Computer Assisted Language Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Computer Assisted Language Learning - Essay Example From this discussion it is clear that  communicative competence must be the cornerstone of ICALL. ICALL must provide appropriate language assistance tailored to meet student needs. The ICALL must provide rich language input. The ICALL student model must be based in part on a variety of learning styles. ICALL material is most easily learned through associations, which are facilitated by interesting and relevant themes and meaningful language tasks. ICALL must involve interactions of many kinds, and these interactions need not be just student-tutor interactions u ICALL must provide useful, appropriate error correction suited to the student's changing needs ICALL must involve all relevant language skills and must use each skill to support all other skills. ICALL must teach students to become increasingly self-directed.As the essay stresses  the tutor-tool framework is offered here as a mechanism for addressing a number of concerns in CALL, the most far-reaching being the belief that all CALL is of the tutorial type, characterized by one-to-one interactions where the computer evaluates the student input and then presents the new material accordingly.  In general terms, such frameworks are helpful for a number of reasons. In suggesting the tutor-tool framework originally, Taylor argued that a simple scheme for classification was required to help practitioners 'intellectually grasp' the diverse range of activities in educational computin.g (1980: 2). CALL is faced with similar problems. We have seen the diversity of CALL projects in the CALL Survey, and writers such as Chapelle emphasize that CALL is not one activity but many, often differing widely in function, character, and content ( 1994b). A framework is needed to help comprehend the many approaches being taken. Hubbard (1992: 42) with regard to the creation of a methodological framework for CALL, argues that a framework properly constructed has the benefits of providing: a metalanguage for discussion; a u seful structure to conceptualize materials for development and research; and an 'integrated set of evaluation criteria for determining the fit of software with the teacher's views, the learner's needs, and the syllabus goals and constraints'.