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Information
Technology as a Tool for
Diversity in the Foreign Language Classroom 
Paper
published in the proceedings for the
14th ELT Conference at Centro Colombo Americano
Medellín, Colombia
2003
Part I
How Can Computers Help when Learning
a
Second or a Foreign Language?
The role of
computers in education
Computers
have
played an important role in
education in the last thirty years. Computers first served as tools.
The first
examples of computers are calculators or counting machines. With the
advance in
technology, more efficient computers and software have been created for
different purposes: Computer Aided Design (CAD), Accounting,
Photography, among
others. In all of these cases, the computer is a tool that helps
learners and
professionals in their specific fields.
Language
teaching
has not been out of the
influence of computers. Nowadays, there are plenty of CD-ROMs and other
sources
for the English teacher to take advantage of. Computer first helped
teachers as
tools in the making-up of tests (word processor) and the keeping of
grades
(spread sheets and data bases). But teachers realized that technology
was also
helpful in learning processes. Thus CALL was born about thirty years
ago.
What CALL is
and how it has been used
Language
teaching
has evolved through many
approaches and theories and, since the relatively recent appearance of
computers, many points of view have changed. The adoption of computers
as a
means of teaching a language is not new. As well as there have been
phases in
teaching and learning theories, there have been three basic phases in
CALL:
Behaviouristic, Communicative, and Integrative, which will be briefly
described
next.
Behaviouristic
CALL
was conceived in the 1950s
and implemented in the 1960s and ‘70s. It consisted of repetitive
language
drills where the computer’s role was as a tutor (Taylor, 1980) which
gave the
students instructional material. This kind of CALL was supported by
these
advantages:
- “Repeated
exposure
to
the same material is beneficial or even essential to learning.
- A
computer is
ideal
for carrying out repeated drills, since the machine does not get bored
with
presenting the same material and since it can provide immediate
non-judgmental
feedback.
- A
computer can
present such material on an individualized basis, allowing students to
proceed
at their own pace and freeing up class time for other activities.”
In
the 1970s and
early 1980s the behaviouristic approaches to language learning were
rejected as
so were, partially, CALL behaviouristic programs. However, there is a
lot of
software that still uses gap-filling exercises, either based on memory
or on
drilling exercises in grammar. With the advance in technology, new
possibilities gave way to another kind of CALL: Communicative CALL.
Along
with
the
communicative approach and the new possibilities that computers gave to
teachers in the 1970s and 1980s, a new use of the computers appeared.
For a
CALL software to become communicative, John Underwood (1984, p.52)
proposed the
following premises:
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Issue Number 1
January, 2007
Jorge H.
Villegas A.
Editor
CONTENTS
Papers by the
Editor:
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