Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1643] Beginning the Discussion
From: Adamson (adamson46844@mni.ne.jp)
Date: Fri 11 May 2001 - 22:48:04 MEST
From: "Adamson" <adamson46844@mni.ne.jp> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1643] Beginning the Discussion Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 05:48:04 +0900
It is become exceedingly common for a language teacher to be told that
classes will be held in the Computer Lab and that they are to use CALL
(Computer Assisted Language Learning) methods. For the administrators, this
usually means nothing more than utilizing the expensive computers that the
school purchased so that the advertizing can say that the school is keeping
up with the technological revolution. There in Japan I have even heard from
some non-language teachers that the administration is pressuring them to use
CAL (Computer Assisted Learning).
The problem with doing this is that the software has not caught up with the
technology. Twenty years ago if a teacher were lucky enough to have
computers in the classroom, it was a simple thing for the teacher to write
text-based programs in BASIC. Such programs would smoothly fit into the
curriculum and the teacher could control the content. The excitement of
using a computer was more than enough to maintain the students' interest.
Now most CALL/CAL programs are put together by large teams and the content
is designed for a general curriculum rather than the one that applies to the
teacher's class. Also the students have become more sophisticated and use
computer games as a standard for judging the program. This leaves the
teacher who must teach in the computer lab in a quandary.
In our discussion, I would like to focus on possible solutions for the
individual teacher and the reasoning that supports their selection. Some of
the specific questions we might explore are:
Are there creative ways to use the computer lab?
What materials might be appropriate and for what reasons?
Is it possible to adapted CALL/CAL materials in ways that are parallel to
adapting a textbook?
What are the problems and possible solutions to the question of potentially
having two methodologies (the teacher's and whatever is used in the CALL
materials) in a single class?
How does the teacher organize the class to promote the most effective
learning?
>From the moderator,
Charles Adamson, Ph.D.
Professor, Faculty of Nursing
Miyagi University
Miyagi-ken, Japan
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