Review of Calling on CALL: From Theory and Research to New Directions in Foreign Language Teaching.

Calling on CALL: From Theory and Research to New Directions in Foreign Language Teaching

Lara Ducate and Nike Arnold (Editors)

2006 ISBN 1085-2999 351 pp.

Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) San Marcos, Texas, USA

Calling on CALL: From Theory and Research to New Directions in Foreign Language Teaching is an easy-to-read, informative review of the current state of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in foreign /second language instruction. The book will appeal to many different audiences. Seasoned language instructors will benefit from the broad reviews of current technology use in the field, as well as the concise summaries of language teaching methodologies of the last fifty years. Instructors who currently use technology will find research results to validate this use. Moreover, instructors who have not integrated technology into instruction will find discussions of technology use that do not goad them into using technology simply for the sake of using it. Instead, they are provided with accessible explanations grounded in current language acquisition theory and practice that describe ways to implement technology use. Pre-service foreign language/second language instructors will be exposed to theory and practices through clear, honest explanations and challenged to apply what they have studied by the Questions for Reflection sections found at the end of each chapter. Additionally, graduate students or instructors looking for research topics will find many informed suggestions at the end of the chapters.

Because each chapter in the book shows the theoretical underpinnings of the particular aspect of CALL it discusses, the book serves as a strong reminder that technology use alone is not an effective tool for language instruction. To help instructors integrate theoretically sound technology use into their teaching, Calling on CALL presents thirteen chapters focused on various learning objectives, including foreign/second language reading, writing, pronunciation, and sociolinguistic competence. This organization provides readers with a clear idea as to why CALL can work, and how it can help lead foreign/second language instruction in new, pedagogically sound directions.

The introduction and first three chapters present overviews of technology use and pedagogy. Nike Arnold and Lara Ducate, the book's editors, give an up-to-date overview of current technology use both in and out of the classroom in Chapter 1, CALL: Where Are We and Where Do We Go From Here? Their aim is to highlight the prevalence of computer use in modern life. The authors point out that many educators already use computers, both as administrative and classroom aids, but that predominately this use is teacher-centered. They believe that newer technologies, such as computer mediated communication, hold great promise to help shift language instruction toward a more student-centered, constructivist perspective that emphasizes higher order thinking. In Chapter 2, Situating CALL in the Broader Methodological Context of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: Promises and Possibilities, Christopher Luke examines "some of the existing and potential connections between foreign language methodology and CALL" (p. 21). His overview of learning theories from behaviorism to social constructivism highlights their positive and negative aspects, especially in regard to how they have been manifested in CALL activities. He notes that new computer mediated communication (CMC) tools now popular among the younger generation -IM, chat, blogs, podcasts--offer their users multiple ways to interact with and process information with one another and with experts, facilitating a constructivist approach to language learning. CALL's ability to collect, analyze, and disperse information in fast, systematized ways can present students with large quantities of authentic, comprehensible input and, in turn, encourage them to express themselves in their foreign/second language in such a way that they develop higher-level language skills related to cultural interaction, social relations, and cognitive strategies--all, according to Luke, an integral part of language instruction in the future.

The book's third chapter, Multiliteracy: Second Language Literacy in the Multimedia Environment, written by Margaret Gonglewski and Stayc DuBravac, challenges readers to consider a relatively new educational concept: mutiliteracy. A modern definition of literacy cannot focus solely on printed or written text (New London Group, 1996; Stevens, 2005); it must be extended to include the multifaceted nature of information transmission. Meaning is transmitted and processed simultaneously in multiple ways--visually, digitally, culturally, linguistically--and within these media, there can be a diversity of expression. For example, information can be transmitted visually through a still photo or video and accompanied by aural linguistic input in either Arabic or English, or both. Gonglewski and DuBravac present five goals for a mutiliteracy-oriented curriculum as well as examples of how CALL activities can be used to reach these goals. As they address each curricular goal, they explain how the CALL activity presented with it meets the goal and connects to the learning theories discussed in the first two chapters. Therefore, this chapter is one of the most significant chapters in the book as it shows how the learning theories that previously drove the creation of CALL activities are now being fused into a new learning theory, mutiliteracy, which, in turn, is driving new CALL curricula and design.

Chapters 4 through 7 shift from a focus on theory to a focus on technology use in four specific skill areas: reading, listening, pronunciation, and writing. Chapter 4, CALL Technologies for L2 Reading, by Dorothy Chun, reports on research regarding how technology has been used to address issues facing L2 reading. Chun suggests that future CALL software and web-based programs that work to improve L2 reading should evolve from their current focus on lower-order, lexical level reading skills, to higher order reading skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In the fifth chapter, Listening Comprehension in Multimedia Environments, Linda Jones reviews second language acquisition (SLA) theory in relation to listening comprehension and multimedia. Jones emphasizes an interactionist perspective in listening: the construction of meaning based on students' interactions with comprehensible input. Jones further explains that adding multimedia input to the interactionist theory leads to Mayer's (2002) cognitive theory of multimedia, according to which learning is more likely to occur when students have simultaneous access to various modes of input with congruent meaning. Mary Grantham O'Brien discusses using CALL in chapter 6, Teaching Pronunciation and Intonation with Computer Technology. O'Brien lists the benefits of using computer assisted pronunciation training (CAPT), including the fact that students can take control of their own learning and often are more willing to take risks when working with a non-human interlocutor. O'Brien provides criteria for CAPT software evaluation and discusses five types of CAPT courseware. In the seventh chapter, Liam Murray and Triona Hourigan discuss Using Micropublishing to Facilitate Writing in the Foreign Language. The authors give practical examples of micropublishing tools used to facilitate L2 writing instruction: photo editing, PowerPoint, web page creation, blogs, and wikis and add four appendices that include lesson plans, web-based resources, and a rubric for grading web authoring and publishing.