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Fully integrated CALL: mission accomplished *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Brian McCarthy
Brian McCarthy
Affiliation:
University of Wollongong
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Extract

It is not bold to predict that in many countries it will soon be no morepossible for education systems to be computer-free than it already is for transport systems to be motor-vehicle-free. The technology simply has too much to offer in too many areas for people to ignore it or to be content todo without it. It is therefore in the interest of any community of learnersand teachers that very careful thought be given to the integration of computers into the education process if they are to avoid situations in the classroom that are informatic equivalents of traffic jams, exhaust pollution, lunatic drivers, and road fatalities. On the road, mayhem and casualties are minimised by such things as road rules, town planning, speed limits, vehicle inspection, sign-posting, traffic lights, speed cameras and random breath testing.

Type
Research Article
Information
ReCALL , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , November 1996 , pp. 17 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning 1996

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References

Notes

1. This undertaking proved to be such a stimulating experience that it inspired the designers to produce a second, equally extensive and more media-rich set of discovery-oriented materials focusing on notional and functional domains of language. A number of these have been reported on in other articles. They reveal equally valuable possibilities for computer applications to langauge teaching, but lie beyond the scope of the present article.

2. Fuller accounts of linguistic, pedagogical and design considerations are given in earlier articles (see Appendix C: Related Articles by the Author).

3. Two years ago we did make a comparison between two groups of students in a very limited case study. Both groups sat the same test on pronoun objects. For the 2nd-year class (8 students) it was a scheduled test, they had to meet the requirement of a 90% score on the designated computer exercise before sitting the test, and had the benefit of a ten-minute summary in class the week before the test. For the 3rd-year class (7 students) it was a totally impromptu test, and although perhaps ‘unfair’, gave an accurate indication of how well they had maintained a grammar point they had mastered satisfactorily two years earlier. The scores for the 2nd-year group ranged from a low of 80% to a high of 100%, with a mean of 89%. Scores for the 3rd-year group ranged from a low of 23% to a high of 83%, with a mean of 59%.