Reflection on CALL Experience

“We live in a world in which technological innovation is occurring at a high speed and digital technologies are becoming an integral part of our daily life” (Graham, 2003). As a result, foreign language instructors become more and more interested in incorporating technology into the learning process, and creating more effective learning environments by increasing access and flexibility.


The CALL class was especially beneficial for me because its primary attempt was to answer the question: How to blend face-to face and computer mediated instruction effectively? First of all, as instructors, we have to take advantage of the strengths of each environment and avoid the weaknesses. Moreover, technology should be used to make the lesson more effective and attractive. Thus, the lesson should not seem like separate activities forced together, but it must be a carefully planned learning unit. I firmly believe that if we incorporate technology in any lesson, students achievements would be higher than if we are relying on face-to-face instruction only.

CALL experience

The use of CALL tools in Second/ Foreign Language Acquisition is largely discussed by researchers and practitioners. Most of them argue that CALL tools have the potential to enhance language learning. Some of the pedagogical reasons for incorporating technology into the learning/ teaching process are: more engaging ways to present instructional materials; communicative, meaningful language use; exposure to target culture, use of more authentic materials; repeated practice opportunities.

An effective technique that is often used in teaching second language is blog writing. On the one hand blog writing has the potential to address learners’ needs in order to increase their abilities to communicate effectively through written language, and on the other hand it provides additional opportunities for writing practices. Moreover, blogs have the potential to foster and develop a larger learning community, and provide students with opportunities to organize their own learning. Blogs also give students opportunities to write for a larger audience, and practice fluency and accuracy at the same time. This technique allows students to use the target language in a creative way and engage in collaborative, meaningful activities (such as respond to the writing of their classmates, engage in dialogues).

Second Life

Advantages of Second Life for language Acquisition


Second Life is a program that allows its users to interact with each other through avatars. People who use this program not only “travel” throughout the world, but could also participate in various group activities. Because of its characteristics, Second Life is used for language instruction by many educational institutions. This program offers different, more engaging ways to expand a foreign language instruction. It is flexible and easy to be accessed by students and instructors. Thus, students could engage in interactive and collaborative use of the language by engaging in communicative/ meaningful activities (no drills, no memorizing, and no repetition). Most importantly, learners are exposed to the target culture (visiting authentic places; Moscow, for example, if they are studying Russian). By using Second Life, students not only have many language practice opportunities, but the learning process appears to be also personalized. The users of Second Life have the opportunity to decide how and where and with whom to practice the target language.

Disadvantages of Second Life for Language Acquisition

I do not see any disadvantages in terms of Second Language Acquisition. However, instructors have to plan some time for teaching the students how to use the program for language acquisition/practice.

Videoconferencing

I think that Meebo could be especially beneficial to foreign language instruction. One thing about Meebo that I like most is that the program allows us to have videoconferencing with native speaker. Thus Meebo not only provides an opportunity for authentic audience, but foreign language learners could be exposed to authentic input when engaging in conversations with native speakers. Meebo provides opportunities for negotiation of meaning, practicing pronunciation, exchanging of cultural information, and identifying gaps in the language through output activities.

The role of e-journaling in learning oral language skills

E-journaling was effectively incorporated in a study entitled A Web Based Approach to Strategic Learning of Speech Acts, conducted by Cohen and Ishihara (2005). In the upper mentioned study, e-journaling was designed as a way for the students to provide journal entries reflecting on their learning experience with the speech acts they study. The e-journaling provided an opportunity for the researchers to find out what do learners think about the testing materials; the value of immediate feedback; the disadvantage of not getting individualized feedback from a teacher. Moreover, the researchers had a chance to find out how do learners face the issue of their non-native status and their own cultural identity. In summary, the e-journaling conducted in this study allowed for interpretations of findings which would not have been possible otherwise.


E-journaling could be beneficial not only in terms of writing but in terms of learning oral language skills as well. Students could write journal entries describing their language learning strategies. Learners could focus on specific strategies used to comprehend and/ or produce the target language structure. Moreover, students could practice the target structure by producing any written responses as if they were spoken. If the instructor has access to the e-journals, he/ she can answer any questions that students might have, or even better, the instructor can interact with the students in the target language providing comprehensible input and individualized feedback.

Wikis and the Role they Play in the Process of Writing

I agree with the statement made in the online article Languages from a distance that writing is one of the most difficult language areas that has to be taught. Teaching writing is challenging in part because instructors not only have to teach complex essay organization and grammar rules, but also instructors have to make sure that students are aware of the fact that writing is a process. The stages of the writing process are: 1. Prewriting (This is the stage where the students should plan their writing by gathering information, and setting purpose and audience) 2. Drafting (Students are expected to turn in two drafts. With the first draft the student aims to get his/ her ideas across. The student does not have to worry about grammar and punctuation so much.) 3. Revising/ Editing (The actual revising and editing (including grammar mistakes) takes place during the second draft.) 4. The final stage of the writing process is publishing. A crucial question then is how do wikis make the practicing of the writing process possible. As it was mentioned in the online article Languages from a distance, wikis tend to provide opportunities for collaborative class work where ideas are exchanged, expanded, revised and edited. In this case students are engaged in the process of writing because they have to write from their personal perspective; proofread and comment/ give their classmates suggestions on how to improve the final product; correct their own errors (content or grammar). The most beneficial part of the wikis is that this process can exist regardless of specific location and time.

Computer mediated communication

The reading for this week tends to answer the question whether chatting holds the same potential for the development of grammatical competence as oral interaction.
Some benefits that interaction has to language development were discussed in this article. First of all, it was mentioned that interaction fosters negotiation of meaning. As it is often argued in SLA studies, negotiation of meaning provides enhanced input. Moreover, comprehensible input is crucial for the development of the grammatical competence. Second, negotiation of meaning fosters output. Third, providing feedback that focuses attention to form is also considered crucial for the development of grammatical competence. This study demonstrates the importance of the negotiation of meaning in language acquisition. Furthermore, the study shows that computer mediated communication has a potential to foster the negotiation of meaning in task-based interaction where as a result the grammatical competence will be developed.
Would you use computer mediated communication to supplement face to face interaction in your classroom? Does CMC have more or less benefits when compared with face to face oral communication (in terms of negotiation of meaning and development of grammatical competence)?