LACK OF A THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK IN CALL MATERIALS

Lack of a theoretical framework

▪Lack of guidelines for CALL materials

▪Result: Teachers don’t have a conceptual framework to guide their work

▪Reasons: Producers are divided in groups:

▪Kemmis (1977): Some producers base materials on practice, others on research

▪Ginsberg (1988): Some producers interested in solving problems using theory, others writing programs

THEORY: A POINT OF DEPARTURE

▪Material producers use different theories:

▪ 1. Psychology: Cognitive psychology

▪ 2. Second Language Acquisition theories

▪ 3. Comprehension-based models of SLA

▪ 4. Theories of language

▪ 5. Theories of instruction▪ 6. Integrate framework: ▪ Instructional design▪ Language teaching▪ Language learning▪ Knowledge of

technology

NO THEORY ORIENTED MATERIAL PRODUCERS

▪Are determined by conditions that govern the practice and the problems arising

▪In other words: Oriented by student needs or specific language problems

INVESTIGATING CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS AND WORKING METHODS

▪Very little has been investigated

▪Very interesting: how teachers become CALL authors by

▪ 1. Objectifying their knowledge domains

▪ 2. Conceptualizing learning materials for transfer to CALL materials

▪ 3. Achieving this transfer

AIMS OF THIS BOOK

▪Shed light on the nature of the problem and improve our understanding of:

▪1. The scope of CALL

▪2. The theoretical frameworks of CALL authors

▪3. Gaps between theory and practice

Interdisciplinary perspective Because of this lack of theoretical framework, we can draw on

theories of other disciplines.

CALL is influenced by other disciplines:

▪Computing and language learning fields▪Other fields such as: psychology, artificial

intelligence, computational linguistics, instructional design and human-computer interaction.

Interdisciplinary perspective- Many of them are new (since WWII). So we do not know yet how their frameworks have influenced the development of CALL-The relationship with other fields is not clear. Some writers have related it with Applied Linguistics; others challenge this view: a) CALL is not only learning with the help of computers: the complexity of CALL makes impossible put it into a simple framework .

b) A theory of a non-CALL discipline shouldn’t be used to explain CALL (unless it is so well articulated to be applicable to CALL context)

Interdisciplinary perspective

▪In order to know the relationship between theory and practice to get a framework, we must review CALL projects:

▸CALL materials and programmes

▸The authors teaching methods and what are their theories of language teaching.

Historical perspectiveCan help us to provide a context for CALL. It is useful to

▪1.Think about topics such as the role of the teacher in CALL

▪2. Notice that multimedia is not so new as we thought (it has been available since 70's: when the TICCIT project started)

▪3. Know the relationship between approaches and computing:

Historical perspective

▸Grammar translation method: drills easy to program.

▸Communicative approach; there are more

variety of tasks and they are more complex.