also all experienced language teachers under severe time pressure and in many cases lacking access to teaching materials apart from what could be hastily created. The success of the wartime program should be judged against several factors: the relatively poor quality of the competing approaches, the high motivation of students and teachers, and the intensive exposure. Transferred to an environment where skills, motivation, and exposure were generally lower, and where an undeniably pretentious theorizing was included in the package, the method came to be seen as a failure by many, though not always for the best reasons.
4.
4. The research model of hypothesis confirmation used so frequently both in psychology and in education should be regarded with special suspicion. Unless accompanied by independent and convincing evidence that alternative hypotheses must be excluded, this model is an instance of the classical fallacy of affirming the consequent: if x then y; y; therefore x.
5.
5. See H. Kay, B. Dodd, and M. Sime, Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning (New York: Penguin Books, 1968), and its bibliography. As with computer-assisted instruction, much of the motivation for development seems to have come from industry and government, with their needs for unconventional patterns of instruction and cost savings. A substantial body of development and evaluation research with direct application to CALL awaits exploitation.
6.
6. Language and Machines: Computers in Translation and Linguistics (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee, 1966).
7.
7. The European Economic Community, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Canadian government, and various branches of the U.S. government use machine-assisted translation systems routinely. As in much current practically oriented computer software development, the emphasis has shifted from automatic to interactive operation. Research and development are proceeding vigorously in the United States, in Europe, and in Japan, driven by the prospect of a very large market.
8.
8. This familiar mode of development is due in part to the lack of centralization characteristic of our educational system overall. Although CALL installations are not yet as common as language labs, they are in place in many language departments across the country. They usually work independently, however, and there is little sharing of resources and research results.
9.
See also R. Baker, “Foreign Language Software: The State of the Art, or Pick a Card, Any (Flash) Card,”CALICO Journal, 2(part 1): 6-10 (1984).
10.
10. The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium at Brigham Young University maintains a data base of CALL software; see also H. Weller, Computer Assisted Instructional Programs in Foreign Languages (Holland, MI: Hope College, 1984).
