The use of computers in educational settings have always been appealing to both students and teachers due to their potential in providing various media such as graphics, audio, video, text and pictures, and due to their potential in enabling interaction with both these multimedia resources and other people connected to each other through computers using a network. Not surprisingly, computers have been used to teach and learn languages and that journey for me began long ago.
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I remember when I started learning English as a foreign language about 15 years ago, our teacher, Mr. Osman, used to take us to computer lab and we used to work on computer software which provided mechanical grammar practices. What I liked most about that experience was that I had the chance to engage with computers I was fascinated by and that the computer gave spontaneous feedback and when I gave a wrong answer there was no one to judge me (not that anyone judged me in class). The computer just said “try again” or “well-done”. However, the software was primarily text based and the visuals were poorly sketched. What’s more, because of the repetitive nature of the software, the responses it gave were very predictable and you got bored hearing the same sound or seeing activities very similar to each other and unfortunately the software got to lose the appeal it once had, so we switched to playing games when Mr. Osman wasn’t looking.
That was more than 15 years ago and I wasn’t aware that I was dealing with one of the first examples of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) class.
So, What is Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)?
CALL is defined as ‘the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning’ (Levy 1997: 1).
Computers are now everywhere. I remember that the first computer we bought cost the same as a car. Now, I have three computers (one desktop, one laptop and a netbook – not to mention that I can do most of what I can do on computers with my mobile). It’s not that I became a millionaire in 15 years but the cost of computers went down so drastically that almost every household owns more than one now in Turkey. The result: people spending more and more of their daily time on computers either for entertainment, work or education.
When we get back to the journey CALL has made so for, we could see that computers have been used extensively to develop language learners’ grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing and listening skills. One particular skill that has often been neglected when using computers is speaking. As Gong (2002) states:
“compared with how computers are used to enhance the learners’ writing skills, reading skills and listening skills, the application associated with the improvement of the learners’ speaking skills is rather weak”
Still, the use of computers to develop speaking skills is not without effort. According to Pennington (1995) spoken language competence covers two aspects:
Considerable CALL effort has been put into dealing with mechanical aspect of spoken language. Pronunciation training is the mostly worked on aspect. There are text-to-speech (TTS) applications that turn text into human speech and applications learners can use to record their own voices and compare it to original target voice on computer. These applications enable learners to work on their pronunciation skills without feeling anxious or embarrassed about incorrect pronunciation.
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However, because of the complicated nature of human communication, it is almost impossible for a computer to imitate real meaningful human interaction. Yet, considerable work is being done in artificial intelligence and in the future computers might be able to understand and respond to authentic human communication. For now, learners can make use of verbal command recognition applications to command machines. The learners will need to improve the accuracy and fluency of their speech to an acceptable degree so that machines can understand and act on their command. Yet another way learners and teachers make use of computers to develop speaking skills is to use computers a tool to carry out audio or video conferences over the Internet to access native speakers or speakers of the target language to provide authentic speaking opportunities.
Pros and Cons
The use of computers to develop spoken language competence provides learners with a safe, motivating and interactive environment. Besides, it has great potentials to enrich the learning environment with various resources, spontaneous feedback, exposure to target language, addressing different needs and controllability. However, CALL efforts are not without disadvantages. At present, computers cannot understand real human communication and have verbal interaction with learners. In addition, the cost of complex software that can generate spoken language close to humans is often too high for average learner to afford. Yet, the quality of computer generated speech differs greatly and to what extend the incorrect pronunciation/intonation in a learner’s utterance can be acceptable is a controversial issue. What I mean is that, the pronunciation of a particular learner might not be 100% correct but it could still be comprehensible. However, it might be impossible for a computer to discriminate between acceptable speech and unacceptable.
The future holds great potential for CALL to turn itself into a concept embracing more interactive and meaningful language learning processes. This meaningful interaction with either computers or with real people using computers will probably be made easier and learners will have a lot more opportunities to involve computer technologies into their language learning activities.
