Computer Assisted Language Learning

A Brief History of CALL

By Jessica Morones, Cesiah Guzman and Marisela

Salinas
 OBJECTIVES
• Early developments in CALL.

• Features some significant CALL programs which

serve to illustrate what is both possible and desirable
in CALL.
 A comparison of behaviourist and
constructivist design features
A behaviourist design… A constructivist design…
• Eliminates extraneous information • Supports natural complexity and
• Simplifies for comprehensibility content
• Uses a convergent, task-analysed • Avoids oversimplification
model as a basis • Presents multiple
representations/perspectives
• Reconstructs/replicates knowledge
• Engages knowledge construction
• Abstracts instruction experiences
• Presents instruction in real-world
• Focuses on acquiring skills contexts (authentic tasks)
• Offers prescriptive sequences of • Engages reflective practice
instruction • Offers open learning
• Supports individual learning and environments
competition • Supports collaboration

A summary of behaviourist and constructivist approaches to learning materials

(after Jonnassen, Wilson, Wang and Grabinger, 1993)
 CALL in the 1950s and 1960s
• The first computers used for language learning
were large 1950’s mainframes that were only
available at research facilities on university
campuses.
• The importance of finding ways efficiently and
scientifically to teach language was perceived and
time and funds made available for research.
The first CALL programs created at three
pioneering institutions Stanford University,
Darmouth University and the University and the
University of Essex (The Scientific Language
Project) all focused on the teaching of Russian,
although, eventually, other languages were
included as well.
Concept 2.1 Machine translation
Machine translation (MT) is the application of
computers to the task of translating texts from one
natural language to another. The task is made difficult
by the impreciseness of languages and the use of
sarcasm, puns, innuendo, idiomatic expressions and
rhetorical devices.
 PLATO
• Programmed Logic/Learning for Automated Teaching
Operations system.
• It was developed in 1959 by the University of Illinois
working with a business partner, Control Data
Corporation.
• PLATO combined some of the best CALL features.
 PLATO
• Much of PLATO first language learning work was
done in teaching Russian using a grammar translation
approach.

• The system had so-called ‘intelligent’ features still

used today, such as tests that were followed by
directions to complete appropriate remedial work
depending on the errors a learner had made.
• In terms of Second Language Acquisition, the
Grammar Translation approach probably appeared to
work to a limited degree in early programs such as
PLATO.
 Simulations
• The importance of simulations, with different avenues
of exploration, is that they create challenges for
learners to explore multiple links and see the
consequences of different actions and inputs.

• This turns the classroom, or computer-based

environment into a place where participants learn
through the frequent making of errors in a non-
threatening way.
Simulations in autonomous learning that allow
for repeated attempts may lower the positive
stress that often fuels learning; participants
recognize that it does not matter if they make
errors so they may become lackadaisical in
their approach.
The simulation game or simply game is
simulation or reenactment of various activities
or "real life" in the form of a game for various
purposes: training, analysis, or prediction.

Well-known examples are war games,

business games, and roleplay simulation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation_game
Possibilites and limitations in
simulations
It has been shown that simulation games are
very useful in the classroom.
However, “Because simulations and models are but an
imitation of reality, their use requires a certain amount of
imagination. The more realistic a simulation is, the less
imagination is required, on the contrary…. “
Merill et al. (1996:93).
T. McArthur explains limitations
of simulations:
• The term situation, however, has two aspects: There are real
situations and there are simulated situations in the classroom
in the syllabus.
• The problem is how to make simulated situations resemble
real situations. How to turn a wooden dialogue into something
real.
• The answer is to avoid simulation to create authentic and
appropriate language.
CALL is easily capable of creating learning situations
of great fidelity or authenticity through the
presentation of images of realia and through audio
and video that present real world situations as
realistically as television but with greater interaction.

PLATO (Programmed Learning for Automated

Teaching Operations), set a standard for educational
computing influencing a generation of educational
software developers.
 During the 1970s and 1980s, computers were classified into
mainframe computers, mini-computers and microcomputers

• Mainframe computers: Room sized computers

• Mini-computers: what we now call servers
• Microcomputers: what we now call desktop
• Portable or laptop: are included in the microcomputer category
but were introduced much later and are now much more
powerful than the first mainframe computers.
• One focus of CALL research during the 70s and 80s
was videodisc technology, a high-volume storage
system.

• Unlike videotape, videodisc players featured rapid

access to multiple points on “chapters” on a disk and
had better pause, or freeze frame features- along with
the possibility of advancing one frame at a time
through a set of video or static images of pages of
text.
The high speed and storage capacity of videodisc
technology made it possible for computers to go
beyond behaviourist models of instruction on less
powerful computers that generally relied upon textual
exercises.
• The use of video-based exercises makes
practice inherently more meaningful than
traditional text-based exercises .
• Video gives students an understandable
context in which to work while providing
many extralinguistic clues.
• The control options built into the interactive
lesson allow students a range of problem-
solving strategies to choose from.
 Macario
Gale (1989) describes Macario as an early videodisc program
for learning Spanish. It was developed at Brigham Young
University.

The first interactive videodisc project at BYU was a

repurposed Mexican motion picture shown in intermediate
Spanish classes for its rich cultural symbolism.
This model sought to annotate and amplify the
one-dimensional, linear video presentation, by
adding multiple dimensions of information
such as transcriptions, glossaries, dictionaries,
or grammar paradigms, as well as tutorial
questions and comments.
Montevidisco and Interactive
Digame
Gale (1989) mentions two similar videodisc
programs that feature non-linear opportunities
for learning, Montevidisco and Interactive
Digame.
Montevidisco
These two programs
opened the idea of
learners making greater
choices about what is to
be learned at the
computer.

Digame
Macario
Nouns Verbs Adjectives Articles

Montevidisco and Digame

Nouns Verbs Articles

 Interactive Digame
It was teacher- controlled situations in which
on-screen video provided visual and listening
opportunities that were intended to be
followed-up within target conversation in the
target language.

It was similar to what we know as videoconferencing…

This program left the learners free to
discuss their own interpretation of the
reality on the screen.
 Montevidisco
The Montevidisco introduces a plaza where
the learner is confronted with a local citizen.
The citizen speaks and then the video frame
freezes and presents several choices of
response.
This non-linear approach is an essential
element on many current interactive software
learning programs and serves to differentiate
them from paper learning materials which
generally require learners to begin on page
one and proceed page by page until they reach
the end of the book.
A non-linear approach in computer-based
learning is attractive because it allows for
greater learner autonomy and encourages
critical thinking.

pre sent
BE in
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of th e v
fu nction
y is the ???
Wh essive? Why not sp
r
prog eaked???
The Athena Language Learning
Project (ALLP)
Began in 1983 as part of a heavy funded long-term
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) project
exploring the role of the computer in education.

ALLP worked UNIversity eXchange, workstations

that were a little less powerful than common laptop
computers today.
These UNIX machines were connected to each other
and t textual and visual databases through a local
network (LAN)
No Recuerdos (I Don’t Remenber)
No recuerdo is an interactive video project designed to provide
intermediate college students of Spanish with a simulated
immersion experience in South America, integrating linguistic and
cultural aspects. The objectives are improved listening
comprehension, vocabulary acquisition, cultural awareness, and
writing skills.
Main Character: Gonzalo

Story: Gonzalo, an amnesiac scientist, cannot the location of a biological hazard

which could destroy the whole of Latin America.

Learners have to help Gonzalo to recall what has happened .

 Eliza
Created in 1976 by Joseph Weizenbaum, the Eliza
software seeks clarification and stimulates a
sympathetic listener through a series of general
comments, requests for explanations and
paraphrases/rephrasings of the learners` comments
with additional question tags.
 Example
Eliza: How are you today?

Learner: I´m feeling tired.

Eliza: Why are you feeling tired?

Learner: I watched the football game last night.

Eliza: Tell me more about the football game last

night.

And so on…
 References
• web.mit.edu/fll/www/projects/NoRecuerdo.s
html