The Historical Development of CALL

As our first post, besides the welcome post of course, we were required to write about the historical development of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). This was a notion I had never heard of until our instructor mentioned about it in the classroom. I was curious to find more about it and write it here, to share with you! We also had to create a timeline about the historical development of CALL, you can see my timeline at the end of the post.
So, this post is all about CALL, if you'd like to learn more about it, then keep reading!

For the source of the photo please click here











With the rapid development of computer, network and multimedia technology, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has become a trend in today’s second language teaching. Whereas some traditional and simple teaching methods before, such as blackboards, chalk and tape recorders have fallen behind the modern era. CALL can stimulate students’ interest in learning and reduce students’ psychological anxiety. It can effectively provide the contextual language for what learning programs appear, which can put the real world into the classroom. Additionally, CALL can give students richer language input, promote students’ individuated learning, serve as an important means of teaching modern language learning.

The development of CALL has experienced a long history and major changes in the formation process, which can be summarized in three development stages: behaviorist CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL.

During the 1960s and 1970s, behaviorism-influenced CALL used the mainframe computer in language learning. The early main programs included grammar and vocabulary guides, operating practice procedures, and language test means. The primary advantage of the mainframe computer was that it allowed learners to study at their own pace while giving feedback in a timely manner. However, students needed to be proficient keyboard users in order to enter an answer for their exercise (Garrett, 2009). At this stage, the application of computer technology was mainly confined to the words, structure, and simple graphics, and, to some extent, students were lacking interest in learning. Computer technology could not provide the exact context to complete the exchange, so a new era of CALL would have to emerge.

In the second stage of CALL communicative computer-assisted language teaching, the microcomputer was widely used, allowing users to more conveniently use his or her computer anywhere. Communicative CALL was an era of development and a turning point because it helped to create a more realistic, colorful communication environment for learners. At this stage, language, learning and language learning theory focused on the cognitive perspective. In contrast to the first language learning process, this stage no longer taught grammar as the core, but more attention was on the communicative practice. In this learning process, the computers often afforded some of the material to be tested for learners. “In the early 1990s, computer technology was seen as something that teachers could choose to add to other learning materials and activities” (Chapelle, 2009, p. 749). These materials and activities included a non-drill format of the materials through the use of different games, reading, and text reconstruction based on the communicative approach and focused on real world communication. The main purposes were to check how learners did on the exercises, encourage them to be actively engaged in learning, and stimulate their learning behavior.

Another approach was integrative CALL. “Integrating courseware into instruction within the classroom shifts the teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning and this approach focuses on helping students become autonomous learners who can continue to learn how to communicate, conduct research or present ideas effectively in their life-long or continuing learning after graduating from school. Such students’ learning ownership is especially important in an interactive multimedia environment where students have to engage more actively in the cognitive processes of selecting, organizing, integrating and applying what they acquire in the learning process” (Tsai, 2012, p. 59). Tsai explained that when teacher-based communicative CALL learning transforms into student-based integrative CALL learning, it will enhance students’ personalized learning abilities. 

In summary, the development of CALL has experienced three stages: behaviorism’s CALL, communicative CALL and integrative CALL. The behaviorism’s CALL focused on computer assisted feedback learning; however, the computer could not provide the exact context to complete the exchange for learners. The communicative CALL helped learners to contact a real, colorful communication environment. This stage no longer taught grammar as the core, but was more attentive to the communicative practice which was corresponding language learning from a cognitive perspective. Moreover, the computer was still not available in a real social environment to learners who learned in the classroom and could not be applied to real life. The integrative CALL brought many language learning benefits through multimedia and Internet-based learning; learners can learn on the Internet independently under the guidance of teachers, which is the combination of self-learning and traditional classroom learning.

In the 21^st century, learners have been gaining the benefits from the multimedia and Internet technologies, and it will continue to act as a medium to help people to complete the information exchange of region and the world.  

For the source of information click here

Here is the timeline I created about the historical development of CALL 

The Historical Development of CALL 

For the source of timeline click here

For more detail, you can watch the video below: