LINGUISTICS 189/289 - STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Linguistics and the Teaching of English
as a Second/Foreign Language

Home | Announcements | Syllabus | CALL Mini-Course | Linguistics Home Page

CALL Mini-Course

Unit 7: CALL Learner Training

OVERVIEW    
CALL has given us some amazing possibilities for improving language learning. However, these possibilities create a problem. Absent a teacher, students using computers are typically given more control over their own learning. Due to the newness of computer environments and the range of choices in many CALL applications, they are unprepared to take on this responsibility. The result is that students may not use the computers in ways that are effective for achieving language learning objectives. One way out of this dilemma, is spend time training learners in dealing appropriately with this new environment.  In the process, we may be able not only to help them with their CALL use, but also help them in general to become more effective autonomous learners. Surprisingly, this is not a well-developed area of CALL. However, it is important enough in my experience to warrant significant attention.

Before continuing, it is useful to think of alternatives to training. One solution is to try to build software in such a way that it adapts to the learner on a number of different levels: language proficiency, computer proficiency, learning style, topical interest, motivational type and intensity, and so on. This was an early promise of CALL software; however, arguably we have not even come close to realizing such a program, and the degree of software-directed adaptation remains low or non-existent in currently available materials.

A second alternative is to take the philosophical position that learners have a right to self-discovery and that left alone they will naturally move to the strategies that work for them and are consonant with their learning style. For example, given a tutorial program with a set of help options, they will make use of the ones that are most efficacious for them and ignore the others. It is highly unlikely this would be the case. For example, you probably know how to use Microsoft Word or some similar word processing application, but let's take the case of Word. How many of it features do you really know how to use?...

Finally, we can say that it's just too much trouble to train learners. Maybe so, but this should be determined on a case by case basis. We will proceed under the assumption that it is worth the trouble.

In a forthcoming paper (Hubbard, in press), I make the case for giving training not just on technical aspects but also on pedagogical ones, that is, how to use the tutorial software or tool effectively to meet specific learning objectives. To this end, I offer a set of five principles for learner training, summarized below.

1. Experience CALL yourself. Try a piece of CALL software (like Rosetta Stone) for a language you don't know, or visit a chatroom for a language you are not fluent in.
2. Give learners teacher training. Let them know some of what you know if they are to become more independent.
3. Use a cyclic approach. Teach a bit at a time. Don't just have a training session at the beginning and think your job is done.
4. Use collaborative debriefings. Get students to discuss their experiences, successes and failures with the software in small groups. Don't just make the instruction one-way from you.
5. Teach general exploitation strategies. Show students ways to use software to make it easier if it's too hard and harder if it's too easy, as well as how to mine the material for uses different from those intended by the developer.

Hubbard, P. (in press) "Learner Training for Effective Use of CALL" in Fotos, S. and Browne, C. (eds.) New Perspectives on CALL for Second Language Classrooms. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.