Technology-Enhanced Language Learning

1996 Volume in the Foreign Language Education Series of the

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Anyone who has access to any form of media has heard some or all of these terms. No matter where we turn, we are barraged with evidence that digital technology is affecting virtually every aspect of our lives. For example, 1994 saw a computer market that surpassed television sales for the first time ever. Not even the wildest dreamers of the early days of the computer industry would have predicted that such a possibility could become reality as quickly as it did. It is clear that some sectors of our society have experienced phenomenal growth in the implementation of digital technologies.

Yet, what has been the impact of technology on teaching and learning in the language classroom? It seems clear that there are significant numbers of classrooms around the country where technology has had no impact at all. Is there potential waiting to be fulfilled? And let's consider the developers who have been striving to put these technologies to work for language learners. Are they "technology nuts," eager to adopt any new thing that comes along, but who have missed the mark concerning what is important to the profession? Or are they pioneers who have blazed trails that others will follow? Is the foreign language learning profession poised on an exciting threshold of tremendous development, or will it continue to go slow in finding interesting and exciting ways that technology can help solve the language learning problem?

To understand the state of technology in language learning today, one needs to consider the historical setting of the past fifteen or so years. In 1980 Solveig Olsen published an article in the Modern Language Journal that provided a foreshadowing of an answer to the first question above on technology's impact. Moreover, it is quite interesting to consider the findings of her survey as a prediction of what seems to have in fact happened.

In 1978 and 1979, Olsen surveyed foreign language departments in 1,810 four-year colleges. Of the 602 that returned the survey, 527 indicated that computer-assisted instruction was not in use and would not be considered in the near future. When asked about the potential for using computers in language learning, many were suspicious:

"My advice is to stay out. Computers can now teach computer language, not a living language."

To the question of whether their department would introduce computer-assisted instruction by 1980 department chairs responded with comments such as

• "I hope not."
• "Forget it!"
• "... CAI is a waste of time, energy, and money that should be used to buy library books."
• "Don't do it. It is a very stupid idea. Language is a living thing. You must really be desperate to think of anything so dumb."

Some apparently felt that the computer would replace the teacher:

• "Somehow it does not fit into our concept of a liberal arts college where human communication is paramount."
• "A waste of time; you are dehumanizing language instruction. It will be held against you when you argue the humanistic nature of language studies."

In contrast with the negative attitudes of this group, other sectors of our society were of a different mind. Computer sales jumped from 724,000 in 1980 to 2.8 million units in 1982. In January 1983 Time picked the computer as the "Machine of the Year," replacing their traditional "Man of the Year" for 1982:

"Time's Man of the Year for 1982, the greatest influence for good or evil, is not a man at all. It is a machine: the computer" (Friedrich 1983).

This event most certainly raised anxiety to serious levels for many of the members of Olsen's survey group. Furthermore, their worst fears continued to come true before their eyes and at a pace they probably could not comprehend.

Consider for example the fact that in 1994 there were 48.5 million PCs sold, representing startling growth in the number of machines installed during the period since the survey was conducted. Although quite impressive by the sheer numbers, the increases are overwhelming when considering the computing power that was sold in 1994. Although there were about 67 times more computers sold that year than 14 years previously, most of those units were roughly 128 times more powerful than the computers of 1980. This means that there was 8,576 times more computing power sold in 1994 than in 1980!

In addition, the advances show no sign of slowing. Moore's Law says that computing power doubles roughly every two years, and there is no end in sight. These advances are making possible some very interesting technological capabilities, putting us on the threshold of another significant development that will perhaps eclipse developments to date. We are witnessing the convergence of computers, communications technologies, and media into a totally new, synergistic something that promises to be infinitely more important than any of the technologies by themselves. The visions of the most visionary of the computer pioneers of the 1970s doubtless did not include the things that in fact are becoming possible.

To place the potential impact of these technologies in perspective for education in general, consider the following recommendations made in a recently completed study by the RAND Corporation for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Technology of the U.S. Department of Education (Glennan and Melmed 1996). This study took an in-depth look at the role that technology is playing and probably should be playing in public schools today and concluded:

• Educational technology has significant potential for improving students' learning.
• Extensive use of technology in schools has the potential to promote significant school restructuring and expand the time and motivation for student learning.
• The growth in use of technology by schools is strong; schools are adding equipment and developing connections to the national information infrastructure at a high rate. However, many schools still lack significant access to technology.
• Data from a study by the IEA in 1992 suggested the availability of technology in schools serving poor, minority, and special needs populations did not appear to lag substantially behind the averages of schools taken as a whole. However, to the extent that technology enables learning outside the school, large disparities in the access of students of different classes and ethnicity to technology is a matter of concern.
• Some schools and school districts have moved rapidly to a fairly ubiquitous use of technology, and their experiences should provide guidance to others that are following.
• The costs of ubiquitous use of technology are modest in the context of overall budgets for public elementary education but moving to such use requires significant and potentially painful restructuring of budgets.
• When technology is deeply infused in a school's operations, teachers tend to assume new roles and require new skills. There is a strong consensus among the experts we consulted that neither the initial preparation of teachers nor the current strategies for continued professional development have been effective in developing these skills.
• While there has been a rapid expansion in home education software, the market for school-based content software has been modest and comparatively stagnant. Quality content software for middle and secondary schools is not broadly available. However, this market is likely to evolve rapidly. [See <http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR682/ed_ch5.html# RTFToC1>.]

The changes that these conclusions portend for public schools should give rise to great reflection on the part of all foreign language educators. Ready or not, it appears that technology will play an ever-increasing role in each of our institutions. It therefore behooves foreign language education professionals to better understand technology and its potential for foreign language learning. From curricular objectives to lesson planning, from pedagogical considerations to capabilities of hardware and software combinations, and from teacher training to software applicability, there will not be any aspect of foreign language learning that will not be influenced by the technological revolution.

Returning to our second question above, where are we today with respect to the implementation of technology for language learning? In 1987 and 1989 ACTFL published two volumes in the Foreign Language Education Series as a result of its commission to Flint Smith (Smith 1989; Smith 1987). Covering the impact of technology on foreign language education at that time, these volumes became two of the best sellers ever in the ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series. But as illustrated above, seven years is a very long time, given the speed with which technology is developing. Things that were interesting but too expensive for wide-spread implementation at that time are now becoming commonplace today. Things that were only marginally imaginable are now becoming possible.

Given the incredible changes that have taken place and that will continue to unfold in our classrooms, it is necessary to once again address how technology can benefit language learners.

Volume Overview

So how do we make sense of imminent technological change and the status of technology implementation in foreign language learning? The main purpose of this volume is to explore new technologies from the perspective of the foreign language teaching professional. Gunther Mueller, a member of the Volume Advisory Committee, proposed the following graphic to help define the specific topics that authors needed to cover. As illustrated, the areas to be addressed fall within the intersection of issues related to the Learner, the Teacher, the Technology, and the Curriculum and converge at educational and learning Outcomes.

It was not possible to present every specific issue implied by this diagram, nevertheless, volume authors were challenged to address areas such as

• electronic technologies and ways their impact can benefit each of the four language skills;
• appropriate pedagogical strategies for technology in language learning;
• specific, noteworthy, technology-based applications for language learning;
• teacher education issues;
• technology implementation strategies to maximize positive impact on language learning outcomes; and
• the potential for using technology to learn about the language learning process itself.

Coverage of all possible topics was not exhaustive, but as the reader will see, the list of areas of concern discussed by the authors was extensive throughout the volume's nine chapters.

Chapter Overviews

In Chapter 1, "Taking Control of Multimedia," Pusack and Otto provide an excellent introduction to interactive technologies. After demonstrating how pedagogy must govern the ways new media are used, they go on to discuss how specific attributes can help both teachers and learners. They provide several excellent examples of actual applications and how they have been used to support sound language teaching pedagogy.

Chiquito, Meskill, and Renjilian-Burgy, in Chapter 2, "Multiple, Mixed, Malleable Media," contrast the dynamic nature of language with the static media that have traditionally been used in its teaching. They discuss specific projects and products and show how these can enrich the language learning experiences of students. The authors have done extensive surveys of existing applications and provide this excellent overview of developments in the application of technology to individual language learning - from interactive videodisc to newer digital interactive multimedia technologies and network-based applications.

In Chapters 3 and 4, "Teaching Listening: How Technology Can Help" and "Hypermedia Technology for Teaching Reading," Joiner and Martínez-Lage each provide excellent theoretical underpinnings for how technology can support receptive skill learning. In Chapter 3 Joiner moves from more conventional approaches for teaching listening to multimedia technologies and provides an overview of how various technologies can be brought to bear on this particular skill, supporting her affirmations with actual research. In addition to the excellent overview in Chapter 4 of the reading process itself, Martínez-Lage also shows how she was able to create a hypermedia application from Laura Esquivel's best­selling novel, Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate). She provides an overview of the development process as well as a glimpse at student results from using the application.

Teaching the productive skills with technology presents much more of a challenge than does teaching the receptive skills. In Chapter 5, "Computer-Mediated Communication: Technology for Improving Speaking and Writing," Beauvois reports on actual experiences using the computer in this mode. She thus provides empirical evidence for the efficacy of new approaches that combine technology-based communication and teacher-based instruction to address many important objectives for teaching speaking and writing.

Scinicariello, in Chapter 6, "Uniting Teachers, Learners, and Machines: Language Laboratories and Other Choices," provides an excellent overview of where the language laboratory is today and where it needs to go in the future. She points out that although language laboratories have experienced change in previous years, those of the past are almost insignificant with respect to the changes that are now taking place. Her discussion provides valuable insights into the restructuring that she says will need to take place. Not leaving things there, her advice pertaining to possible steps and potential pitfalls will be valuable to anyone involved with establishing, directing, or using language laboratories now or in the future.

As illustrated in Chapter 7, "Learning Language and Culture with Internet Technologies," Internet technologies such as E-mail and the World Wide Web are making an incredible entrée onto the education scene. In this chapter, Lafford and Lafford discuss activities using online technologies that students at various proficiency levels can perform as individuals or in small groups. They provide numerous examples of applications and show how these can be used with students.

Although there might be a great deal of interest among teachers for the use of technology in their language classes, unless teachers know how to use technology in the instructional programs they devise, it seems obvious to conclude that students will not benefit. In Chapter 8, "Meeting the Technology Challenge: Introducing Teachers to Language Learning Technology," Kassen and Higgins point out how new technologies, more than ever before, dictate a serious need for teacher education. They also provide a specific example of a training program they have devised to address this problem.

Chapter 9, the final chapter of the volume, is entitled "Implementing Technology for Language Learning." With the goal of outlining reasonable expectations, Bush puts technology for foreign language education in the much broader contexts of technology in society and technology in education in general. Pointing out how foreign language students are not benefiting from the new learning tools becoming available, he illustrates how, without the profession's devising a coherent model for implementation, students will continue to miss out on the potential that technology has to offer for addressing language learning problems. He also gives examples of how the situation can be turned around and places the potential for change within an overall societal context for technology in learning.

Conclusion

As illustrated by each of the chapters within this volume, technology for language learning can be an effective force for improving foreign language instruction. Furthermore, it is much more powerful and affordable today than ever before, and there is evidence that this situation will only continue to improve. Unfortunately, despite the incredible advances of recent years, not very many students benefit from its potential today. It is hoped that this volume will help change that.

References

Friedrich, Otto 1983. "The Computer Moves In." Time, January 3, pp. 14-24

Supporting Language Learning from a Computer Game

• Somsong Suparp
• somsongsup@yahoo.com
• Rajamongala Institute of Technology North Bangkok Campus
• 
  
• Richard Watson Todd
• irictodd@kmutt.ac.th
• King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok
• 
  
• Pornapit Darasawang
• pornapit.dar@kmutt.ac.th
• King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok

Abstract

Computer games are a very popular form of entertainment for students, and some games provide extensive exposure to English. Using one of these, Football Championship Manager 4, support material providing help with difficult vocabulary was designed. Users could choose between three types of support: Thai definition, English definition, and examples of use or pictures. From stimulated recall interviews with Thai students who had played the game and used the support, it was found that the Thai language support material was most frequently used, but that the choice between the types of support depended on students' purposes in playing the game.

Exposure to authentic language input has come to prominence as a key issue in successful language learning. For example, it has been argued that exposure to authentic use of the target language is a necessary but not sufficient condition for learning (Tomlinson, 1998). Similarly, it has been claimed that authentic language is intrinsically motivating for students (Richards, 2001). If such claims are true, as teachers we should be searching for opportunities to expose students to authentic use of English. Some ways in which this can be done are through extensive reading (Day and Bamford, 1998), through films (Voller and Widdows, 1993), and through computers (Mirescu, 1997). In this article, we intend to focus on the last of these, and more specifically on computer games.

The use of computers in language learning is an area which has grown exponentially over the last twenty years or so. One aspect of computer use which has, however, been largely overlooked is computer games (in a recent survey of CALL, Beatty, 2003 included no citations for research into the use of computer games in ELT). While the Internet and computer-mediated communication have received a lot of attention in English language teaching from the perspectives of both pedagogy and research, computer games have been the focus of surprisingly little attention, especially given their popularity as a form of entertainment. This lack of attention is doubly surprising when it is considered that for many people whose L1 is not English, their main exposure to English may be through computer games.

Among the many different kinds of computer games, the type providing the greatest exposure to English is probably simulations. These games involve users in role-playing and making decisions. From an informal survey of 150 students at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), one particularly popular simulation game involving extensive exposure to English was identified: Football Championship Manager 4 (CM4). In this game, the user pretends to be the manager of a football team, who needs to buy and sell players, select a team, select tactics and so on. In doing this, the user is exposed to large quantities of English, some of which may be unknown to most non-English speakers. In order for users to play the game effectively and, at the same time, to have opportunities to learn English, support for the advanced vocabulary items in the game may help.

There are a variety of ways in which this support or scaffolding can be provided (see Beed et al., 1991; Eggen and Kauchak, 1999). In this study, four types of scaffold were used: Thai definition, English definition, examples of use, and pictures (see below for details). Having prepared such support, we were interested in how the users used it, and thus in this article we aim to investigate the types of support that the users choose and their reasons for choosing it.

The support program

From the informal survey of 150 students at KMUTT, it was found that the main problems students had with English when playing computer games involved unknown vocabulary, unknown abbreviations and unclear instructions due to the difficulty of the vocabulary in the instructions. The vocabulary and abbreviations in CM4 were analysed, and 23 words (e.g. aggression, reflexes, stamina) and 12 abbreviations (e.g. AM: attacking midfielder, INE: ineligible) likely to cause problems to non-English speaking users were identified. For each of these, three types of support were provided: Thai definition, English definition, and either examples of use or picture.

The following shows how defensive is presented in the support program. Firstly, a definition using more frequent English words and thus simpler English was given as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 English definition of defensive

Then, the English definition was translated into Thai as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Thai definition of defensive

For concrete words where a picture can illustrate the meaning of the word, a picture was also given. For defensive, however, it is difficult to see how a picture could explain the word. For words for which a picture is inappropriate, then, examples of use of the word in a footballing context were found using the Internet as a corpus, and these for defensive are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Examples of use of defensive

For those words where pictures may be appropriate, a picture was used rather than examples of use. An example is given in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Picture of aggression

The support materials were designed using IS Adobe Image Styler in the form of webpages, a format which it was believed users would find familiar and thus have few problems using. The support program can be viewed at http://arts.kmutt.ac.th/thai/webcm4/index.html. To use the support program, users need to open the support program in a browser and then start CM4. They can switch between the two windows using the Alt+Tab command. When the users encounter an unknown word in CM4, they can open the support program, find the word, and then choose between the three types of support provided for each word. They can look at more than one type of support if they want. In this way, it is hoped that the support program can help users play the game more effectively while simultaneously learning English.

Data collection

In order to investigate the types of support that the users choose and the reasons behind their choices, six students were recorded using the support program and then interviewed. These six subjects were all first-year students from the Faculty of Engineering at KMUTT who were interested in playing CM4.

The subjects were asked to play CM4 for one hour and to use the support program as help whenever they wanted it. They were recorded using the SnagIt screen video capture program. They were then interviewed concerning their use of the support program using the video capture as input for stimulated recall. The types of support chosen were identified from the video capture records, and the reasons for their choices were elicited from the interviews.

Types of support chosen

To compare the extent to which each of the types of support was chosen, the probability for each type of support to be chosen was calculated by dividing the number of times one type of support was chosen by the number of occasions on which it was available. Thus, if every subject chose to use one type of support at every available opportunity, the probability would be 1; if, on the other hand, a type of support was never chosen despite there being several opportunities to do so, the probability would be 0. The probability values for each type of support are given in Table 1.

Type of support	Probability of being chosen
Thai definition	0.90
English definition	0.59
Examples of use	0.70
Picture	0.73

Table 1 Probabilities of each type of support being chosen

Table 1 shows that Thai definitions were the most popular type of support, with English definitions being less used. However, since all the probabilities are greater than 0.33, we can see that most subjects used more than one type of support for each word they looked up in the support material. In fact, on average for each word subjects chose to use 2.23 types of support.

Reasons for choosing the types of support

The data from the semi-structured interviews showed that the support material was used by the subjects to play the game for several reasons: saving time and convenience, understanding meaning, motivation, independent learning, and learning English. Extracts from the semi-structured interviews are presented in Table 2.

Reasons underlying use of support material	Sample extracts from the interviews
Saving time and convenience (mentioned by 5 subjects)	" … it saves time and is convenient…moreover, the dictionary may take time while playing the game…saves time for looking up the meanings because there are various methods to find the meaning such as talking dictionaries… Also, it can help to save time for looking up the meaning of words." (Subject A) "It's more convenient than a dictionary… It's easy to look up the meaning of word and abbreviations because it's fast and convenient…the language support is convenient and fast without wasting time using a dictionary." (Subject C)
Understanding meaning (mentioned by 6 subjects)	"I choose language support in the Thai version because I understand the meaning of words easily…The pictures help me to understand and know the meaning of words immediately… I like the picture because I can understand the meaning of words immediately." (Subject C) "… the English language support makes me know the meaning of a word… Opening the support material is helpful because I can understand the meaning of a word…If I understand a lot of words, I can play the game well." (Subject D)
Motivation (mentioned by 4 subjects)	"The language support is fun and I was interested in studying English again." (Subject A) "Language support is more attractive to a player than a dictionary… Moreover, playing the game not only gives me enjoyment but also teaches me English." (Subject C)
Promotion of independent learning (mentioned by 3 subjects)	"I can have learning by myself and an opportunity to learn English with no limit." (Subject D) " I am able to have learning by myself." (Subject F)
Learning English (mentioned by 6 subjects)	"… playing the game is fun. We have knowledge and it helps us develop language skill…the English language support helps me learn English while playing the game." (Subject A) " … the English language support makes me learn more English… I like to learn some words." (Subject E)

Table 2 Reasons underlying use of support material

Discussion

The reasons underlying the use of the support material given in Table 2 suggest that subjects had two main purposes in using the material. Firstly, using the material for the reasons of saving time and convenience and understanding meaning imply that the subjects' priority is playing the game quickly and successfully. When the subjects used the material for this purpose, the Thai language support was their primary choice. Although the rationale for designing the support material was not to facilitate effective game-playing, it is hoped that such use of the material leads to incidental learning of vocabulary items.

The second main purpose the subjects had in using the support material was to learn English. This purpose is related to the reasons of motivation, promotion of independent learning and learning English. Where learning English was given priority by the subjects, different types of support were used, including the English language support. Using the support material in this way can be considered explicit learning, in contrast to the incidental learning associated with the first main purpose.

It should be noted, however, that for most vocabulary items subjects chose to use more than one type of support and so may have been fulfilling both main purposes at the same time.

The support material investigated in this study was designed simply to explain the meaning of unknown vocabulary items to students using the game. This approach exemplifies a transmission mode of teaching (see Kohonen, 2001), which may not be the most effective approach to facilitating learning. It was therefore decided to supplement the support material with interactive exercises checking users' understanding of the unknown words from CM4 presented in the support material. These exercises were designed using Authorware and can be downloaded from ftp://arts.kmutt.ac.th/setup.exe.

Since the support material and the interactive exercises were designed and made available, more than one thousand people have downloaded these programs to use. Such large-scale use suggests that there is a clear demand for English language support for playing computer games. The worldwide popularity of computer games incorporating English should be seen as an opportunity for encouraging both incidental learning of English by users wishing to play games effectively and explicit learning by users wishing to simultaneously improve their English. We hope that the support material investigated in this study can provide a model whereby such learning can be encouraged.

COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (CALL)
IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTERACTIVE APPROACH:
ADVANTAGES AND APPREHENSIONS
by
T. Ravichandran, M.A., M.Phil., P.G.C.T.E., (Ph.D.)
Lecturer, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere - 402 103.

(Paper presented and published in the Proceedings: National Seminar on CALL,
Anna University, Chennai, 10-12 Feb. 2000, pp. 82-89.)

INTRODUCTION

To begin with the question whether computers really assist second language learning, many teachers who have never touched a computer tend to respond with an emphatic no; whereas, the overwhelming number of teachers who give computers a try find that they are indeed useful in second language learning. No doubt, computers make excellent teaching tools, especially in teaching languages in any aspect, be it vocabulary, grammar, composition, pronunciation, or other linguistic and pragmatic-communicative skills. And the major benefits offered by computer in enhancing language acquisition apparently outweigh its limitations.

ADVANTAGES

Interest and Motivation
It is often necessary, in a language learning classroom, to provide repeated practice to meet important objectives. Because this can be boring, painful, and frustrating, many students lose interest and motivation to learn foreign languages. CALL programmes present the learner with a novelty. They teach the language in different and more interesting, attractive ways and present language through games, animated graphics and problem-solving techniques. As a result even tedious drills become more interesting. In fact, CALL motivates the students to go beyond the point of initial mastery and practice activity until they become automatic.

Individualisation
Many students need additional time and individualised practice to meet learning objectives. The computer offers students self-instructional tasks that let them master prerequisite skills and course objectives at a speed and level dictated by their own needs. Besides, additional programmes can be made available for students who master objectives quickly. These additional programmes can provide more intense study of the same objectives, proceed to higher objectives, or integrate the objectives covered in the unit with other objectives. In this manner, a computer gives individual attention to the learner and replies immediately to questions or commands. It acts as a tutor and guides the learner towards the correct answer while adapting the material to his performance.

A Compatible Learning Style
Students differ in their preferred styles of learning. Many students seem to learn much more effectively when they are able to use a compatible learning style than when they are forced to employ an incompatible one. Serious conflicts may arise when a teacher employs a style that is incompatible with a student's. In this regard, the computer can be used for adapting instruction to the unique styles of individual students. To cite an instance, the computer can provide an exciting rapid-fire drill for one student and a calm, slow-paced mode of presentation for another.

Optimal Use of Learning Time
By using the computer, students are often able to use their Academic Learning Time (ALT) more fruitfully. Academic Learning Time (ALT) is the amount of time a student spends attending to relevant academic tasks while performing those tasks with a high rate of success. For example, not all the time officially scheduled for studying a foreign language is likely to be allocated to it. If an hour is assigned to working on a topic, but the teacher devotes five minutes at the beginning of the session to returning papers and five minutes at the end to reading announcements, then only fifty minutes have been allocated to working on the topic. Scheduled time merely sets an upper limit on allocated time. Likewise, allocated time merely sets the upper limit to engaged time, which refers to the amount of time students actively attend to the subject matter under consideration. Even though fifty minutes may be allocated to studying a topic in French class, students may stare out the window or talk to their neighbours instead of pursuing the assigned activity. Therefore, even when they are actively engaged in studying the foreign language, students learn effectively only when they are performing at a high rate of success. This smaller amount of time is the factor that is most strongly related to the amount of learning that takes place (Lareau 1985:65-67). Computers enhance second/foreign language academic learning time by permitting learners to acquire specific information and practice specific skills and by helping students develop basic tools of learning which they can apply in a wide variety of settings. This also subverts the relationship between time and traditional instruction. Traditional instruction holds time constant and allows achievement to vary within a group. Computer-assisted learning reverses this relationship by holding achievement constant and letting the time students spend in pursuit of the objectives vary.

Immediate Feedback
Learners receive maximum benefit from feedback only when it is supplied immediately. Their interest and receptivity declines when the information on their performance is delayed. Yet, for various reasons, classroom feedback is often delayed and at times denied. A deferment of positive feedback, though important to act as encouragement and reinforcement, may not harm the progress of the learners. Nonetheless, any delay in offering negative feedback, the knowledge that one is wrong, will become crucial. A blissfully ignorant student may continue mispronouncing a word or applying a misconception before discovering the nature of this error. In such case, the computer can give instantaneous feedback and help the learner ward off his misconception at the initial stage itself. In addition to this, the computer can look for certain types of errors and give specific feedback, such as, "It looks as if you forgot the article."

Error Analysis
Computer database can be used by the instructor to classify and differentiate the type of general errors as well as errors committed by learners on account of the influence of the first language. And thus determine the most common errors cross-linguistically and more specifically, the particular form of a particular error type within a particular language group. One such study conducted reveals interesting findings, for example, that in subject-verb agreement errors the base form of verb was over generalised incorrectly more often than the -s form by all speakers. Also, Chinese writers typically omitted the articles a/an more often than the (Dalgish 1987:81-82). A computer can thus analyse the specific mistakes the student has made and can react in a different way from the usual teacher--this leads the student not only to self-correction, but also to understanding the principles behind the correct solution.

Guided and Free Writing
A word-processor in the computer can be very effective in teaching guided/free writing activities. The ability to create and manipulate text easily is the principle on which the word-processor programmes are founded. In this manner, the word-processor encourages practice in guided or free writing activities together with a number of sub-skills which comprise the writing process. Aspects of paragraphing, register, style, cohesion, rhetorical structure, lexical choice and expression can all receive attention without requiring the user to learn different programmes. The advantage is that the teacher can direct the student's writing without exerting total and rigid control, allowing for freedom of expression within certain bounds. Insights into grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, can also be developed.

Pre-determined to Process Syllabus
One major advantage in using a microprocessor is that it can enhance the learning process from a pre-determined syllabus to an emerging/process syllabus. Even the ordinary 'fill-in-the-blanks' type of monotonous exercise on paper can be made an exciting task on the screen in the self-access mode, where the students themselves choose their own material. CALL thus facilitates the synthesis of the pre-planned syllabus and learner syllabuses "through a decision making process undertaken by teacher and learners together" (Breen 1986:51).

Other Prospects
As students and teachers become more sophisticated in their use of such CALL software, more complicated use of these packages become possible. For instance, the ability of the computer to handle data, and allow the students to become computational linguists, is very powerful (Hardistry 1988:42-43). The experiential use of Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) can reveal unexplored teaching materials and untouched learning methods. By effective use of linking computer with internet, authentic material can be brought directly into the classroom. A reading text can be done using that day's news item or weather forecast than using a news clipping of the previous year. The topicality of the issue can generate lot of interest and create authenticity of purpose. Correspondingly, the facility of LAN can be very useful for the practising of writing pithy telegraphic and telex messages. Of course, the joy and the excitement involved in the online communication process, both local and international, is an additional increment one gets from screen-based learning!

APPREHENSIONS

Man versus Machine
In spite of its glaring merits, the prospect of computer-assisted language learning has troubled teachers more. Perhaps, the major cause of their worry might have developed from the basic problem of accessibility. Often the computers have been kept in Science or Maths department causing a real and psychological distance in the minds of the Arts faculty. Nevertheless, many see computer as a threat not only in terms of its power to replace the traditional skills, which the language teachers promote, but also its eventual replacement of the teacher himself. Furthermore, shifting the control centre from the authoritarian teacher to the need-based learner and accepting the humble role of a facilitator/moderator instead of being a veritable dictator does not come easy for the traditionally clad chalk-talk teacher. In addition, the computer-student interactive learning not only allows the possibility of role changes, but also the potential for role-reversal, endangered by physical reversal by students. That is, the students literally turn their back to the teachers, and silence is now on the part of the teacher until called for assistance. Yet this role reversal can be exploited, since, it allows the classroom to become far more "learning centred" (Hardistry 1988:39). This term rather than learner-centred, has been used, to indicate that the central aim of the language lesson is to enable students to learn.

The Language Lab versus Computer
Another reason why teachers and sanctioning authorities alike are uncertain about the use of computers in language learning is that computers too, like language lab and other technological innovations, despite large investments, may remain unused and stored in some dark and abandoned room. After all, language laboratories in many countries fell into disuse, as they were too tied to one particular form of methodology, which limited the awareness of the potential. One real danger is that the computer could be used, like the language lab, as an instrument of Skinnerian behaviourism to facilitate the structuralist approach with an emphasis on "correctness," negating its flexibility and potential as a teaching aid to liberate the imaginations of the learners (Moore 1986:18-19). In this perspective, often CALL courseware has been restricted to drill and practice, with the screen equivalent to the textbook. Much software, like a textbook, is static both in presentation and in content. Another major criticism of CALL software is the lock-step design of the lessons. This, in turn, means that CALL software is missing a chance to exploit the computer's potential, with the result that computer power is not released to the student adequately.

CALL versus TALL
Computer-Assisted Language Learning(CALL) contrasted with Textbook-Assisted Language Learning(TALL), demands certain extra-skills such as typography, graphic design, or paper making and the lack of which panics the teacher and the taught alike. For instance, an inadvertent typographical error on the part of the student input may be classified wrong although the grammar of the student's answer is correct. Further, in terms of communication of ideas, a book is a means of communication between the author and the reader. In the same way, the computer is a means of communication between the programmer and the user. However, in this analogy, the author and the programmer do not mostly share similar concerns. While the author is bound to be a subject expert, the programmer is mostly a technician combined with the likely motives of a businessman. This gap between the author and the programmer is responsible for inappropriate lesson content, poor documentation, errors in format and content, improper feedback, etc. Likewise, in most software, there is little chance for the teacher to add to or modify the existing programmes, even if he wishes too, since most of it is locked to prevent pirating. And for the few of those who develop their own material, the time spent on programming and typing in the lessons can be quite lengthy.

PROBLEMS OR CHALLENGES?

Yet, these apprehensions should be seen in the backdrop of a developmental stage of computerisation of individuals and institutions and as a temporary phenomenon. The next generation of teachers and learners will be part of a computer generation. They will take for granted the skills demanded by computer technology and handle it as coolly as switching on a taperecorder or watching a television. Similarly, the pupils will need no readjustment of attitude when faced with a computer in a classroom and their familiarity and frequent association with the machine would replace the sense of awe and alienation felt by older people. Then planning pre-, actual and post-computer activities would be easily possible. The teachers would ensure that they are the ones in control of educational software by becoming involved in the development process and rejecting those programmes which do not serve their needs. For that reason, the onus is on the present CALL-disposed teachers that in order to convince the CALL-deposed teachers about the potentiality of CALL courseware, they must prove that it is not only perfect in every way, but that it is far better than any other existing teaching aid.

CONCLUSION

An ideal CALL courseware remains not an alternative but a complementary tool in reinforcing classroom activities. Apart from relying on the ability of educators to create suitable CALL courseware, the effectiveness of CALL depends on the teacher's readiness to adopt new attitudes and approaches toward language teaching. The teacher should avoid being skeptical about the use of computer in language teaching and begin to re-evaluate his methods in the light of computer's tremendous teaching potential and boldly address to the challenges offered. The computer can best assist teachers if it is seen not as a replacement for their work but as a supplement to it. By the way, the computer, will not replace the language teachers, but, used creatively, it will relieve them of tedious tasks and will enable students to receive individualised attention from both teachers and machines to a degree that has hitherto been impossible.

A typology of CALL programs and applications

Computer as tutor

Grammar

CALL Programs designed for teaching grammar include drill and practice on a single topic (Irregular Verbs, Definite and Indefinite Articles), drills on a variety of topics (Advanced Grammar Series, English Grammar Computerized I and II), games (Code Breaker, Jr. High Grade Builder), and programs for test preparation (50 TOEFL SWE Grammar Tests) Grammar units are also included in a number of comprehensive multimedia packages (Dynamic English, Learn to Speak English Series).

Listening

This category includes programs which are specifically designed to promote second-language listening (Listen!), multi-skill drill and practice programs (TOEFL Mastery), multimedia programs for second language learners (Accelerated English, Rosetta Stone), and multimedia programs for children or the general public (Aesop's Fables, The Animals).

Pronunciation

Pronunciation programs (Sounds American, Conversations) generally allow students to record and playback their own voice and compare it to a model. Several comprehensive multimedia programs (Firsthand Access, The Lost Secret) include similar features.

Reading

This category includes reading programs designed for ESL learners (Reading Adventure 1 - ESL) and tutorials designed for children or the general public (MacReader, Reading Critically, Steps to Comprehension). and games (HangWord). Also included are more general educational programs which can assist reading (Navajo Vacation, The Night Before Christmas) and text reconstruction programs (see below).

Text reconstruction

Text reconstruction programs allow students to manipulate letters, words, sentences, or paragraphs in order to put texts together. They are usually inexpensive and can be used to support reading, writing, or discussion activities. Popular examples include Eclipse, Gapmaster, Super Cloze, Text Tanglers, and Double Up. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 8, Module 1.4, headed Text manipulation.]

Vocabulary

This category includes drill and practice programs (Synonyms), multimedia tutorials (English Vocabulary), and games (Hangman, Scrabble). Also useful are several reference and searching tools (such as concordancers) which will be described in the Computer as Tool section below.

Writing

Most software for supporting writing falls under the Computer as Tool category (see below). Exceptions include tutorials such as Sentence Combining, SentenceMaker, and Typing Tutor.

Comprehensive

A number of comprehensive multimedia programs are designed to teach ESL students a variety of skills. They range in price but many are quite expensive. Among the better known are Dynamic English, Ellis Mastery, English Discoveries, Rosetta Stone.

Computer as stimulus

The computer as stimulus category includes software which is used not so much as a tutorial in itself but to generate analysis, critical thinking, discussion, and writing. Of course a number of the above-mentioned programs (e.g. The Animals, Navajo Vacation, Night Before Christmas) can be used as a stimulus. Especially effective for a stimulus are programs which include simulations. Examples of this latter group include London Adventure, Oregon Trail, Sim City, Sleuth, Crimelab, Amazon Trail, Cross Country Canada/USA, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Computer as Tool

Word processing

The most common use of computer as tool, and probably the most common use overall of the computer for language learning, is word processing. High quality programs like Microsoft Word can be useful for certain academic or business settings (Healey & Johnson 1995a). Programs such as ClarisWorks and Microsoft Works are cheaper and simpler to learn and still have useful features. SimpleText and TeachText are simpler yet and may be sufficient for many learners.

Grammar checkers

Grammar checkers (e.g. Grammatik) are designed for native speakers and they typically point to problems believed typical of native speaker writing (e.g. too much use of passives). They are usually very confusing to language learners and are not recommended for an ESL/EFL context. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 6.1, Module 1.3, headed Spellcheckers, grammar checkers and style checkers.]

Concordancers

Concordancing software searches through huge files of texts (called corpora, which is the plural of corpus) in order to find all the uses of a particular word (or collocation). While very confusing for beginners, concordancers can be a wonderful tool for advanced students of language, linguistics, or literature.

The best concordancer for language students and teachers is Oxford's MicroConcord. The program includes as an optional extra several large (total 1,000,000 words) taken from British newspapers. Or this program, and other concordancers as well, can be used with any other text files available in electronic form.

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Module 2.4, Using concordance programs in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom.]

Collaborative writing

A number of tools exist to help students work on their writing collaboratively on computers linked in a local area network. The most popular among language teachers is Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment, which includes modules for real-time discussion, word processing, electronic mail, and brainstorming, as well as citation software and a dictionary. Other programs with some similar features are Aspects and MacCollaborator.

Reference

There are numerous CD versions of encyclopedias and dictionaries. Two which have highly recommended (Healey & Johnson 1995a) for language learners are the encyclopedia ENCARTA and the Longman Dictionary of American English.

Computer Assisted Language Learning

Increase of Freedom or Submission to Machines?

1) Definition of CALL

CALL is the acronym for Computer Assisted Language Learning and it is related to the use of computers for language teaching and learning.

In the following pages, a general picture of the changes that CALL brings with it will be presented. First of all, the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the use of CALL will be pointed at; later, the technical requirements for the use of CALL will be presented; thirdly, an analysis of the implementation of CALL for the practice and improvement of the four language skills will be developed. And finally, different resources available on the Internet for English teaching and learning as a second language will be enumerated. In this last section, some lines will be devoted to the analysis of the effectiveness of computer conferencing in the field of ESL.

1.1) General advantages and disadvantages of CALL

CALL has much to offer English language teachers and will have more to offer in the future. We cannot, though, let us guide ourselves just as if we were blind by the seductive and powerful technology that CALL represents. It is vital to develop and maintain a critical eye on it.

One of the advantages of CALL is that, in Phillips words, it offers a powerful self-access facility[1](p.7); that is, it helps to generate autonomous learners who will experience freedom of choice. The tools that learners find in computers allow them to assume mastery of their own learning experience. Students can call up the programs held by computers whenever they want; besides, computers are sensitive to the learners level of proficiency. This advantage, though, can also be seen as a disadvantage, since many teachers may consider that computers are undertaking functions that should be performed by trained teachers. In this paper I will demonstrate that this disadvantage is not a real one, since, in fact, computers should be used by teachers as a complementary tool in the teaching process.

Another advantage of CALL is that it gives a new role to teaching materials. Out of the context of CALL, teaching materials are passive. As Phillips points out, before computers were used in the classroom context Nothing the student said or did could influence in any deep sense the linear progression of the content[2](p.7). In CALL, materials adapt themselves to the requirements of the individual student; that is, they become interactive. To this advantage, Phillips attaches a counter-argument: to what extent is it desirable that more of the management of learning be embodied in the materials themselves rather than in the way they are exploited?[3](p.7)

In the field of methodology, we also find one advantage and one correspondent disadvantage. The advantage is that CALL, like other new technologies, brings about changes in the teaching methodologies of English. There are cases, though, in which computers are just used to give old materials a new aspect. This is the case of teachers who put students in front of the computer just to make fill-in-the-gap exercises.

The advantages and disadvantages mentioned up to the present moment make us aware of an important fact in relation to CALL- we have to be constantly analysing whether the uses to which CALL is put are just reinforcing current practices or if, in contrast, they are promoting curriculum renewal. In order to fully benefit from the potential of the computer for language learning, language teaching specialists have to promote a complementary relationship with computers. The technology that computers offer has to be integrated with pedagogic programs that guarantee a real evolution of the teaching methodologies and procedures. The following paragraph, written by Chris Harrison, is very illustrative with respect to this point:

To return to the original question: What are you teaching your students and why? ,we may add How? Taking the premise that our students learn English in order to build up their communicative abilities (although the cultural element also plays a large part),we may need to place more emphasis on fluency than accuracy activities, on interaction between students rather than on one-way teacher-student traffic. We need to allow the students to take risks without being threatened by penalties, to cooperate rather than compete, to introduce the unexpected and to take the initiative. By giving the information role to a computer, and by the teacher taking on the analyst and planner roles, we can provide for all of these needs in a student-centred setting.[4] (p.59)

Harrison offers a picture in which the teacher abandons his informative role to take on a more active part in the teaching process; and this is allowed to him thanks to computer co-operation, since the computer is now going to be the new source of information. This results in an innovative teaching methodology in which the dichotomy teacher/transmissor-student/receiver is broken. Now, teachers are going to promote communication/interaction with -and mainly among- students; in order to attain this objective, they are going to encourage students to take risks, leaving aside penalties for producing incorrect bits of language. Besides, the teachers analysis of the teaching-learning process and his planning of its development will make possible for him to correct possible errors in this process. Finally, the introduction of the unexpected will be determinant to give students enough motivation for them to take an active part in their learning process. With the practice of this kind of activities, curriculum renewal is guaranteed, so that there is no doubt that a real and evident progress in teaching methodologies is taking place.

One final aspect that we should analyse in relation to the implementation of computers in English language teaching is ultimately an ethical question- What is the kind of environment that is going to be created by means of the computer?. Personally, I consider that the creation of autonomous learners should not be associated to the concept of human alienation. The CALL classroom should not be conceived as a room in which every learner is studying in isolation in front of his/her computer. Teachers must think of activities that enable group work/human interaction and computers to be compatible. Otherwise, men as social beings will be replaced by men as alienated computer slaves.

1.2) What do we need to use CALL?

English teachers -and language teachers in general- should put many important factors into consideration before embarking on the adventure of CALL. First of all, they should evaluate the computer skills of learners. Learners with little or no knowledge of computers will first require a thorough introduction in basic computer skills including word processing, e-mail usage and the operation of browser software.

The second factor is related to the learners4 language level and navigation on the web. If teachers want their students to work with ESL web sites, they will have to take into account that only intermediate or advanced level learners will ensure an effective navigation on the web, since most of the ESL web sites require high knowledge of the English language.

Thirdly, a few technical issues should be taken into account. It is obvious that availability of a computer room on a regular basis is the first thing that teachers need for CALL to be successful. The experience of many teachers has revealed that three students per computer is the maximum for the teaching experience to be effective. Besides, teachers should have at their disposal software especially designed for ESL. On the other hand, navigation on the web implies other specific requirements, such as,

a) Access to a reliable network environment. The most important thing is to count on a reliable internet provider.

b) Use of modern equipment and browser software. The use of outdated equipment may result in unacceptable download times and thus failure of the experience. The fastest modems should be used (at least 28,800 bps) and, if possible, the best computers to work on the web would be Power PC or Power Macintosh as they possess the large amounts of memory required to operate the new generation of plug-in multimedia applications. Besides, teachers should note that many newer sites are designed to be used only with the latest versions of browser software, such as Netscapes Navigator and Communicator or Microsofts Internet Explorer.

c) Teachers should be familiar with basic internet technology in order to anticipate potential problems. Furthermore, they should be ready to contact support staff and on-line help resources in case major technical problems occur.

It would be an ideal situation if learners could fulfil all these requirements. We have to be realistic, though, and take into account that this will be the case just on very few occasions. In this case, the advice given by teachers who have worked with computers is the use of imagination in order to counterbalance the lack of technological availabilities. If software is not available, they should be ready to look for free software that can be found in the web; if working on-line is forbidden by the institution, they should take the most of the possibilities that working off-line offers. Even if there is no possibility to work with specialised software, the decision of giving the current teaching method a new format is a right one. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that the students4 motivation and interest raise if they do a typical fill-in-the-gap exercise on the computer rather than if they do it on a piece of paper or a book. In this case , though, (that is, in case students use computers to do traditional exercises) students should be encouraged to discover by themselves (whenever possible) modern software especially designed for the study of languages.

1.3) Different programs that CALL offers to us.

There are three different kinds of programs that we can use in the CALL classroom:

a) Programs especially designed for English language learning.

b) Ludicrous programs.

c) Word Processors.

a) Programs especially designed for English language learning

Most of the programs in this group offer two different versions; one of these versions is the so-called tutorial. In Davies words, tutorial programs consist of some short introductory notes, followed by a series of questions, to which the student responds at the keyboard. Discrete comments can be built in, and error, review routines are automatic. If required, a set of help notes can also be called up during the question-answer sequence. In order to understand the student who has not fully understood the point of the exercise. The results of students4 attempts at each exercise are stored on the computer.[5](p.14) On the other hand we have the so-called authoring versions of programs, which allow teachers to create their own exercises. Some examples of CALL authoring packages are the following:

CALL for English. It contains a great variety of exercises for students to practice grammar, language functions, and vocabulary. There are exercises thought for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. For this, a number of programs are used. The names of these programs are Gapmaster, Matchmaster, Choicemaster, Testmaster, Storyboard, Textmixer, Wordstore and Vocabulary Games. These names are explicit enough for the reader to guess the contents of each.

Clozewrite and Clozemaster. Clozewrite enables a short text to be displayed on the computer screen. Then, words are deleted at chosen regular intervals and replaced by numbered blanks. The student can choose any deletion interval from 2 to 9, and also specify the deletion starting point, so that a variety of different exercises can be created out of one single text. At any stage, the student can ask for individual letters or whole words to make the task easier, but then points are deducted. Besides, Clozewrite includes a scoring facility. Clozemaster works in a similar way, but accepts longer texts. One disadvantage of these programs is that the computer accepts only words that appear in the original text. Purists argue that for the programs to be effective, they should be able to recognise any semantically and syntactically correct word that could be fit into the gap. Nevertheless, there are many facts that justify in some sense the imperfection of these programs. Thus, for example, both Clozewrite and Clozemaster allow students to work with an endless list of texts, which will help them increase their linguistic knowledge of English. Besides, students will have to read intensively these texts in order to win the game -from this, it can be deducted that they do not see this activity directly as homework for the subject of English , but as a game-.

Choicemaster is a package designed for teachers who wish to produce straightforward multiple-choice exercises and tests. In tutorial mode, the student receives immediate feedback as every question is completed. It offers clues and explanations when wrong answers are selected. In tests, the students is not offered any feedback until the whole exercise has been completed.

Multitester is a package containing exercises such as Multiple Choice, Open Answer, True/False, Matching and Cloze. It offers both the tutorial and the authoring versions; and exercises with different levels of difficulty can be chosen.

Learning English. Like Multitester, it offers both the tutorial and the authoring versions. Some of the exercises it contains are Multiple Choice and Fill in. The authoring version offers teachers two kinds of statistics; the first one presents a set of the questions that were given a wrong answer, highlighting the incorrect words included by students in every answer. For example:

Question n:1: I think I4ll____a shower before supper.

Students answer:4 - have got

Guesses:77.50% of the questions.

The second statistic offers a summary of all the errors committed in all the computers used by students; it also indicates the number of computers, out of the total number of computers used, where wrong answers have been written. For example:

Question n:1 Number of errors: 7/16

Question n:40 Number of errors: 7/16

Errors: 13.13% of the questions

As it can be deducted, these statistics allow teachers to determine which ones have been the aspects of the language that students have found more difficult or that they have not understood correctly.

English Top Level. It makes reference to different cultural aspects of the different English speaking places in the world. Thus, it contains sections devoted to Australia, South-Africa, Ireland and the United States. Some of the exercises it offers -always related to the above-mentioned cultural aspects- are quizzes, grammar exercises, and reading comprehension.

Vocab is an authoring package which enable the teacher to create files or words, together with context/clues, which are then used as the basis for a variety of entertaining vocabulary games.

Word Sequencing presents groups of jumbled sequences of words on the computer screen, which have to be rearranged to form meaningful sentences.

b) Ludicrous programs

Facemaker: An entertaining program, which allows the user to create different human faces on the computer screen by typing in words (in English) associated with physiognomic description.

My English Partner is a program based on pictures that enable students to work with lexical items and texts. For this, it uses exercises based on looking for objects that correspond to a certain word -or the other way round-, completing dialogues, maintaining conversations with characters belonging to the program, or doing comprehension texts, crosswords and hieroglyphs, among other things.

Non-specific programs for English teaching. Despite the fact that these programs were not originally created for teaching English, they are very useful for an English language learner, since the language they use is English. Besides, like any ludicrous program, they are highly motivating. Some examples of this kind of programs are Computer Scrabble, Hangman, Wheel of Fortune and The Secret of the Monkey Island.

c) Word Processors

Word processors can be used to create an endless number of exercises in English -filling in the gaps; rearranging disordered paragraphs in a text; replacing incorrect words by the corresponding correct ones,... In a way, doing exercises in a word processor implies giving traditional exercises a new format. Nevertheless, as it has been pointed out, this way of working in the English language classroom results in a quite successful experience, since students enjoy the mere fact of being manipulating computers. We also have to take into account the fact that every single student has also the possibility of working simultaneously with his/her own dictionary without having the need to carry it from home; this is the advantage that CD-ROM dictionaries offer.

Besides, computers allow teachers to give exercises a more attractive aspect by means of colours, different letter styles, pictures -even animated ones-,... Some people could argue that there are currently many textbooks that have a very attractive visual aspect; nevertheless, we should also take into account that working always with the same text turns out to be quite boring for students in a short term. On the other hand, presenting students these text in photocopies would be excessively expensive -and surely less interesting for having lost the technological flavour that computers give them-, taking into account that the photocopies would have to be coloured for them to keep at least part of their visual attractiveness.

2) Computers and Grammar Teaching

Following Kemmis distinction, Higgins[6] describes three different models of grammar teaching: Instructional, Revelatory and Conjectural (p.35).

In Instructional grammar, explicit statements and formal exercises are consciously learnt and presented in a systematically organised way.

In Revelatory grammar, the exchange of meaningful language is promoted; grammatical correctness is not the goal and sometimes it is not even demanded from students. No systematic progression of contents is followed and no memorisation is required.

Conjectural grammar implies working with the target language in a inductive way. Thus, students work out rules from data, form hypotheses and test them. By this kind of grammar is also understood when students arrange their partial knowledge of a language into a system that they can share it with someone else.

Most of the functions that are undertaken in an English language classroom where Instructional grammar is followed are easy enough to computerise. These functions would be presenting students statements in the form of rules and ask them to memorise those rules; using some examples to explain students the theoretical points and assigning mechanical tasks. Besides, attention to error correction is also considered to be quite relevant.

The task of judging the different reasons why students commit different kinds of errors is better fulfilled by teachers than by computers, since they have more channels of communication open to their students. Besides, teachers know every one of their students as individual beings; and this enables them to distinguish, on many occasions, between errors due to carelessness, those due to round misunderstanding of a grammar principle, and those which consist on some kind of  students4 experimenting with the target language (i.e. an attempt to see if a principle applied in one context also works in another different context). Nevertheless, this capacity of teachers to discriminate the different reasons why their students make some mistakes or others is somewhat instinctive; and this instinctive quality of the capacity results in a hindrance for teachers to transfer their skills to a machine. In sum, the teachers4 knowledge about their students cannot be systematised and turned into a language that computers can understand. There are some experts, though, that have achieved some important advances through the creation of intelligent tutoring systems.

In Revelatory grammar computers play a much more relevant role. Here, computers are not only used to give traditional exercises a new format, but they directly help to enhance acquisition by means of the many resources they offer and thanks to their motivating power. In Revelatory grammar any language item is used to potentiate the target language; then, any text shown by the computer is considered to be meaningful language; and this obviously includes, for example, the instructions given by the computer to install a program -given the fact, obviously, that these instructions are written in English-. If the programs that have to be installed by the students are the latest version of a game or simply one that they really like, we can imagine the interest that they are going to put in order to quickly understand the instructions for the installation. If the teacher wants to potentiate group work, then s/he just will have to arrange groups of students working with the same computer (it has been advised that no more than three students should work with the same computer). Soon, the teacher will witness how enthusiastically students collaborate in order to achieve the desired goal.

On the other hand, it is obvious that the more interesting the task is, the highest motivation students will show. Some of the tasks that student prefer are branching stories, adventures, puzzles, or logic problems in which the computer has the role of providing an attractive context for the use of language. Many teachers may think that, although highly motivating for students, these tasks do not help students to improve their grammar knowledge. A more optimistic eye, though, will discover that many Revelatory tasks can be slanted towards particular forms. Thus, for example, an adventure game in which an enquiry to a witness has to take place can serve to potentiate the practice of past tenses.

One drawback of these kind of activities, according to Higgins[7] (p.38) is that little systematic progress can be perceived, and this may depress learners as much as teachers. Nevertheless, this drawback exists when a given syllabus is tried to be covered through the above-mentioned tasks. We have to take into account that not every task can be slanted towards a concrete linguistic feature and that some of these tasks are extremely time-consuming so that on many occasions it turns out to be that too much time has been spent for the student to practice an extremely simple aspect of the language. We cannot forget, though, that the attitude with which a person faces a learning process is determinant for that learning process to be successful. In this sense, the motivating power that computers have for students guarantees that they are going to face English with a positive attitude; and this increases the possibility of the learning/acquisition process to be a successful one.

3) Computers, Reading and Writing

Not many people object nowadays to the fact that a novel in paper format will never be replaced by a novel displayed on the computer screen. The pleasure of reading comfortably on an armchair, turning pages quietly forward -or backwards to check some idea previously read- is not one that can be equally attained through a screen. Maybe this preference for the printed page is a matter of habit, and it is quite probable that the day will arrive when laptop computers, or even more modern artefacts, will become so widespread as to substitute books. With these computers, people will be able to read as comfortably as they choose -sitting on a sofa or even lying on the beach-, and trees will stop being literature victims. But going back to the year 2,000, books are still preferred to computers for extensive reading of many kinds of texts.

The situation changes when it comes to intensive reading. Nobody has yet investigated whether students prefer doing intensive reading in books rather than in computers, but what is true is that intensive reading is more effective in computers than in books. Thus, for example, computer activities which involve rebuilding or rearranging texts have proved their value, not to mention the act of reading the instructions that are included in a CD game so that players know what to do in order to be able to play effectively. And even more effective intensive reading in the computer can be when the texts that students face are messages sent by the characters of an interactive computer program.

In the case of writing on the computer, there is only one disadvantage, and that is that nowadays the majority of students -mainly in primary education- are not used to using a keyboard. As a consequence of this, the process of writing becomes a painfully slow one. Nevertheless, learning to use the keyboard need not to take long, and this insignificant drawback is counterbalanced with many advantages. Thus, teachers can again take advantage of the enjoyment that students find in manipulating computers. Writing an essay on paper has not the same attractiveness for them than writing it with a word processor. To this, we have to add the advantages that word processors attach to writing tasks. First of all, mistakes can be corrected much more easily. On the other hand, students do not have to give much importance to the order in which they write their ideas, since they can easily change text order, and thus rearrange ideas, as many times as they want. Besides, the grammar and spelling correction devices that word processors incorporate can be activated whenever teachers consider necessary. This way, students are made conscious of the mistakes or errors they have made, and have the possibility of either checking or trying to guess the correct option.

4) Computers in Listening and Speaking

The enormous amount of specific software that has been created for learning English includes the possibility of teaching and training the skills of listening and speaking. The problem is that, rather than being truly interactive, the activities designed for improving listening and speaking are mainly based on drills. Thus, learners have the possibility of enacting dialogues -generally of the question-answer type- with characters belonging to the program, but these are indeed closed dialogues; that is, learners cannot ask or answer whatever they want, but they have to limit themselves to predetermined texts. Nevertheless, despite the lack of true/real interaction, this experience has been proved to be highly motivating, since many of the graphic environments that programs offer turn out to be quite realistic. Thus, if learners concentrate on the activity, they may feel -up to a certain extent- just as if they were really speaking to a hostess in the airport, or to a bobby in Market Square.

Out of the above-mentioned interactive programs, there are many other programs that offer the possibility of listening to English, mainly with an American accent -in the case of the majority of games- or with a British accent. These programs include, among others, many encyclopaedias and the already mentioned games.

Finally, as it will commented in the following section, it is a must reminding teachers and learners the endless source of listening material that the web offers.

5) CALL and the Internet

Since attention has been already paid to the technical devices that are necessary for navigation on the web (section 2.1.), we will focus our attention on a set of some of the most important web sites related to TESL -some in a direct way, others in a more indirect way-. Secondly, special section will be devoted to the subject of computer conferencing and its benefits in relation to CALL.

5.1) Subjects Related to L2 Teaching and Learning that can be found in the Internet

The following sections will serve to make a bit more evident the endless source of material for teaching and learning English as a second language that the web represents.

Many of the sites that are going to be enumerated contain hypertext, graphics, audio and e-mail, thus providing students with multimedia learning environments for second language learning.

5.1.1) Sites for Business English

Business Meetings.

Contents: Thought for learners who wish to review English structures associated with business. It covers various skills: starting meetings, presenting opinions, accepting and rejecting proposals, presenting alternatives, building up arguments, summarising, and concluding.

Procedures: The site takes the form of a business decision maze, where the user is presented with a business problem and is invite to select the most appropriate response from a number of possible alternatives. On selection of a response, the user is linked by hypertext to a linking page and presented with further choices.

Other features: On-line help features include instructions for students and teachers, and a function and structure list. A vocabulary list provides downloadable audio files of target language. It also presents an on-line follow-up test.

International Financial Encyclopaedia. It contains a searchable on-line data bank of financial terminology. Topics covered include economics, marketing, finance and business strategy.

5.1.2) Sites for Scientific English

Writing Exercises in Science. It has the form of an on-line textbook.

Contents: paragraphs, classifying, using transitions, comparing similarities, contrasting differences, cause and effect and giving examples. It also offers key vocabulary.

Procedure: A descriptive passage with examples is offered, followed by a number of reading comprehension and writing exercises.

Other features: An on-line teachers manual.

The On-line Guide to Scientific Presentation. It provides:

An hypertext article that focuses on the main aspects of presentation including a discussion of the principles of speech organisation, delivery and the use of visuals.

An interactive quiz focusing on the main elements of presentation.

A bibliography of books relevant to scientific presentation and public speaking.

A page of annotated hypertext links to various internet sites focusing on presentation.

The Biotech Life Science Dictionary. It contains over 5,900 life science terms, covering the fields of biochemistry, biotechnology, botany, cellular biology, genetics, and a number of terms from other related terms.

5.1.3) Sites for Reading Comprehension

Aesop4s Fables: gopher://spinaltap.micro.umn.edu/11/Ebooks/By%Title/aesop

BookWeb : http://www.ambook.org/

Childrens Web Literature Guide: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html#books

Educational Tours: http://www.lacns.ac.uk/staff/kitao/et.htm

Fluency Through Fables: http://www.comenius.com/fable/index.html

Scottish Folktales: gopher://leapfrog.almac.co.uk/11/scotland/dalriadamyths/scottish

Tales of Wonder: http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~darsie/tales.html

5.1.4) Sites for Listening Comprehension

ABC Radio News Broadcast: http://www.realaudio.com/contentp/abc.htm

ESL Listening Training on the Web: http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EdPsy-387/Rongchang-li/eslproject/eslbeg.html

Interactive Listening Comprehension Practice with RealAudio: http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/LCRA/

Internet Talk Radio: http://www.cmf.nrl.navy.mil/radio/radio.html

Talk Radio: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/radio/radio.html

Voice of America: http://gopher://gopher.VOA.GOV:70/11/audio

World Radio Network: http://www.wrn.org/audio.html

Weekly Idioms: http://www.comenius.com/idiom/index.html

5.1.5) Sites for Speaking (conversations)

Conversations for ESL Students: http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/r-li5/book/

5.1.6) Sites for Writing

Cultural Topics-Advanced Reading and Writing: http://darkwing.woregon.edu/~leslieob/RW5projects.culture.html

Online Writing Centers: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/writecenter/web/net-writing.html

Purdue University Online Writing Lab: http://owl.trc.purdue.edu/

Writing OWLs: http://www.umass.edu/english/resource.html/OWLS

5.1.7) Tests on the Web

ALTE(The Association of Language Testers in Europe): http://www.edunet.com/alte/

ILTA(International Language Testing Association): http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ELl/ilta/ilta.html

University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate: http://vanlang.com/vli/vli/ucles.html

5.1.8) Sites for Grammar Teaching and Learning

Cutting Edge Grammar: http://www.chorus.cycor.ca/Duber/m004d.html

Daves ESL Quiz Page: http://www.pacific.net~sperling/quiz#grammar

HyperGrammar: http://aix1.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar

On-line English Grammar: http://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/toc.html

SECC- Simplified English Grammar: http://www.ccl.kukeuven.ac.be/cgi-bin/seccdemo.cgi

5.1.9) Sites for Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias

Acronym Dictionary: http://curia.ucc.ie/info/net/acron/acro.html

Dictionary of Technical and Natural English: http://crnvmc.cer/FIND/DICTIONARY

Rogets Thesaurus: gopher://gopher.dlu.dr/7waissrc%25a/wais-Linguistic/roget-thesaurus

The Oxford English Dictionary Online: http://www.oed.com/

Encyclopaedia Britannica: http://www.-pf.eb.com:189/

5.1.10) Sites for Newspapers

BBC: http://www.bbcnc.org.uk/index.html/

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/

Financial Times, The: http://www.ft.com/

New York Times, The: http://www.nytimes.com/

Times, The(U.K.): http://www.the-times.co.uk/

Weekend Independent, The (Brisbane, Australia): http://www.uq.oz.au/ern/twi/twi.html

5.2) Computer Conferencing: an infallible weapon to motivate students.

One activity that the web offers and that has proved to be very successful in the CALL classroom is computer conferencing ( CC -using a computer network for real-time synchronous discussion). Barbara Skinner and Roger Austin[8] found that CC results in a highly motivating experience in the ESL classroom. A survey reflected that, according to students, three reasons were the result of this increase in motivation:

CC provides an opportunity for real communication and community.

CC improves personal confidence.

CC encourages students to overcome writing apprehension.

a. The first reason why students felt motivated was the fact that they were having a real audience when writing; they were being listened to by other people of their own age; they were having meaningful communication all the time, since they were not writing in English just for learning how to write but mainly in order to communicate with other people.

At the same time, Skinner and Austin use the term real community. With this, they refer to the students4 conscious feeling of being members of a particular social unit in which all the participants were learners of the same foreign language- English. With this feeling in mind, they were progressively creating a shared knowledge for each of the tasks they developed during their debates; and what is more important: they realised they had an important part to play in those tasks.

b. Many people may think that the same activities that students undertook in computer conferencing could be developed in a normal classroom environment; that CC does not really bring anything new into the ESL classroom. Nevertheless, those people will probably change their mind if they discover that communicating with the aid of a computer enhanced the students4 personal confidence. Indeed, Austin and Skinner state that students mentioned that once they were use to the computer conferencing technology they felt less stressed and more confident than in other language learning situations.[9] (p.273)

c. Finally, enhancing personal confidence is directly linked to the third motivating factor: overcoming writing apprehension. Students felt that they could use the language without too much anxiety about surface errors, and instead focus their attention on higher levels of text structure, such as creating and developing ideas.

Of course, as it has been defended throughout this paper, no total reliance should be given to CALL; and this includes CC. It is undeniable that CC offers many advantages for ESL students, but we must also pay attention to the possible disadvantages that CC brings with it. Thus, for example, we may fear that if students become dependent on computers when using English, they will never have the courage of using English in real conversations in English. We cannot forget that oral interaction involves various aspects that are not potentiated in CC, such as body language, and the most important of all, the use of the articulatory organs -one can imagine how difficult is going to be for one of these students when they speak English for the first time after being used to communicate mainly through the computer.

On the other hand, many teachers may find the inconvenience that the institutions where they teach do not allow them to be on the web for a long time. In this case, it would not be advisable for them to promote CC in the classroom. Nevertheless, nearly the same benefits can be found using another devise that CALL offers: the e-mail. It is true that e-mailing does not allow real time synchronous discussion, but the students4 motivation is still increased, since they also have the feeling of being involved on real communication/meaningful use of the language communicating via e-mail. Again, many people could argue that e-mailing is the same as penfriending. To this, we can provide with two counter-arguments: first of all, communication via e-mail is much quicker than via traditional mail; and secondly, we cannot forget the enjoyment factor that we add to the classroom if we let students manipulate computers.

The web offers us many sites devoted to communication via e-mail, and many of these sites are oriented towards language exchanges. Examples of this kind of web sites are:

Cyberfriends:http://www.dare.com/friends/age.htm

IECC(Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections):http://www.stolaf.edu/

HUT Internet Writing Project: http://www.hut.fi/~ruilmi/Project/

Pen Pal Planet: http://www.2.s-gimb.lj.edus.si/peter/pp/ppem.html

Write Around the World: http://www.mclink.it/com/reporter/email.htm

To conclude with, this paper has provided with a brief account of the new possibilities that CALL brings to the field of the English language. The idea that CALL is not the panacea for all our problems in the ESL classroom has been underlined; but at the same time I have tried to make evident that great methodological advances can be made -and indeed are being made- with the help of CALL. The specialised software that has been and is constantly being created together with the resources available in the Internet make possible a most effective learning and improvement of the four language skills, as does the new role as active participant that computers aid allow teachers to take.

It is at the hands of language teaching specialists and of all of us as members of a community to decide what role computers are going to play in the immediate future. Are we going to use them as a modern container for keeping old methodological ideas? Are we going to submit ourselves to the infinite power of those magic machines? Or rather, are we going to use computers to modernise our society but still keeping a man-centred -and not a computer- centred- community? These and many other different options will have to be carefully analysed before the choice is made, since human freedom is ultimately at stake.