Computer Assisted Language Learning: an Introduction by Mark Warschauer

Computer Assisted Language Learning:
an Introduction

by Mark Warschauer

Abstract

Until quite recently, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) was a topic of relevance mostly to those with a special interest in that area. Recently, though, computers have become so widespread in schools and homes and their uses have expanded so dramatically that the majority of language teachers must now begin to think about the implications of computers for language learning.

This article provides brief overview of how computers have been used and are being used for language teaching. It focuses not on a technical description of hardware and software, but rather on the pedagogical questions that teachers have considered in using computers in the classroom. For those who want more detailed information on particular applications, a typology of CALL programs (Appendix A) and a list of further CALL resources (Appendix B) is included at the end.
Three phases of CALL

Though CALL has developed gradually over the last 30 years, this development can be categorized in terms of three somewhat distinct phases which I will refer to as behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL (cf. Barson & Debski 1996). As we will see, the introduction of a new phase does not necessarily entail rejecting the programs and methods of a previous phase; rather the old is subsumed within the new. In addition, the phases do not gain prominence one fell swoop, but, like all innovations, gain acceptance slowly and unevenly. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 3, Module 1.4, where phases of CALL and CALL typology are discussed further.]

Behavioristic CALL

The first phase of CALL, conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and '70s, was based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning. Programs of this phase entailed repetitive language drills and can be referred to as "drill and practice" (or, more pejoratively, as "drill and kill").

Drill and practice courseware is based on the model of computer as tutor (Taylor 1980). In other words the computer serves as a vehicle for delivering instructional materials to the student. The rationale behind drill and practice was not totally spurious, which explains in part the fact that CALL drills are still used today. Briefly put, that rationale is as follows:

* Repeated exposure to the same material is beneficial or even essential to learning
* A computer is ideal for carrying out repeated drills, since the machine does not get bored with presenting the same material and since it can provide immediate non-judgmental feedback
* A computer can present such material on an individualized basis, allowing students to proceed at their own pace and freeing up class time for other activities

Based on these notions, a number of CALL tutoring systems were developed for the mainframe computers which were used at that time. One of the most sophisticated of these was the PLATO system, which ran on its own special PLATO hardware, including central computers and terminals. The PLATO system included vocabulary drills, brief grammar explanations and drills, and translations tests at various intervals (Ahmad, Corbett, Rogers, & Sussex 1985).

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, behavioristic CALL was undermined by two important factors. First, behavioristic approaches to language learning had been rejected at both the theoretical and the pedagogical level. Secondly, the introduction of the microcomputer allowed a whole new range of possibilities. The stage was set for a new phase of CALL.
Communicative CALL

The second phase of CALL was based on the communicative approach to teaching which became prominent in the 1970s and 80s. Proponents of this approach felt that the drill and practice programs of the previous decade did not allow enough authentic communication to be of much value.

One of the main advocates of this new approach was John Underwood, who in 1984 proposed a series of "Premises for 'Communicative' CALL" (Underwood 1984:52). According to Underwood, communicative CALL:

* focuses more on using forms rather than on the forms themselves;
* teaches grammar implicitly rather than explicitly;
* allows and encourages students to generate original utterances rather than just manipulate prefabricated language;
* does not judge and evaluate everything the students nor reward them with congratulatory messages, lights, or bells;
* avoids telling students they are wrong and is flexible to a variety of student responses;
* uses the target language exclusively and creates an environment in which using the target language feels natural, both on and off the screen; and
* will never try to do anything that a book can do just as well.

Another critic of behavioristic CALL, Vance Stevens, contends that all CALL courseware and activities should build on intrinsic motivation and should foster interactivity - both learner-computer and learner-learner (Stevens 1989).

Several types of CALL programs were developed and used during this the phase of communicative CALL. First, there were a variety of programs to provide skill practice, but in a non-drill format. Examples of these types of programs include courseware for paced reading, text reconstruction, and language games (Healey & Johnson 1995b). In these programs, like the drill and practice programs mentioned above, the computer remains the "knower-of-the-right-answer" (Taylor & Perez 1989:3); thus this represents an extension of the computer as tutor model. But - in contrast to the drill and practice programs - the process of finding the right answer involves a fair amount of student choice, control, and interaction.

In addition to computer as tutor, another CALL model used for communicative activities involves the computer as stimulus (Taylor & Perez 1989:63). In this case, the purpose of the CALL activity is not so much to have students discover the right answer, but rather to stimulate students' discussion, writing, or critical thinking. Software used for these purposes include a wide variety of programs which may not have been specifically designed for language learners, programs such as Sim City, Sleuth, or Where in the World is San Diego? (Healey & Johnson 1995b).

The third model of computers in communicative CALL involves the computer as tool (Brierley & Kemble 1991; Taylor 1980) or, as sometimes called, the computer as workhorse (Taylor & Perez 1989). In this role, the programs do not necessarily provide any language material at all, but rather empower the learner to use or understand language. Examples of computer as tool include word processors, spelling and grammar checkers, desk-top publishing programs, and concordancers.

Of course the distinction between these models is not absolute. A skill practice program can be used as a conversational stimulus, as can a paragraph written by a student on a word processor. Likewise, there are a number of drill and practice programs which could be used in a more communicative fashion - if, for example, students were assigned to work in pairs or small groups and then compare and discuss their answers (or, as Higgins 1988, students can even discuss what inadequacies they found in the computer program) In other words, the dividing line between behavioristic and communicative CALL does involves not only which software is used, but also how the software is put to use by the teacher and students.

On the face of things communicative CALL seems like a significant advance over its predecessor. But by the end of the 1980s, many educators felt that CALL was still failing to live up to its potential (Kenning & Kenning 1990; Pusack & Otto 1990; Rüschoff 1993). Critics pointed out that the computer was being used in an ad hoc and disconnected fashion and thus "finds itself making a greater contribution to marginal rather than to central elements" of the language teaching process (Kenning & Kenning 1990: 90).

These critiques of CALL dovetailed with broader reassessments of the communicative approach to language teaching. No longer satisfied with teaching compartmentalized skills or structures (even if taught in a communicative manner), a number of educators were seeking ways to teach in a more integrative manner, for example using task- or project-based approaches . The challenge for advocates of CALL was to develop models which could help integrate the various aspects of the language learning process. Fortunately, advances in computer technology were providing the opportunities to do just that.
Steps toward integrative CALL: multimedia

Integrative approaches to CALL are based on two important technological developments of the last decade - multimedia computers and the Internet. Multimedia technology - exemplified today by the CD-ROM - allows a variety of media (text, graphics, sound, animation, and video) to be accessed on a single machine. What makes multimedia even more powerful is that it also entails hypermedia. That means that the multimedia resources are all linked together and that learners can navigate their own path simply by pointing and clicking a mouse. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Module 2.2, Introduction to multimedia CALL.]

Hypermedia provides a number of advantages for language learning. First of all, a more authentic learning environment is created, since listening is combined with seeing, just like in the real world. Secondly, skills are easily integrated, since the variety of media make it natural to combine reading, writing, speaking and listening in a single activity. Third, students have great control over their learning, since they can not only go at their own pace but even on their own individual path, going forward and backwards to different parts of the program, honing in on particular aspects and skipping other aspects altogether. Finally, a major advantage of hypermedia is that it facilitates a principle focus on the content, without sacrificing a secondary focus on language form or learning strategies. For example, while the main lesson is in the foreground, students can have access to a variety of background links which will allow them rapid access to grammatical explanations or exercises, vocabulary glosses, pronunciation information, or questions or prompts which encourage them to adopt an appropriate learning strategy.

An example of how hypermedia can be used for language learning is the program Dustin which is being developed by the Institute for Learning Sciences at Northwestern University (Schank & Cleary 1995). The program is a simulation of a student arriving at a U.S. airport. The student must go through customs, find transportation to the city, and check in at a hotel. The language learner using the program assumes the role of the arriving student by interacting with simulated people who appear in video clips and responding to what they say by typing in responses. If the responses are correct, the student is sent off to do other things, such as meeting a roommate. If the responses are incorrect, the program takes remedial action by showing examples or breaking down the task into smaller parts. At any time the student can control the situation by asking what to do, asking what to say, asking to hear again what was just said, requesting for a translation, or controlling the level of difficulty of the lesson.

Yet in spite of the apparent advantages of hypermedia for language learning, multimedia software has so far failed to make a major impact. Several major problems have surfaced in regarding to exploiting multimedia for language teaching.

First, there is the question of quality of available programs. While teachers themselves can conceivably develop their own multimedia programs using authoring software such as Hypercard (for the Macintosh) or ToolBook (for the PC), the fact is that most classroom teachers lack the training or the time to make even simple programs, let alone more complex and sophisticated ones such as Dustin. This has left the field to commercial developers, who often fail to base their programs on sound pedagogical principles. In addition, the cost involved in developing quality programs can put them out of the market of most English teaching programs.

Beyond these lies perhaps a more fundamental problem. Today's computer programs are not yet intelligent enough to be truly interactive. A program like Dustin should ideally be able to understand a user's spoken input and evaluate it not just for correctness but also or appropriateness. It should be able to diagnose a student's problems with pronunciation, syntax, or usage and then intelligently decide among a range of options (e.g. repeating, paraphrasing, slowing down, correcting, or directing the student to background explanations).

Computer programs with that degree of intelligence do not exist, and are not expected to exist for quite a long time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) of a more modest degree does exist, but few funds are available to apply AI research to the language classroom. Thus while Intelligent CALL (Underwood 1989) may be the next and ultimate usage of computers for language learning, that phase is clearly a long way down the road. [IC4LT Editor's Note: See Module 3.5, Human Language Technologies.]

Multimedia technology as it currently exists thus only partially contributes to integrative CALL. Using multimedia may involve an integration of skills (e.g. listening with reading), but it too seldom involves a more important type of integration - integrating meaningful and authentic communication into all aspects of the language learning curriculum. Fortunately, though, another technological breakthrough is helping make that possible - electronic communication and the Internet.
Steps toward integrative CALL: the Internet

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), which has existed in primitive form since the 1960s but has only became wide-spread in the last five years, is probably the single computer application to date with the greatest impact on language teaching. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 14, Module 1.5, for more information on CMC.] For the first time, language learners can communicate directly, inexpensively, and conveniently with other learners or speakers of the target language 24 hours a day, from school, work, or home. This communication can be asynchronous (not simultaneous) through tools such as electronic mail (email), which allows each participant to compose messages at their time and pace, or in can be synchronous (synchronous, "real time"), using programs such as MOOs, which allow people all around the world to have a simultaneous conversation by typing at their keyboards. It also allows not only one-to-one communication, but also one-to-many, allowing a teacher or student to share a message with a small group, the whole class, a partner class, or an international discussion list of hundreds or thousands of people.

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Module 1.5 and Module 2.3 for further information on using the Internet in the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages.]

Computer Mediated Communication allows users to share not only brief messages, but also lengthy (formatted or unformatted) documents - thus facilitating collaborative writing - and also graphics, sounds, and video. Using the World Wide Web (WWW), students can search through millions of files around the world within minutes to locate and access authentic materials (e.g. newspaper and magazine articles, radio broadcasts, short videos, movie reviews, book excerpts) exactly tailored to their own personal interests. They can also use the Web to publish their texts or multimedia materials to share with partner classes or with the general public.

It is not hard to see how computer-mediated communication and the Internet can facilitate an integrative approach to using technology. The following example illustrates well how the Internet can be used to help create an environment where authentic and creative communication is integrated into all aspects of the course.

Students of English for Science and Technology in La Paz Mexico don't just study general examples and write homework for the teacher; instead they use the Internet to actually become scientific writers (Bowers 1995; Bowers 1996). First, the students search the World Wide Web to find articles in their exact area of specialty and then carefully read and study those specific articles. They then write their own drafts online; the teacher critiques the drafts online and creates electronic links to his own comments and to pages of appropriate linguistic and technical explanation, so that students can find additional background help at the click of a mouse. Next, using this assistance, the students prepare and publish their own articles on the World Wide Web, together with reply forms to solicit opinions from readers. They advertise their Web articles on appropriate Internet sites (e.g. scientific newsgroups) so that interested scientists around the world will know about their articles and will be able to read and comment on them. When they receive their comments (by email) they can take those into account in editing their articles for republication on the Web or for submission to scientific journals.

The above example illustrates an integrative approach to using technology in a course based on reading and writing. This perhaps is the most common use of the Internet to date, since it is still predominantly a text-based medium. This will undoubtedly change in the future, not only due to the transmission of audio-visual material (video clips, sound files) World Wide Web, but also due to the growing use of the Internet to carry out real-time audio- and audio-visual chatting (this is already possible with tools such as NetPhone and CU-SeeME, but is not yet widespread).

Nevertheless, it is not necessary to wait for further technological developments in order to use the Internet in a multi-skills class. The following example shows how the Internet, combined with other technologies, was used to help create an integrated communicative environment for EFL students in Bulgaria - students who until recent years had little contact with the English-speaking world and were taught through a "discrete topic and skill orientation" (Meskill & Rangelova 1995). These Bulgarian students now benefit from a high-tech/low-tech combination to implement an integrated skills approach in which a variety of language skills are practiced at the same time with the goal of fostering communicative competence. Their course is based on a collaborative, interpreted study of contemporary American short stories, assisted by three technological tools:

* Email communication. The Bulgarian students correspond by email with an American class of TESOL graduate students to explore in detail the nuances of American culture which are expressed in the stories, and also to ask questions about idioms, vocabulary, and grammar. The American students, who are training to be teachers, benefit from the concrete experience of handling students' linguistic and cultural questions .
* Concordancing. The Bulgarian students further test out their hypotheses regarding the lexical and grammatical meanings of expressions they find in the stories by using concordancing software to search for other uses of these expressions in a variety of English language corpora stored on CD-ROM.
* Audio tape. Selected scenes from the stories - dialogues, monologues, and descriptions - were recorded by the American students and provide both listening practice (inside and outside of class) and also additional background materials to help the Bulgarians construct their interpretation of the stories.

These activities are supplemented by a range of other classroom activities, such as in-class discussions and dialogue journals, which assist the students in developing their responses to the stories' plots, themes, and characters - responses which can be further discussed with their email partners in the US.
Conclusion

The history of CALL suggests that the computer can serve a variety of uses for language teaching. It can be a tutor which offers language drills or skill practice; a stimulus for discussion and interaction; or a tool for writing and research. With the advent of the Internet, it can also be a medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials.

But as pointed out by Garrett (1991), "the use of the computer does not constitute a method". Rather, it is a "medium in which a variety of methods, approaches, and pedagogical philosophies may be implemented" (p. 75). The effectiveness of CALL cannot reside in the medium itself but only in how it is put to use.

As with the audio language lab "revolution" of 40 years ago, those who expect to get magnificent results simply from the purchase of expensive and elaborate systems will likely be disappointed. But those who put computer technology to use in the service of good pedagogy will undoubtedly find ways to enrich their educational program and the learning opportunities of their students.
Appendix A:
A typology of CALL programs and applications
Computer as tutor
Grammar

CALL Programs designed for teaching grammar include drill and practice on a single topic (Irregular Verbs, Definite and Indefinite Articles), drills on a variety of topics (Advanced Grammar Series, English Grammar Computerized I and II), games (Code Breaker, Jr. High Grade Builder), and programs for test preparation (50 TOEFL SWE Grammar Tests) Grammar units are also included in a number of comprehensive multimedia packages (Dynamic English, Learn to Speak English Series).
Listening

This category includes programs which are specifically designed to promote second-language listening (Listen!), multi-skill drill and practice programs (TOEFL Mastery), multimedia programs for second language learners (Accelerated English, Rosetta Stone), and multimedia programs for children or the general public (Aesop's Fables, The Animals).
Pronunciation

Pronunciation programs (Sounds American, Conversations) generally allow students to record and playback their own voice and compare it to a model. Several comprehensive multimedia programs (Firsthand Access, The Lost Secret) include similar features.
Reading

This category includes reading programs designed for ESL learners (Reading Adventure 1 - ESL) and tutorials designed for children or the general public (MacReader, Reading Critically, Steps to Comprehension). and games (HangWord). Also included are more general educational programs which can assist reading (Navajo Vacation, The Night Before Christmas) and text reconstruction programs (see below).
Text reconstruction

Text reconstruction programs allow students to manipulate letters, words, sentences, or paragraphs in order to put texts together. They are usually inexpensive and can be used to support reading, writing, or discussion activities. Popular examples include Eclipse, Gapmaster, Super Cloze, Text Tanglers, and Double Up. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 8, Module 1.4, headed Text manipulation.]
Vocabulary

This category includes drill and practice programs (Synonyms), multimedia tutorials (English Vocabulary), and games (Hangman, Scrabble). Also useful are several reference and searching tools (such as concordancers) which will be described in the Computer as Tool section below.
Writing

Most software for supporting writing falls under the Computer as Tool category (see below). Exceptions include tutorials such as Sentence Combining, SentenceMaker, and Typing Tutor.
Comprehensive

A number of comprehensive multimedia programs are designed to teach ESL students a variety of skills. They range in price but many are quite expensive. Among the better known are Dynamic English, Ellis Mastery, English Discoveries, Rosetta Stone.
Computer as stimulus

The computer as stimulus category includes software which is used not so much as a tutorial in itself but to generate analysis, critical thinking, discussion, and writing. Of course a number of the above-mentioned programs (e.g. The Animals, Navajo Vacation, Night Before Christmas) can be used as a stimulus. Especially effective for a stimulus are programs which include simulations. Examples of this latter group include London Adventure, Oregon Trail, Sim City, Sleuth, Crimelab, Amazon Trail, Cross Country Canada/USA, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Computer as Tool
Word processing

The most common use of computer as tool, and probably the most common use overall of the computer for language learning, is word processing. High quality programs like Microsoft Word can be useful for certain academic or business settings (Healey & Johnson 1995a). Programs such as ClarisWorks and Microsoft Works are cheaper and simpler to learn and still have useful features. SimpleText and TeachText are simpler yet and may be sufficient for many learners.
Grammar checkers

Grammar checkers (e.g. Grammatik) are designed for native speakers and they typically point to problems believed typical of native speaker writing (e.g. too much use of passives). They are usually very confusing to language learners and are not recommended for an ESL/EFL context. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 6.1, Module 1.3, headed Spellcheckers, grammar checkers and style checkers.]
Concordancers

Concordancing software searches through huge files of texts (called corpora, which is the plural of corpus) in order to find all the uses of a particular word (or collocation). While very confusing for beginners, concordancers can be a wonderful tool for advanced students of language, linguistics, or literature.

The best concordancer for language students and teachers is Oxford's MicroConcord. The program includes as an optional extra several large (total 1,000,000 words) taken from British newspapers. Or this program, and other concordancers as well, can be used with any other text files available in electronic form.

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Module 2.4, Using concordance programs in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom.]
Collaborative writing

A number of tools exist to help students work on their writing collaboratively on computers linked in a local area network. The most popular among language teachers is Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment, which includes modules for real-time discussion, word processing, electronic mail, and brainstorming, as well as citation software and a dictionary. Other programs with some similar features are Aspects and MacCollaborator.
Reference

There are numerous CD versions of encyclopedias and dictionaries. Two which have highly recommended (Healey & Johnson 1995a) for language learners are the encyclopedia ENCARTA and the Longman Dictionary of American English.
Internet

The three most popular uses of the Internet for language teaching are electronic mail (email), the World Wide Web, and MOOs. Numerous programs exist for using electronic mail. The Eudora program has several nice features, including "point-and-click" word processing capacity, easy attachment of formatted files, and ability to include foreign characters and alphabets. The free version (Eudora Light) is suitable for most purposes; there is also a more powerful commercial version (Eudora Pro).

Eudora requires a direct connection to the Internet. Additional programs which run through the unix system and do not require a direct Internet connection are Pine and Elm.

To access the World Wide Web, one needs a special program called a browser. By far the most popular browser among educators is Netscape, which until now has been free to teachers and students. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: Internet Explorer is now the most widely used browser.]

MOOs ("Multiple-user-domains Object Oriented") allow for real time communication, simulation, and role playing among participants throughout the world, and a special MOO has been set up for ESL teachers and students (schmOOze University homepage 1995). The use of MOOs is greatly facilitated if one uses a special client software program such as TinyFugue (for Unix), MUDDweller (for Mac), or MUDwin (for Windows). [ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Section 14.2, Module 1.5 for further information on MOOs and their latest manifestation, MUVEs.]
Authoring

Authoring allows teachers to tailor software programs either by inserting new texts or by modifying the activities. Authoring runs on a spectrum from set programs which allow slight modification (e.g. inclusion of new texts) to complex authoring systems.

Many of the programs listed earlier (e.g. MacReader, Eclipse, Gapmaster, Super Cloze, Text Tanglers, and Double Up) allow teachers to insert their own texts and thus make the programs more relevant to their own lessons (and greatly extend their shelf life too). By allowing the students themselves to develop and insert the texts, the programs can be made even more communicative and interactive.

On the other end of the spectrum, authoring systems allow teachers to design their own multimedia courseware. These can take a lot of time and effort to master, and are most often used by true enthusiasts. Some are specifically designed for language teachers (CALIS, DASHER), others for educators (Digital Chiseler) and others for the general public (Hypercard, Hyperstudio, Supercard, ToolBook, Macromind Director).

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See Module 2.5, Introduction to CALL authoring programs.]
Appendix B:
Additional CALL resources
Selected books

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See also the CALL bibliography in the ICT4LT Resource Centre.]

Athelstan (1995) Technology and Language Learning Yearbook Vol 6, Houston, TX: Athelstan.

Dunkel P. (ed.) (1991) Computer-assisted language learning and testing: research issues and practice, New York, NY: Newbury House.

Hardisty D. & Windeatt S. (1989) CALL, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Healey D. (1995) Something to do on Tuesday, Houston: Athelstan.

Healey D. & Johnson N. (eds.) (1995) 1995 TESOL CALL interest section software list, Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Higgins J. (1988) Language, learners and computers, London: Longman.

Jones C. & Fortescue S. (1987) Using computers in the language classroom. London: Longman.

Kenning M.-M. & Kenning M. J. (1990) Computers and language learning: Current theory and practice. New York: Ellis Horwood.

Pennington M. (ed.) (1989) Teaching languages with computers: the state of the art. La Jolla, CA: Athelstan.

Schank R.C. & Cleary C. (1995) Engines for education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Taylor M.B. & Perez L.M. (1989) Something to do on Monday, La Jolla, CA: Athelstan.

Thompson J & Parsons J. (1995) ReCALL Software Guide No. 4, Hull, UK: CTI Centre for Modern Languages (CTICML), University of Hull. [ICT4LT Editor's Note: The CTICML has now closed down.]

Tribble C. & Jones G. (1990) Concordances in the classroom, Harlow: Longman.

Warschauer M. (1995a) Email for English teaching, Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Warschauer M. (ed.) (1995b) Telecollaboration in foreign language learning, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Warschauer M. (ed.) (1996) Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.
Journals

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See also the CALL bibliography in the ICT4LT Resource Centre.]

CALICO Journal: Published by CALICO, the US-based professional association.

Computer Assisted English Language Learning Journal (CAELL Journal): a journal for ESL teachers. Now defunct. Formerly published by ISTE, University of Orgeon. For back issues contact ISTE.

Computer Assisted Language Learning: Formerly published by Swets & Zeitlinger and now taken over by Taylor & Francis: http://www.tandf.co.uk

ON-CALL: In January 1999 the ON-CALL journal became available only online and in May 1999 merged with CALL-EJ. The joint journal, CALL-EJ, is now available at http://www.tell.is.ritsumei.ac.jp/callejonline/. ON-CALL is no longer available online.

ReCALL: The Journal of EUROCALL, now published by Cambridge University Press. Members and guests log in at http://www.journals.cup.org. Back numbers are available at: http://www.eurocall-languages.org/recall/index.html

SYSTEM: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/335/description

TESL-EJ:
North America: http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/
Asia: http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/
Electronic mail lists

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: Many of the original list of electronic mail lists that appeared in the original version of this article have now closed. The modern trend is to use blogs or wikis as alternatives. See Section 12, Module 1.5, headed Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking, and see the ICT4LT website blog at http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com]

EST-L (Teachers of English for Science & Technology)
listserv@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
(Send message subscribe est-l yourfirstname yourlastname)

JALTCALL (Japan Association for Language Teaching CALL)
majordomo@clc.hyper.chubu.ac.jp
(Send message subscribe jaltcall)

LLTI (Language Learning and Technology International)
listserv@dartmouth.edu
(Send message subscribe llti yourfirstname yourlastname)

NETEACH-L (Using the Internet for teaching ESL)
listserv@thecity.sfsu.edu
(Send message subscribe neteach-l yourfirstname yourlastname)

TESL-L (Teachers of English as a Second Language)
TESLCA-L (Computer-Assisted sub-branch of TESL-L)
listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu
(Send message subscribe tesl-l yourfirstname yourlastname)

International Student Email Discussion Lists
Nine lists for ESL/EFL college and university students
announce-sl@latrobe.edu.au
(For information send a blank email message)
Professional associations

[ICT4LT Editor's Note: See also under the heading Professional associations in the ICT4LT Resource Centre.]

AACE (Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education): http://www.aace.org

CALICO: http://www.calico.org

EUROCALL: http://www.eurocall-languages.org

ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education): http://www.iste.org

JALT CALL N-SIG (Japan Association for Language Teaching CALL National Special Interest Group)

IATEFL: Learning Technologies SIG - formerly known as the Computer SIG and formerly known as MUESLI (Micro Users in ESL Institutions): http://www.iatefl.org

TESOL CALL Interest Section: http://www.tesol.org

References

Ahmad K., Corbett G., Rogers M., & Sussex R. (1985) Computers, language learning and language teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Barson J. & Debski R. (1996) "Calling back CALL: technology in the service of foreign language learning based on creativity, contingency, and goal-oriented activity". In Warschauer M. (ed.) Telecollaboration in foreign language learning, Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center: 49-68.

Bowers R. (1995) "WWW-Based Instruction for EST". In Orr T. (ed.) English for science and technology: profiles and perspectives, Aizuwakamatsu, Japan: Center for Language Research, University of Aizu: 5-8.

Bowers R. (1996) "Web publishing for students of EST". In Warschauer (ed.) Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners, Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawai Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Brierley B. & Kemble I. (1991) Computers as a tool in language teaching, New York: Ellis Horwood.

Garrett N. (1991) "Technology in the service of language learning: trends and issues", Modern Language Journal 75, 1: 74-101.

Healey D. & Johnson N. (eds.) (1995a) 1995 TESOL CALL interest section software list. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Healey D. & Johnson N. (1995b) "A brief introduction to CALL". In Healey D. & Johnson N. (eds.) 1995 TESOL CALL interest section software list Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications: iii-vii.

Higgins J. (1988) Language, learners and computers, London: Longman.

Kenning M-M. & Kenning M. J. (1990) Computers and language learning: current theory and practice, New York: Ellis Horwood.

Meskill C. & Rangelova K. (1995) "US language through literature: a transatlantic research project". In Warschauer M. (ed.) Virtual connections: online activities and projects for networking language learners, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Pusack J. & Otto S. (1990) "Applying instructional technologies", Foreign Language Annals 23, 5: 409-417.

Rüschoff B. (1993) "Language learning and information technology: state of the art", CALICO Journal 10, 3: 5-17.

Schank R. & Cleary C. (1995) Engines for education, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

schMOOze University homepage: http://schmooze.hunter.cuny.edu:8888/

Stevens V. (ed.) (1989) "A direction for CALL: from behavioristic to humanistic courseware". In Pennington M. (ed.), Teaching languages with computers: the state of the art, La Jolla, CA: Athelstan: 31-43.

Taylor M. & Perez L. (1989) Something to do on Monday, La Jolla, CA: Athelstan.

Taylor R. (1980) The computer in the school: tutor, tool, tutee, New York: Teachers College Press.

Underwood J. (1984) Linguistics, computers and the language teacher: a communicative approach, Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Underwood J. (1989) "On the edge: Intelligent CALL in the 1990s", Computers and the Humanities 23: 71-84.

The Internet: an introduction for language teachers by Graham Davies

The Internet: an introduction for language teachers
by Graham Davies

This Web page aims to serve as an introduction to the comprehensive Module 1.5 (Introduction to the Internet) at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm. Have a look at my other article, The Internet: write your own Web pages, and my list of Favourite Websites. If you wish to make use of these materials feel free to do so, but please acknowledge the sources. See my Terms of Use.

The Internet is a computer network connecting millions of computers all over the world. It provides communications to governments, businesses, universities, schools and homes. Any modern computer can be connected to the Internet using existing communications systems. Schools and universities normally access the Internet via their own educational networks, but private individuals usually have to take out a subscription with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They can then connect their computer to the Internet via a modem and their local telephone system.
What’s on the Internet?

The three Internet services of main interest to language teachers are:

* the World Wide Web
* email
* discussion lists - also forums and blogs

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is only part of the Internet, but many people treat both terms as synonyms.
Email

Email is a system of sending messages via the Internet. Email facilities are part of the range of services provided by ISPs. It is also possible to transmit word-processed files, pictures, sound files and video files via email.
Discussion lists

Discussion lists (also known as forums) are a kind of communal email, whereby members of the discussion list can post messages to every subscriber and invite responses or initiate discussions. Three discussion lists of interest to language teachers are ALLNET, EUROCALL, and the Linguanet Forum

You can join these discussion lists and access the archives of messages sent in by their members at:

* ALLNET: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ALLNET.html
* EUROCALL: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/EUROCALL-MEMBERS.html
* Linguanet Forum: http://www.mailtalk.ac.uk/lists/linguanet-forum.html

The World Wide Web

This is the most powerful and fastest growing Internet service, now known simply as the Web. The Web is accessed by means of a computer program known as a browser. The most widely used browser is Internet Explorer. Using a browser you can access websites all over the world and download pages of information. Most Web pages include pictures, and many include sound, animated graphics, video and links - known as hyperlinks - to other websites. You need to know the Web address, technically known as the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), of the website you wish to access.
The birth of the Web - the browser

The World Wide Web is a remarkable invention, dating back only to 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee’s brilliant flash of insight spawned HTML and the browser (Berners-Lee 1998). Seeking a solution to the problem of information continually getting lost while he was working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea of the World Wide Web. As a newcomer to CERN, he found it difficult to find out what was going on. This is typical of many organisations, where information is structured like a web and details of past projects often get lost. The newcomer to an organisation gleans information haphazardly, through various documents and newsletters, gossip and discussions with colleagues in the corridor. The browser - the key to the Web - is essentially a simple idea, but its impact has been immense. Since the release of the first browser in 1993 it has been possible for the layman to get at information that computer scientists have been able to get at for years. In addition, the Web has opened up millions of new channels of communication.

It is assumed that if you are reading this module are already familiar with using a browser. If not, there is an excellent tutorial, written by Bernard Moro, at the website of the Council of Europe's European Centre for Modern Languages: http://www.ecml.at/projects/voll/literacy
Language courses and exercises on the Web

There are numerous sites on the Web which offer language courses and language exercises. An introductory selection is listed below. Other selected sites can be found at my Favourite Websites page: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/websites.htm.

Many more have been documented by Felix (1998) and Felix (2001).

Creating language exercises on the Web

Creating exercises on the Web is relatively easy. A Web authoring package known as Hot Potatoes has been developed by Martin Holmes and Stewart Arneil at the University of Victoria, Canada: http://hotpot.uvic.ca. This package consists of a suite of five Web authoring tools for language teachers - and it’s free! It enables the language teacher to create his/her own Web exercises in Windows or Mac format, e.g.

* multiple-choice quizzes
* jumbled sentences
* short-answer questions
* gap-fill exercises
* crosswords

Disadvantages of the Web

It is clear that the breathtaking growth of the Web is leading to information overload. As Arthur C. Clarke put it: "Getting information from the Internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls." Bush (1996) summarises the situation with the following opening quotation: "The Web is like one great big, wonderful library. You enter the front door, and there are all the books... piled in the middle of the floor!". In other words, the cataloguing system of the Web is non-existent. Search engines such as Google are a great help, but if you search for a common word or term you can end up with more references than you can cope with.

In a paper presented at the 1997 FLEAT III conference, University of Victoria, Claire Bradin expressed concern that many language teachers who are newcomers to ICT think that the Web is the only relevant manifestation of Information and Communications Technology (Bradin 1997). They assume mistakenly that "doing it on the Web" is the only way to deliver computer assisted language learning (CALL) and have little idea of CALL before the advent of the Web. The consequences of this belief are that the advantages of offline technology are often unknown to the new generation of language teachers, who are unaware that more elaborate and faster interactivity than that currently offered on the Web was available on microcomputers as long as 20 years ago. Interactivity on the Web is limited compared to the interactivity offered by CD-ROMs (Burston 1998:68-69). Accessing the Web at peak times (while the USA is awake) is S-L-O-W. Sound and video may take an eternity to download (Davies 1997:42-45). It is suggested that the reader of this article tries to access the following websites to find out for him/herself how long it takes to access the sound and video clips.

* BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk
* TV5: A site maintained by TV5, the French language broadcasting station: http://www.tv5.org
* Tagesschau: German language news broadcasts: http://www.tagesschau.de

Finally, the Web can be addictive, often leading users to spend hours in aimless, unstructured Web browsing - or surfing - an activity which is open to question in terms of its learning outcomes:

We have to answer the question whether language learning really takes place when our students "surf" through the Internet. Is it true that by reading superficially through texts or by looking at film clips or listening to voices on the World Wide Web items of a foreign language are learnt? Is this type of learning - some call it incidental learning - suited for language learning? (Wolff 1997:75)

Death of the printed word?

There is a great deal of talk at present about the death of the printed word. While it may be true to say that motion pictures and TV have had a negative effect on people’s reading habits, the Web has probably had the opposite effect. The Web consists largely of texts, an increasing number of which are enhanced by photographs, sound and video. Using the Web is a very efficient way of locating a text, but few people read more than a couple of paragraphs from the screen. Most download and print the located text so that they can sit in a comfortable armchair and read it in the normal way. In other words, most people are continuing to read from the printed page as they have done for centuries. Reading large chunks of text from a TV or computer screen is any case tiring and inefficient. It has been estimated that reading from the screen is 25%-30% slower than reading from the printed page See Section 3.3 of Module 3.2 (CALL software design and implementation)at the ICT for Language Teachers website under the heading Writing for the screen: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-2.htm
Exploiting Internet resources offline
Downloading websites

The slowness of accessing the Web at peak times can, however, be overcome by downloading Web pages in advance so that they can be used by learners offline. Tools such as WebWhacker enable you to save Web pages, including text, graphics and HTML links, directly to your hard drive, so you can view them offline at highly accelerated speeds: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/webwhacker/. However, beware of copyright restrictions on downloading other people's sites. You should always check the terms of use at a website before downloading it in whole or in part. The terms of use of most websites are usually located at the foot of the homepage, e.g. here.

Finding what you want on the Web - just as finding what you want in a book, on an audiocassette tape or on a videocassette tape - is only the first step. Having found a suitable text or picture, the language teacher has to decide what to do with it. See Walker et al. (2000).
Building up a text corpus

It is possible to make use of the Web to build up a corpus of authentic texts. The corpus can then be accessed offline with a concordance package such as MonoConc, enabling:

* the teacher to find examples of authentic usage to demonstrate a point of grammar, typical collocations, etc;
* the teacher to generate exercises based on examples drawn from a variety of corpora;
* the student to work out rules of grammar and usage for him/herself by searching for key words in context;
* the student to develop a critical attitude towards explicit rules of language.

The above suggestions derive from Tim Johns, University of Birmingham, who pioneered the concept of Data-Driven Learning (DDL), which is also known as Classroom Concordancing. For further detailed information on DDL and Classroom Concordancing see Module 2.4, Using concordance programs in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom, at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-4.htm
The hybrid approach: blended learning

At present, a hybrid approach - usually known as blended learning - makes more sense. Matthew Fox (Southampton Institute) conducted a pilot study during the 1990s, in which an Internet-based course in French was delivered to local business users (Fox 1998). The course was delivered in distance-learning mode, whereby students communicated with their tutors by email, the Web, telephone and videoconferencing. But the core materials that the students worked with were also supplied on CD-ROM. This enabled them to do exercises involving the playback of sound recordings offline, so that they did not have to experience the long delays that would have occurred if they had accessed the recordings via the Web.
Creating exercises offline

There is no question that the Web is an excellent source of authentic materials. Using texts gleaned from the Web, it is easy to develop sets of meaningful exercises offline. A variety of text-reconstruction exercises - linked to images, sound recordings and video clips, if required - can be created with Camsoft’s Fun with Texts package. Gap-filling and multiple-choice exercises - including pictures and sound - can be created with Camsoft’s GapKit package. This flexible package works on the same principle as Fun with Texts: i.e. all the teacher has to do is find a suitable text and convert it into a set of exercises. Demos of both these packages can be downloaded from:

* Fun with Texts: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/fwt.htm
* GapKit: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/gapkit.htm

For further information on authoring tools see Module 2.5 (Introduction to CALL authoring programs)at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-5.htm
References

Berners-Lee T. (1998) The World Wide Web: a very short personal history: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory.html

Bradin C. (1997) The Dark Side of the Web (summary only): http://edvista.com/claire/darkweb/index.html

Burston J. (1998) "From CD-ROM to the WWW: coming full circle", CALICO Journal 15, 1-3: 67-74.

Bush M. (1996) "Internet mania: World Wide Web technology: What's hot and what's not!" Multimedia Monitor, February 1996, Phillips Business Information Inc.

Davies G. (1997) "Lessons from the past, lessons for the future: 20 years of CALL", in Korsvold A-K. & Rüschoff B. (eds.) New technologies in language learning and teaching, Strasbourg, Council of Europe: 27-51.

Davies G. (2000) The Internet: write your own Web pages, Camsoft Web publication.

Davies G., Hickman P. & Hewer S. (1994) Style guidelines for developers, TELL Consortium, University of Hull..

Walker R., Davies G. & Hewer S. (2008) Introduction to the Internet. Module 1.5 in Davies G. (ed.) Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT), Slough, Thames Valley University [Online]. Available from: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm

Felix U. (1998) Virtual language learning: finding the gems among the pebbles, Language Australia, Melbourne.

Felix U. (2001) Beyond Babel: language learning online, Melbourne: Language Australia. Reviewed at: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/FelixReview.htm

Felix U. (2003) (ed.) Language learning online: towards best practice, Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger (now taken over by Taylor & Francis).

Fox M. (1998) "Breaking down the distance barriers: perceptions and practice in technology-mediated distance language acquisition", ReCALL 10, 1: 59-67. Available at: http://www.eurocall-languages.org/recall/pdf/rvol10no1.pdf

Walker R., Davies G., Saarenkunnas M., Kuure L. & Taalas P. (2008) Exploiting World Wide Web resources online and offline. Module 2.3 in Davies G. (ed.) Information and Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT), Slough, Thames Valley University [Online]. Available from: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-3.htm

Wolff D. (1997) "Computers and new technologies: will they change language learning an teaching?". In Kohn J., Rüschoff B. and Wolff D. (eds.) New horizons in CALL: proceedings of EUROCALL 96, Dániel Berzsenyi College, Szombathely, Hungary: 65-82.

© Graham Davies 2009 under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works, UK, England & Wales Licence.

The Internet: write your own Web pages by Graham Davies

The Internet: write your own Web pages
by Graham Davies

This Web page aims to serve as an introduction for teachers wishing to write their own World Wide Web pages. It follows on from my other article, The Internet: an introduction for language teachers, and serves as an introduction to the comprehensive Module 3.3 (Creating a World Wide Web site), written by Fred Riley, at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-3.htm. If you wish to make use of these materials feel free to do so, but please acknowledge the sources. See my Terms of Use.

Why create a World Wide Web site?

* To advertise yourself or your institution.
* To provide information and resources for staff.
* To provide learning materials for students.
* Many other reasons: for suggestions see Atkinson (1998), Felix (1998), Felix (2001), Felix (2003).

Your website does not have to be online. It is possible to create a website for use on a local stand-alone PC, on a Local Area Network (LAN), on a CD-ROM or on an intranet. An intranet is a sort of internal Internet, confined within an institution.
What you need to know before you start

* You need to know how to use Windows 2000 , Windows XP or Windows Vista. I use Windows XP.
* You need to know how to use a word-processor.
* You need to know how to use a browser: e.g. Internet Explorer.
* You need to know how the basics of what the World Wide Web is all about and how it works. See my article: The Internet: an introduction for language teachers.

Above all, you need to understand the concept of hypertext. A visionary thinker, Vannevar Bush, is credited with inventing the concept of hypertext in an article titled "As we may think", which was written way back in 1945. In this article he describes an imaginary machine he calls "Memex", which is essentially a device that takes account of the way the human mind associates ideas and follows a variety of different paths rather than moving on sequentially. Bush wrote:

"[ The human mind] operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature."

It took around 40 years before Bush's vision of hypertext was finally realised: on the Apple Mac in the 1980s with a program known as Hypercard. The main feature of hypertext is the links - also known as hyperlinks - to other parts of the text, to other texts, graphics, photographs, sound clips, video clips, etc - most of which are illustrated later in this article. By clicking on a link, which is usually indicated by an underscore and/or a different colour, you move automatically to the linked text, graphic, etc., thus enabling you to explore the text non-sequentially. The World Wide Web is an extended form of hypertext, written in a mark-up language known as HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language). HTML enables links to be made to almost any computer in the world.
Software for designing and creating Web pages

Websites can contain text, graphics, photographs, audio recordings and video recordings. These are often referred to as the assets of a website. You need a variety of software packages for creating Web pages:

* Software for designing Web pages: My personal favourite is Dreamweaver by Adobe: http://www.adobe.com/uk/. In the early days of the Web you had to create Web pages by coding them in HTML, but nowadays Web design packages create HTML pages automatically, so all you need is word-processing skills - plus a little extra knowledge about the way Web pages are put together and how they work. See Module 3.2 (Creating a World Wide Web site)at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-2.htm
* Software for creating and editing graphics and photographs: This is essential if you wish to incorporate graphics and pictures into your Web pages. See Section 2.2.3.1 of Module 2.2 (Introduction to multimedia CALL) at the ICT for Language teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-2.htm#imageed
* Software for creating and editing sound files: Audacity is probably the most widely used package for this task. See Section 2.2.3.3 of Module 2.2 (Introduction to multimedia CALL) at the ICT for Language teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-2.htm#sounded
* Software for creating and editing video files: Movie Maker is probably the most widely used package for this task. See Section 2.2.3.4 of Module 2.2 (Introduction to multimedia CALL) at the ICT for Language teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-2.htm#videoed
* Software for creating interactive exercises on the Web: Hot Potatoes is probably the most widely used package for this task. Such software is essential if your website is to contain interactive exercises. See below for examples of a Hot Potatoes interactive exercise. You could also consider Quia and Vokabel. Both the Quia and Vokabel sites contain exercise creation tools together with examples. See Module 2.5 (Introduction to CALL authoring programs) at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod2-5.htm

Hyperlinks

Creating links - also known as hyperlinks - with a Web design package is easy. There are different kinds of links:

1. This is an internal link to a location on this page: a short Bibliography.
2. This is an internal link to another page at this website. Click here to link to my article, The Internet: an introduction for language teachers.
3. This is an external link to the ICT for Language Teachers website, where the full URL is displayed. Click here: http://www.ict4lt.org
4. This is also an external link to another website, where URL is hidden.Click here: CILT.

Graphics and photographs

Web pages can contain graphics and photographs. The former are normally stored in GIF format and the latter are normally stored in JPG format. Graphics and photographs can be scanned in and stored on disk with the aid of a flat-bed scanner and then edited with the aid of a software package, e.g. Adobe Photoshop. There are lots of collections of graphics and photographs on the Web itself and on commercially produced CD-ROMs.

This is a graphic stored in GIF format - the euro Symbol. I found this at one of the European Commission's websites.



This is a photograph stored in JPG format - taken by myself in Rüdesheim, Germany, and scanned in with the aid of a flat-bed scanner I reduced the size of the original slightly with the aid of Adobe Photoshop.


Word-processed documents

You can create a hyperlink to a word-processed document in DOC or RTF format. This is useful if you want people to be able to access a document and print it in its normal format, e.g. here is a link to a document I edited (with Bangs P., Frisby R. & Walton E.), Setting up effective digital language laboratories and multimedia ICT suites for Modern Foreign Languages, London: CILT: Digital Labs.doc.
Audi recordings

You can create a hyperlink to a sound file, e.g. in WAV or MP3 format. Click here: Dialogue in a German Café
Video recordings

You can create a hyperlink to a video file, e.g. in AVI or MPEG format. Click here: My greyhound Swifty

Here is a sample streaming video file in FLV format which I have linked to at the YouTube site. It's short clip of the actress Sandra Bullock speaking German (she's good!).

Programs for downloading

This facility is useful if you wish people to be able to download programs from your website that can then be run offline. Click here to download a demo version of Fun with Texts.
Interactive exercises

Interactive exercises can be delivered via the Web. Click here to try a short gap-filling exercise created with the Hot Potatoes Web authoring package. Hot Potatoes is available free of charge from the University of Victoria, Canada.You could also consider Quia and Vokabel . Both the Quia and Vokabel sites contain exercise creation tools together with examples.
Keeping track of your links

It is most important to keep track of all your links and external URLs. Web design software usually has inbuilt functions that alert you to errors and help you check that all your links work. A useful piece of software that speeds up the process of checking external links is Xenu's Link Sleuth, a software package that checks websites for broken links. Link verification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and Java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced in HTML at any time while link checking is in progress: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html.
Creating an attractive page

Keep the page layout simple. The same rules apply to designing Web pages as to any other form of software, but you have less control over what happens at the user's end. Don't use garish colours, too many graphics and weird fonts! See Davies G., Hickman P. & Hewer S. (1994). See Module 3.2 (CALL software design and implementation) at the ICT for Language teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-2.htm

How do you put your pages onto the Web?

You must have a subscription to an to Internet Service Provider (ISP). Most ISPs offer website space as part of an annual contract. Software for uploading pages to your website is usually built into your ISP's communications software. Alternatively, the Web design package that you use will probably have inbuilt software for uploading to the Web, but this must be correctly configured to tie in with your ISP's software. For further information on this topic see Section 6 of Module 3.3 (Creating a World Wide Web site), written by Fred Riley, at the ICT for Language Teachers website: http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod3-3.htm#6

CALL FOR CHINESE-ISSUES AND PRACTICE* by Zheng-sheng Zhang

CALL FOR CHINESE-ISSUES AND PRACTICE*

Zheng-sheng Zhang
San Diego State University

1. Introduction

The purpose of this article is not to provide a comprehensive survey of the history of CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) for Chinese. A survey of that nature, for work up to 1993, was undertaken by Yao (1996, written in 1993) and Mowry (1997). Nor is the main purpose of the article to critique individual CALL programs. Yao (1996) and Chu (1996, unpublished, parts available on-line at http://philo.ucdavis.edu /CHINESE/ online.html ) provide detailed reviews of many such programs. Apart from avoiding duplication, there are two more reasons for not attempting a comprehensive survey and review here. The recent proliferation of CALL programs for Chinese, developed both in and outside of China, has made such a task a very difficult, if not impossible, undertaking. But the more important reason is the noticeable lacuna in the literature, i.e., a general discussion of the issues and practice in the use of computers for teaching Chinese. The present paper aims to fill this gap.

In recent years, with the escalating development in computer technology, a great many CALL programs have been produced. Facing this sudden deluge of CALL titles, students and teachers are likely to wonder: How effective are these programs? How worthwhile is it to spend time and money on them? How do we choose among so many offerings? Having invested much time and effort and come to the sobering realization that their labor of love may not have always worked miracles, CALL developers (including the present author) may also ask themselves: Have the initial promises of CALL been realized? How do we improve? Is there any untapped potential left in CALL?

The time has come for a critical appraisal of the state of CALL for Chinese. In this paper, we would like to address the following general questions:

•What are the strengths and limitations of CALL?
•To what extent has computer technology served language pedagogy?
•What areas have been best served and which areas can be better served?
•What are the strengths and weaknesses with current CALL programs for Chinese?
•Where do we go next?

Although the present article is organized by themes rather than by chronology or product, the general discussion will be accompanied with examples from a number of CALL programs available to the present reviewer at the present time1:

1. ABC Interactive Chinese
2. Chinese Character Tutor
3. Chinese Express
4. HyperChina
5. HyperChinese ( the pronunciation modules)
6. PinyinMaster
7. Professional Interactive Chinese
8. Step into China
9. The Rosetta Stone
10. Wenlin

Although it may not be possible to form a coherent picture of a particular product from the scattered pieces of commentary on its strengths and weaknesses, the particular format adopted here does allow us to gain a broader perspective, as well as maintaining out thematic focus. At the risk of incompleteness, the ten programs will be briefly described and evaluated in the appendix to the paper.

The organization of the paper is as follows: In section 2, some of the basic pedagogical assumptions will be given. In section 3, strengths and limitations of the current technology, as it applies to language learning, will be identified. Section 4 discusses the relationship between technology and pedagogy by pointing out some observed asymmetries and problems in current CALL applications. Section 5 suggests some uncommon but potentially useful CALL applications. Section 6 delves deeper into some specific issues relevant to the major aspects of language instruction, i.e., material selection and sequencing, presentation, practice and feedback. Section 7 addresses the various aspects of ergonomics, including navigation, help, terminology, integration and personality.

2. Language Pedagogy

The greater importance of language pedagogy in the technology-pedagogy cooperation known as CALL cannot be overemphasized. We therefore start our discussion with pedagogy. Advocating no particular methodology in this paper, we will nonetheless outline some of the most fundamental pedagogical principles for language teaching. While language pedagogy has seen continuous changes over the years as well as a wide range of beliefs and opinions at any particular time, the present paper takes the following to be among the central tenets of today's language teaching methodology.

2.1. The importance of meaning

Meaning must be of the utmost importance in language acquisition as well as language use. The central role of meaning favors a communicative, notional/functional, rather than a structural, approach and focus on expressiveness, as opposed to formal accuracy. It also underscores the importance of comprehensible and contextual presentation.

2.2. The importance of interaction

Interaction is as important in language learning as it is in language use. Just as effective communication requires interaction between the interlocutors, effective language learning too requires feedback, which is a form of interaction.

2.3. The importance of practice

As succinctly pointed out by Robinson (1991), 'once is not enough!' The importance of practice entails not only the central role of the practice phase of the instruction but also the necessary recycling of material.

2.4. Learner-centeredness

In the past few decades, there has been a shift in focus from teaching to learning, from the teacher to the learner. Learner-centeredness requires, first and foremost, respect for and accommodation of individual backgrounds and learning styles. In concrete terms, it gives the learner control in material selection/sequencing and the pace of progress.

2.5. Positive affect

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to learner's emotional state, which plays an important part in student motivation and receptiveness to learning. The classroom atmosphere should be encouraging and not inhibiting.

3. Technology

In order to realize the full potential of the current technology while not overestimate its capabilities, it is appropriate to identify its strengths and limitations.

3.1. Strengths

Interactivity is a crucial strength of the new technology. The computer is interactive, first of all, by virtue of the fact that the user can gain control over learning and therefore becomes an active participant in the learning process. Interactivity also allows the instant feedback from the computer. The interactivity of the computer makes it especially suited for implementing learner-centered teaching methods.

Multimedia should be considered truly revolutionary for language pedagogy. The new technology really shines in its presentation of form and meaning. The sound and graphic capabilities of the computer not only have improved presentation, they have also made possible what conventional textbooks cannot do. Digitized audio has made possible the modeling of pronunciation. The teaching of characters' stroke order and direction has taken a giant step forward from the cumbersome representation on paper to the animated demonstration formerly achievable only with a human instructor. Still or animated graphics for illustrating meanings and speech production may both educate and entertain.

Random and rapid access allows the instant retrieval of vocabulary and grammar explanations. It also contributes to easy learner control and recycling of materials.

The computer's ability to store and manipulate data also makes it possible to keep scores, log errors and track learner performance.

The consistency and patience of the computer is not only crucial for learning by association and repeated exposure. Paradoxically, without the possible ill-effects of an over-bearing human teacher, the patient and interactive computer can provide a very user-friendly and learner-centered learning environment.

In addition to the above-mentioned general characteristics, digital speech technology in particular has enabled the graphic display of the relevant acoustic properties of speech such as amplitude, pitch level and frequency composition.

3.2. Limitations

Although speech recognition is already commercially available, as shown by Apple's recent introduction of the Chinese Dictation Kit2 inherent speaker variability in a CALL situation makes speech recognition in CALL programs rather difficult to achieve. Hence the difficulty in providing feedback to learner's speech. On a higher level, due to the complexity of natural language parsing, the learners' creative and open-ended output cannot be easily evaluated.

Due to the difficulty of speech recognition and natural language parsing, the interactivity of the computer does not go far enough. Interactive conversation, which is a most valued pedagogical activity, is very hard to implement on the computer, the attempt to develop conversation simulators like ELIZA3 notwithstanding.

Given the strengths and limitations of the current technology, the most sensible strategy for CALL programs to adopt is to take full advantage of its strengths while not overstrain it where it is inherently limited.

4. How Well has Technology Served Pedagogy?

CALL is a cooperative enterprise between language pedagogy and computer technology. Unfortunately, advanced technology and innovative pedagogy do not always go together. Some programs fail to exploit the full potential of the new technology. Some impress with technological razzle-dazzle but do not appear to be serious about language teaching. Some programs are based on outdated beliefs about language learning, while some have no clear pedagogical orientation at all. It is not surprising then that the pedagogical effectiveness of CALL programs can be variable indeed.

How successfully technology serves pedagogy depends on first of all the inherent strengths and limitations of the technology and secondly the way technology is used. In the following, we will examine these two aspects in turn.

4.1. Some asymmetries

Not all aspects of pedagogy are equally served by technology. We now identify a number of asymmetries which result from the inherent strengths and limitations of the current technology.

Of the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, the receptive skills of listening and reading are more commonly addressed by CALL programs than the productive skills of speaking and writing. This asymmetry is rather expected. With receptive skills, the learner is on the receiving end and any response from the learner is restricted to computer-processible choice type comprehension questions. But with productive skills, the computer is on the receiving end; given the state of the technology, it cannot easily process and give feedback to learner-produced language, if the language is open-ended and/or delivered orally or by free-hand writing.

Due to the focus on receptive skills, the phases of the lesson that are best served are the initial ones of presentation and comprehension checks. The presentation of lessons has not only been aided by multimedia, it has also benefited from the easy retrieval feature of the computer in providing on-line explanations and maximal redundancy in such explanations. Comprehension checks are facilitated by the interactive capability of the computer. But practice, the most important phase of the lesson, has to be restricted to the less open-ended exercises. The asymmetry between the receptive and productive skills is thus manifested in the 'big head, small tail' imbalance in the structure of the lesson.

In terms of the level of instruction, the beginning level has attracted the most attention from CALL developers. This is not surprising either, considering the disproportional attention on receptive skills, which are more basic and closely associated with the beginning level.

The most common areas addressed by CALL are pronunciation, vocabulary and characters, for good reasons. These time-consuming but less creative tasks turn out to be what the computer is best suited for. Not only can these tasks take advantage of the consistency and patience of the computer, they can also capitalize on its data-handling and multimedia capabilities. Two programs that have taken good advantage of the computer's data handling capability is Flashware's Chinese Character Tutor (henceforth CCT) and Wenlin (henceforth WL) by Wenlin Institute. Both programs feature large databases of words and characters and extensive sorting, grouping, listing, searching and viewing options. A pronunciation program that has made good use of the multimedia capabilities of the computer is PinyinMaster (henceforth PM) which features voice-over help, movie clips of the speaker's lip movements in addition to digitized sounds for the whole inventory of possible Mandarin syllables.

In contrast, the teaching of grammar is not as common. Although many CALL programs (such as ABC Interactive Chinese, HyperChina, Professional Interactive Chinese, henceforth ABC, HC and PIC respectively ) include grammatical explanations similar to those found in conventional textbooks, teaching grammar in a way that goes beyond explanations is a challenge that has not often been met, with perhaps the exception of HyperChinese (the grammar modules). The creativity and abstractness of grammar requires real ingenuity when designing exercises for it.

4.2. Technology, pedagogy and linguistics

The success or failure of CALL programs also depends on the judicious exploitation of technology, informed by knowledge of language structure and language pedagogy.

First of all, it will be unfortunate if we do not take full advantage of the new technology, or worse, if we use the new technology to simulate outdated technology. For example, random access affords the user faster and easier access and control than audio and video tapes. It is thus quite mystifying for a number of programs to simulate the control format of tape recorder. In their Language Lab for Characters, ABC and PIC use the tape recorder control panel quite redundantly, when the characters are already accessible randomly by clicking on them. The only use for the panel, with its REMIND, PLAY, FAST FORWARD and STOP buttons, is to enable someone to sit back and listen to the whole set of characters to be played one after another, exactly the kind of thing we find so objectionable with the traditional language lab! Chinese Express (henceforth CX) even makes it the only form of access in its presentation of dialogs. Random access also makes it easier to relate different items not contiguous to each other. It is thus a pity that a program like CX leaves different parts of its cd-rom (dialogs, words and phrases, talking dictionary) unconnected to each other. PIC can also be improved by linking up its dictionary, flashcards and vocabulary builders.

The use of technology has to be guided by pedagogy. Otherwise, even an acknowledged strength of the technology can be mis-used. As observed by Higgins&Johns (1984) and Last (1989), the computer, with its endemic drills-and-practice thanks to its patience and consistency, seems to have served audiolingualism particularly well, which emphasizes repetition and imitation for the sake of formal accuracy. In general, CALL programs have not kept up with innovations in language pedagogy. With respect to syllabus design, most CALL courses are structure-driven rather than notional-functional in the sense of Wilkins (1976). Nor do we find many task-based programs like Phillipe for French, which requires the learner to use language in order to find apartment accommodation in Paris4.

Pedagogy also has to be the raison etre behind the application of technology. Otherwise, the use of technology may well be gratuitous. As Chu (1996) pointed out quite astutely, some of the games found in ABC and PIC are mostly devoid of pedagogical value (Connect characters, Falling characters, Puzzle). The desirability of multimedia notwithstanding, the quicktime movies used to accompany the dialogs in CX are of only marginal benefit as they are not used to help convey meanings.

Technological know-how also has to be supported by linguistic informedness. An example of the mis-use of the advanced technology of speech analysis is the visual comparison of speech wave forms, found in PIC. Though voice comparison as found in many programs can be helpful, the visual comparison of speech wave forms, however, is not useful to the same extent. The reason is that the visual representation of speech wave forms only transparently convey amplitude and the timing of the speech signal but not other distinguishing characteristics. Differences in stress and duration will be clearly visible but not segmental characteristics. Therefore, different sounds (such as vowels) will look alike, if they are pronounced with similar loudness; but the same sound can appear different, if it is pronounced with different loudness on different occasions or by different people5. Realizing this, PIC is quite candid in admitting the unreliability of such comparisons. Why then include such a feature of dubious value which will certainly undermines confidence in the product?

When linguistically informed, however, the use of speech analysis can be quite helpful, either by increasing awareness of errors and by providing motivational benefit (Stenson, Downing, J. Smith & K.Smith 1992). Pitch tracking, whereby tonal contours are shown visually, can provide useful feedback for students having problem with tones and intonation (Chun 1989). Spectrograms, with which wave forms are sometimes confused, DO reflect differences in sounds. Therefore, comparison of spectrograms, while by no means easy, can be pedagogically useful, when a learner can't detect a difference aurally.

5. Further Uses of CALL

Have we fully exhausted the potential of CALL? The answer, happily for the CALL user/developer, appears to be negative. While there are areas that have been served by an over-abundance of programs, there are also areas that can benefit from more uses of CALL. In the following, we identify some such areas:

5.1. Function-based instruction

We noted earlier that CALL programs have typically been structure-based. There is nothing, however, that prevents us from using the computer for functional communicative teaching. Instead of organizing the syllabus around such structural concepts as interrogative and imperative sentences, we may use the functional ones such as request and command. Given the lack of one-to-one correspondence between form and function, organizing the syllabus around notions and functions would mean the impossibility of maintaining a graded structural syllabus. But with the maximal redundancy made possible by on-line help, the need for grading is greatly reduced and hence the argument for the structural syllabus loses much of its force.

5.2. Special-purpose Chinese

Most CALL programs are designed for general linguistic abilities. Fewer have been designed for more specific purposes. Two programs that seem to target the traveler to China, for business or pleasure, are CX and Step into China (henceforth SC). More specific purpose programs for such areas as Business Chinese should be most welcome.

5.3. Students with background

Just as the traditional curriculum has always targeted the true beginner with no language or literacy background, most of the CALL programs have also been designed with such an audience in mind. However, as student demography has changed in many parts of the country, more CALL programs that serve students with background should be developed. The following kinds of programs would be very useful to such students:

Pronunciation programs for dialect speakers.

Programs teaching romanization to Mandarin speakers. They teach not pronunciation but sound-letter correspondence. Similarly, programs teaching the correspondence between Pinyin, Zhuyin and other systems would be very useful for learners and teachers who already know one of the systems.

Programs teaching the correspondence between the simplified and traditional styled characters would be useful for learners and even teachers who already know one style.

Mention should be made of some programs that have taken into consideration the needs of students with background. The aptly named ABC Interactive Chinese, based on a series of textbooks produced in Taiwan for overseas students, is clearly targeted to heritage students. With its use of characters and drills targeted to pronunciation errors of dialectal speakers, HyperChinese (the Pronunciation modules, henceforth HCS) can be used with students with background. PM's use of characters and quadrasyllabic phrases also suggests its potential use for dialectal speakers.

5.4. Facilitative learning environment

CALL programs do not have to be tutors and courses, which teach directly by providing pre-planned lessons, instructional guidance, exercises and tests. They perhaps can, like the modern human teacher, also take on the role of facilitators by providing a learner-friendly and learner-centered environment. Such an environment should provide, within easy reach, all the tools necessary to read or write whatever text the learner chooses. Resources of such a learning environment already exist. What is needed is better integration of the different resources. Two of the most important resources are the text reader/editor and the dictionary.

The computer text-reader/editor (which is more descriptive, albeit more awkward sounding than the common name of word processor) is far superior for pedagogical purposes to the conventional way of reading and writing. Reading electronically, even without on-line help in vocabulary and grammar, can help pronunciation and listening when digitized or synthesized sounds are available. Writing electronically can allow one to gain facility in romanization, recognition of characters and differentiation of homonyms, all the while when engaged in some more creative tasks.

The dictionary represents one of the best uses of the computer technology. The most important advantage over the conventional printed dictionary is the ease of sorting, retrieval and cross-referencing. The possibility of adding audio and video simply renders it even more superior to the printed medium.

However, when the two resources are not linked together, neither enjoys the full benefit of the new medium. An isolated text reader/editor will not be able to provide instant vocabulary help and hence make reading and writing more arduous. Using a standalone electronic dictionary requires extra effort and hence it may not get as much use as a printed dictionary.

But when a text reader/editor is married to a dictionary, a powerful learning environment is born. An example of such an environment can be found in WL, a text reader/editor (for all possible formats: GB, Big5, HZ, Unicode, ASCII etc.), with instant links to a huge database of words, characters, etymological and frequency of occurrence information . These links allow the user to instantly look up words and characters in reading or writing. Although programs like WL are still uncommon, it is encouraging to find some well-known Chinese word processors becoming more than writing tools. NJstar, for example, has incorporated an on-line dictionary and character to pinyin conversion6. Some programs, such asTwinbridge, have added the text-to-speech function7.

Although lacking a sense of teacher presence, there are a number of advantages to the learning environment described here. First of all, while tutorials and self-study courses are closed-ended and their usefulness does not last beyond the materials covered, a facilitative learning environment can have longer life-spans. Secondly, these tools can be flexibly integrated with any curriculum. Thirdly, the use of such tools encourage learner initiative, which is necessary for their use. Last but not least, while standalone tutors and courses are severely constrained in their capabilities by the medium, reference and learning tools represent the best applications of it.

5.5. Templates, authoring systems and textbook development aids

CALL programs have typically been designed for students. However, teachers and material developers can equally benefit from the new technology.

One kind of program for the teacher and material developer, still quite uncommon for Chinese, are authoring systems and open-ended templates that allow teachers to develop and customize CALL programs easily and quickly. Templates and authoring systems enjoy certain advantages over both finished commercial products and those that result from in-house development. Commercial products may not be exactly what the teacher wants but in-house development can be time-consuming and technologically daunting. Templates and authoring systems however do not require programming skills and they can be designed to fit local needs. Although none of the programs mentioned in this paper are authoring systems and templates, it is encouraging that some programs have incorporated the feature of user customization. ABC and PIC, for example, both have a teacher's edition, which allows the addition of lessons. WL and CCT also allow the addition of user terms.

CALL programs can even help the development of teaching materials. Wouldn't it be tremendously useful for the textbook writer to have a text editor linked to the following resources/information that can be easily retrieved and incorporated?

multi-media resources:

complete digitized syllable inventory
still and animated graphics, movie clips
a database of words and structures with:
definitions and explanations
example sentences
frequency and collocation
level of difficulty
usage tracking within current text

How much more systematic and yet less labor-intensive would the textbook writing process become! Yet this is not altogether a pipe dream. With its flexible grouping feature that can list dictionary entries according to frequency, number of strokes, pinyin, English gloss, WL can be used as a useful resource for teachers.

5.6. Research

With its local and global search and frequency count feature, WL can also be used as a research tool by linguists and stylisticians alike in various linguistic and literary endeavors. CALL programs for student use can also be augmented with data collection and analysis capabilities, both for diagnostic and research purposes. For example, pronunciation programs with testing and record keeping capabilities can be used to study the acquisition of phonology. When equipped with different romanization systems, they may even be used to compare the relative efficacy of the different schemes.

6. The CALL Classroom: Some Specific Issues

We now turn to some specific issues in CALL. We will do this by going through the most common components in any instructional situation, CALL instruction included, namely, material selection&sequencing, presentation, practice and feedback.

6.1. Selection, sequencing and learner control

One of the differences between CALL programs and conventional language classes is that in the latter the selection of material is pre-determined and lessons are sequentially ordered and proceed at a fixed pace, the selection, sequence and pace being all determined by the teacher. The computer, thanks to random-access, allows the learner to control selection, sequencing and the pace of learning. Learner control allows accommodation of individual differences in background and ability and therefore may increase the efficiency of the learning process. To allow learner control, however, we must provide maximum redundancy, with on-line help for all vocabulary and grammatical items.

The desirability of learner control has often been taken for granted. But a critical reexamination is necessary, as pointed out by Dunkel (1991). Some learners, especially those at the beginning level, may feel overwhelmed when confronted with many choices. They may feel more comfortable following a teacher-suggested sequence of activities. The guidance of a teacher can be comforting and provides a sense of security. How to take advantage of both teacher planning and user-control indeed is a tricky balancing act.

Most of the programs mentioned in this paper allow the user some choices. PM, for example, allows the user to choose the range of sounds to practice and be tested on. Some programs, however, also retain some degree of teacher control, with different amount of success. In the drill section of HCS , the learner has to follow long and tedious teacher-led listen-and-repeat sequences. Giving learner the choice here as to what to listen and repeat would be more appropriate. SC decides for the learner what the new words and expressions should be for each lesson (the underlined items) and offers explanations for only these items. This again seems hard to justify other than that it is following most conventional textbooks. More judicious is The Rosetta Stone (henceforth TRS)'s decision to offer a choice between learner control and teacher control. Therefore, in addition to learner-chosen combinations, tutorial sessions are also provided that follow a fixed sequence of activities such as listening alone followed by a combination of listening and reading.

6.2. Presentation

6.2.1. The use of technology

The three features of the computer technology that are relevant to the presentation phase of the instructional cycle are multimedia, easy access and timing control. We will now examine the application of these three features in turn.

Multimedia presentation, which render CALL programs far superior to conventional textbooks, have been used to various extent in all CALL programs . All programs mentioned in this paper feature digital audio. Half of the programs (ABC, HC, PIC, SC, WL) feature animated demonstration of character writing. ABC, PIC use animation and PM uses movie clips to demonstrate the production of speech sounds. WL uses still graphics to show character shapes at various historical time periods. TRS depends solely on graphics to convey meanings. But despite the potential presentational advantages of CALL programs, the basic format of presentation remains similar to conventional textbooks. In most of the programs referred to in this paper, the initial presentation is still done mostly with the written form, either in romanization or in Chinese script. Meanings are also mostly conveyed with English glosses.

Why is it a problem to present with the written form? Most importantly, speech is primary while writing is secondary. The question is not whether written representation should be used but when to introduce the written form relative to the spoken form. With a human teacher, the spoken form can be introduced before the written form; in a conventional textbook, the spoken form cannot be presented without the written form. But there is no need for CALL programs to put up with the limitations of the print medium. As programs already provide audio along with the written form, it is then just as easy to present the spoken form without the written form. One program that does allow audio-first presentation is TRS, which clearly separates text and voice and offers all the possible combinations, such as text with voice, text without voice and voice without text. The second problem with pure written presentation is the assumption of literacy, which cannot always be made. So if someone does not know romanization or characters, it does not mean that s/he does not know how to speak, and vice versa. This realization can be especially important in a testing situation, where the validity of the test can be compromised by a mixing of skills.

The problem with the exclusive use of English glosses to convey meaning is that it is indirect as well as possibly misleading. Admittedly, CALL programs are not particularly worse than conventional textbooks, which do the same thing. But CALL programs can have many more resources than a conventional textbook. A more direct mode of presentation, especially for concrete vocabulary, is eminently possible. An early program developed by Yao and Mowry, modestly named Miss Li and Mr. Wang, uses simple animation to teach the action verbs for dressing and undressing8. Of the programs mentioned in this paper, TRS's conveying of meanings is exclusively with pictures. PIC uses pictures to convey meanings in both the flashcard stack and the interactive vocabulary builder.

The easy access allowed by the computer has a number of desirable consequences for presentation. It allows instant retrieval of help for pronunciation and comprehension, with the simple 'when in doubt, click' format. We can thus avoid the pre-teaching of vocabulary, which is out of context and can miss the target altogether due to individual differences in learner backgrounds. The easy availability of help also enables, paradoxically, the option of hiding the help initially, hence making it possible for the learner to challenge themselves. Furthermore, since every grammatical and vocabulary item in a lesson can be linked to a shared pool of glosses and explanations, an extreme form of redundancy and recycling is possible. This redundancy and recycling further encourages learner-choice in lesson selection and sequencing.

The programs reviewed here make use of the easy access feature to various extents. For example, while ABC, HC, PIC and SC opt to present part or whole of a dialog on the screen, CX presents it one sentence at a time, in a sequential fashion. Obviously, it is harder for a CX user to locate a particular word or sentence. While most programs do not pre-teach vocabulary, HC presents the vocabulary separately, before the dialogs, thus taking the vocabulary out of context and making it hard to provide help for every linguistic item in the dialogs. While SC, ABC and PIC provide on-line vocabulary and grammar explanation only when requested, HC uses such optional on-line help for grammar only and opts to provide glosses to words and sentences obligatorily, thus missing an opportunity to challenge the learner. Programs also differ in exploiting the maximum redundancy the easy access feature makes possible. With no graded lessons of its own, WL has to provide instant lookup to every word and character. Though their vocabulary help is a bit hard to use, ABC and PIC also provide glosses for every character and word in the text. SC , however, provides vocabulary help for only pre-determined new words and expressions. By having pre-determined vocabulary for every lesson, HC also does not provide maximum redundancy.

Timing, impossible to do in a printed textbook, has been used in some CALL programs. Users of CCT can opt to incorporate delay of different amount in the presentation of audio, text or characters. It too uses user-selectable time limit in its tests. In its vocabulary drills, HC uses delay in presenting the audio or the written form. The use of delay introduces the element of challenge without actually turning it into a test.

6.2.2. Comprehensibility

Comprehensibility should be the most important consideration in presentation. Help in this regard can also be inadequate. In its presentation of dialogues, CX gives glosses only to the whole sentence, having no explanation for the meanings of words and phrases. While this may be justifiable for ABC, whose audience is Chinese speaking children with no problem in comprehension, it would not be for CX. As Chu (1996) noticed, HC provides English translation of only whole passages in the extra readings. In their presentation of dialogs, HC and SC provide glosses for only the vocabulary items that the programs consider new for the current lesson. No redundancy is provided. This will be justified only in the unlikely scenario that the course is followed sequentially, the student backgrounds are uniform and students can learn new material with just one exposure.

However, it should be pointed out in this connection that although most CALL programs assume, as most textbooks do, the explicit presentation of grammar and vocabulary, it is by no means the only option. A program that teaches grammar and vocabulary implicitly by induction is TRS. In the whole course, no grammar and vocabulary is identified and explained. To enable induction, TRS relies heavily on minimally contrasting sentence groups and still pictures, which are designed to show the patterns of grammar, as well as the meanings of vocabulary items. Certainly viable as an option, the implicit and inductive approach to presentation requires careful planning of the text, which otherwise can become unnatural as well as incomprehensible.

Another problem leading to incomprehensibility is to take zi, unit of the written script, rather than ci, unit of the spoken language, as the basic unit to construe the sentence meaning from. As Chu (1996) observed repeatedly in a number of programs she reviewed, characters, rather than words, are often assumed to be lexical units in that only characters are given meaning glosses. Computerized flashcards, which are quite popular, are often character-based as well. Of course, conventional textbooks are often no better. The problem with this practice is that the meanings of characters, if existent at all, are often not related to the meanings of larger combinations in a compositional manner. A more linguistically informed practice would be to take ci as the units of vocabulary and character meanings would be mentioned, if at all, only for the purpose of etymology and relating groups of words for better retention. The programs mentioned in this paper vary greatly in this regard. Even though word meanings can be obtained ABC and PIC seem to accord more importance to the character. While CCT does not teach all aspects of characters (leaving out such a crucial feature as the animated demonstration of character writing), it gives as much weight to words as to characters. While correct in practice, SC is often mistaken in its terminology. WL should be commended for its two tiered solution. Its database includes information on both zi and ci. But for its default instant lookup mode, the meanings of compounds are given first and the user can further click on individual characters to find out their meanings.

6.3. Practice

The most important pedagogical activity is undoubtedly the exercises, including drills, games and quizzes9. While many conventional textbooks are rather weak in this area, leaving it largely to the device of the teachers, most CALL programs have rightly taken advantage of the interactive capability of the computer and have provided various exercises. In this section, we survey the main types of exercises, both for receptive and productive skills, critically appraising their strengths as well as limitations and suggesting ways to overcome the limitations.

6.3.1. Receptive skills

The current state of technology asymmetrically favors the teaching of the receptive skills of listening and reading. There are many more exercises for receptive skills than productive skills. Although various names are given to them, they are basically all objective tests that simply match learner responses with pre-determined answers stored in the computer. There are two most common subtypes:

a. Find/identify: In such exercises, the computer presents a linguistic token aurally and then a number of choices visually, one of which is the correct answer. The user finds/identifies and clicks on it. The choices can be non-linguistic, such as pictures, or linguistic, such as sounds, syllables, words or sentences. Hence the exercises practice either listening alone or a combination of listening and reading. Some examples are:

•find the character/pinyin you just heard
•find the picture corresponding to the word you just heard
•find the translation that correspond to what you just heard

b. matching: In such exercises, the computer presents multiple tokens visually, two of which match in one of the following ways:

•total identity (ex. matching identical characters/pinyin etc.)
•identical language (ex. match Pinyin with character)
•identical meaning/reference (ex. match pictures & words, English & Chinese)

Matching practices recognition and/or comprehension.

While all the receptive exercises invariably are interactive by providing immediate feedback, the quality of feedback is often quite problematic, as we will discuss in more detail in section 6.4.

6.3.2. Productive skills: going beyond imitation

Due to technical reasons, the exercises for practicing productive skills are more limited in format and effectiveness. The most common format is imitation without feedback. A model of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, sentence or a character is given and then learners are expected to imitate the model. Neither interactive nor creative, this kind of exercises smack of behaviorism and audiolingualism. The lack of creativity renders the format suitable only for the initial stage of learning; the lack of feedback makes the learner unable even to ensure the quality of imitation. Is there any way to incorporate feedback and creativity in productive exercises?

To be sure, there has been attempt to remedy the lack of feedback. One common practice, found in all programs except CCT and WL, is to compare the model pronunciation with that of the learner. While such comparison may serve some pedagogical purposes, for judging the quality of learner's speech, it is neither as direct or valid as speech recognition. Such comparison assumes that the learner can detect the difference between their own production and the model's in the first place.

The problem of feedback stems from two sources, one being the difficulty with speech and hand writing recognition, the other the involvedness of processing open-ended language. One strategy adopted in some CALL programs is to dodge these two difficulties. Text in machine-understandable codes is used instead of speech and free-hand writing. Matching with pre-stored answers, instead of parsing, is used to judge the learner's response. A good example, found in ABC and PIC, is dictation requiring the use of typing. There is no parsing of open-ended language, since the learner is only expected to produce what the computer dictates; there is no recognition, since only the keyboard is used. Another kind of exercise, found in ABC, HC , PIC and SC, is rearranging scrambled sentences. A similar kind of exercise, which deals with only one part of a sentence, is fill-in-the-blank or substitution drills. The learner either chooses from a list of given words or types in any word from the keyboard. The descrambling and fill-in-the-blanks exercises can easily provide feedback, when pre-determined answers are stored in the computer and only the keyboard and/or the mouse is used to respond.

The next, more difficult, step with respect to feedback is to address the problem of speech and hand-writing recognition. Although speech recognition is commercially available, but due to the consistent speech characteristics required by speech recognition, the technology may not be ready yet for language pedagogy, where inter-speaker variation is to be expected. It is unfortunate that PIC claims to feature speech recognition, when in reality it does not work well at all. Hand-writing recognition fares better. A number of commercial products are currently available10. A CALL program that goes beyond the copy-the-model mode of practicing character-writing is WL. The program not only checks the visual configuration of the written character, it also is sensitive to stroke order, thereby giving feedback not only to the final product, but also to the process of character-writing. In the teacher's edition of ABC and PIC, hand-writing recognition is available as one input method. This advanced feature can well be extended, a la WL, to these programs' character-writing component to provide feedback to student's hand-writing.

The problem with the lack of student creativity is more difficult to overcome. Of course, in a trivial sense, we can require the learner to do as many creative productive exercises in a computer program as we can in a conventional textbook and the result would not be any less effective. In HC, for example, there is a 'how to say' section, which attempts to coax the learner to produce creative speech. But without feedback from the computer, these exercises are about as helpful as a conventional textbook without the feedback from the human teacher.

In the following, I suggest, by way of a sentence making exercise, that creativity, albeit of a very limited kind, can be achieved without going beyond pattern matching.

The sentence making exercise can be used for teaching vocabulary as well as teaching grammar. The exercise requires the user to make sentences patterning on an existing model. All the sentence slots will be given. The words used will also be provided, for example, in a word list. All the user has to do is to put in the right word, one by one, in the right slot. Since students have a range of choices in what words they use instead of using the exact words given beforehand, they do enjoy some degree of creativity and may come up with unexpected combinations of words. Feedback is still possible by using pattern matching. Instead of matching individual words and sentences, as required respectively in fill-in-the-blank and descrambling, the feedback can be based on a more abstract matching algorithm such as the matching of parts-of-speech or sentence slots. Unlike descrambling, this exercise focuses not on individual sentences but on sentence patterns; unlike fill-in-the-blanks, which focuses on one sentence slot, this exercise requires the global ability of sentence construction; unlike both de-scrambling and fill-in-the-blanks, this format is more like the real-world use of language in producing the whole sentence in the natural word order.

6.4. Feedback

A major reason for the usefulness of CALL programs as tutors lies in their ability to provide feedback. Just as different human tutors can choose to give feedback differently, there are also a number of options for providing feedback in CALL programs. Feedback can merely inform the learner of error. It can also provide hints for the benefit of further trials. It can also go further and provide the correct answer. Feedback can also be explicit or implicit. It can directly tell the learner the error or the correct response or it can rephrase the learner's response or asking a clarification question containing the correct response. Feedback can also be immediate or delayed.

Despite all the possible feedback options, possibly due to the ease in implementation, immediate and explicit feedback seems to be the mostly commonly used. While any feedback is an improvement over a printed textbook, it should be pointed out that doubts have been expressed, for example, by Dunkel (1991) and Robinson (1991), concerning the desirability of immediate and explicit feedback. Robinson (1991) suggests that it may be better to for learners to arrive at the correct answer by discovery strategies rather than by direct program disclosure.

Although most CALL programs employ feedback, there remains much room for improvement in the quality of the feedback. The common problems with feedback are:

•categorical judgment
•lack of explanation
•negativity

They all contribute to reduce the usefulness of feedback. They also run counter to the spirit of modern language teaching philosophy. Categorical judgment emphasizes absolute accuracy rather than the more realistic goal of fluency; lack of explanation reduces language learning to simple trial and error, rather than a cognitive process; the negativity of feedback is detrimental to student affect. But feedback does not have to be this way. We will now suggest some ways to make feedback more helpful and less negative.

The categorical judgment typical of feedback is due to the mere matching of the student's response with the key. This can still be helpful if the range of possible responses is limited, such as in yes/no, same/different or multiple-choice type questions. But such feedback would not be very helpful when the range of possible answers is large. Take the examples of the dictation of a longer string or a sentence descrambling exercise. Simple matching will consider correct only the response that matches the key in every way and regards all other responses as wrong. This is very unlike the typical feedback from a human teacher. If a student has most of the sentence right but one word or letter wrong, a human teacher would count it as mostly correct. But the simplistic feedback scheme will treat it as wrong as if nothing in the sentence is correct. This would be very unfortunate. The student would not know how far the response is from the truth and how to improve. One way out would be to avoid questions that can have a wide range of possible responses. Instead of rearranging whole sentences, the drill can be limited to phrasal level units, which have fewer chances of errors. But the more interesting strategy is to confront the problem head-on. Instead of using simple categorical feedback, we can try to indicate degrees of correctness. One simple way is to use percentage based on simple error counting.

The second problem with feedback is the lack of explanation. Again, the lack of explanation is very unlike a good human teacher, who most likely would be helpful enough to impart to the student not just that a response is wrong, how much of it is wrong but also what is wrong with it. How can we make feedback more explanatory? Two strategies, still based on simple matching, can be used. One way is to identify not just the number of errors but also the location of errors. Such information should be easy to obtain from simple matching. Such feedback indeed is given in ABC and PIC in their sentence descrambling game. The second strategy is to identify the type of errors by matching a structural template with elements of the learners' response. In a dictation of syllables, for example, learner errors can be analyzed according to type, i.e., whether the error(s) are with tones, initials or finals. The feedback messages can then incorporate the results of these analyses.

The last problem is the negativity of feedback, which tends to be more seriously registered (Robinson, 1991) than positive feedback. One way to temper negativity is of course simply to reduce the amount of negative feedback. In doing this, one does not have to compromise the distinction between right and wrong either. For its flashcards, WL has adopted an interesting practice: when an answer is correct, a reward will be given; but when an answer is wrong, no penalty will be dealt out. The second way to reduce negativity is to improve the quality of negative feedback. Negativity is not just an inherent feature of negative feedback itself; it can also arise from the way negative feedback is given. To be repeatedly told that an answer is wrong is surely discouraging; but when no explanation is given as to how wrong the answer is and how to correct it, it becomes frustrating. Less categorical and more explanatory feedback will therefore lessen the impact of negativity . Instead of focusing on what is wrong, we can focus on what is right; instead of simply negating a response, we can build on and improve on it.

7. Ergonomics

No matter how technologically sophisticated and pedagogically effective, a program will not get used if it is not user-friendly. In this section, we highlight a number of areas contributing to the overall ergonomics.

7.1. Menu, toolbar and navigation

To facilitate usage, menu items should be descriptive; toolbar icons should be intuitive and navigation should be fast, simple or familiar to the user already.

The difference in menu clarity can be seen in the two pronunciation programs. While HCS has rather descriptive menu items, the rather distinctive exercises in PM are opaquely named Drill 1, 2 and Exercise 1, 2, 3.

The integrated courses can be used to illustrate the difference in toolbars. HC has very suggestive toolbar icons, while some of ABC, PIC and SC's icons are rather opaque and hard to remember.

The two hypercard derived programs can be used to show the difference in navigation facility. To get around HC is fast and easy, as its two navigation patterns, hierarchical and sequential, are familiar conventions for hypercard stacks. Its near namesake, HCS, however, suffers from redundant steps and ad hoc navigation quirks (Zhang 1997).

7.2. Help

In most CALL programs, on-line help is presented in pop-up text windows or dialog boxes. Such a format has the advantage of requiring less harddisk space, but reading the text can be tedious, especially when the text is long.

But on-line help does not have to be delivered this way. For example, PM uses a combination of voice-over and visual pointers. PIC also provides voice explanations. This kind of non-text help, although taking more storage space, requires less reading and better simulates interaction with a human teacher.

It seems that despite on-line help, the hard copy manual still has a number of advantages. The hard copy manual will certainly cater to some users' preference. While on-line help is hidden, a hard copy manual's content is plainly visible and its bulk can indicate the extent and depth of help. Among the programs reviewed here, CCT, PIC, TRS and WL all have rather detailed user manuals while the other programs have done away with the hard copy manual altogether. TRS not only has hard copy manual, it also has hard-copy script for all the lessons and a teacher's manual for using the program.

7.3. Terminology

With developers from diverse backgrounds, it is not surprising to find the terminological laxity and confusion in CALL programs. To wit: pronunciation is phonics in ABC and PIC, a character is called a word in SC. Even though the correct reference may be identifiable in context, the terminological blunder may distract from the credibility of the program.

On the other hand, some programs, such as HCS, do not hesitate to use highly specialized linguistic terminology. While technical terms have definite meanings among linguists, they may not be the most descriptive and the most memorable for the user. Many of the terms only add to the burden of memorization and their pedagogical values are rather dubious. Therefore, Teng (1997)'s point was rather well-taken: 'the use of highly technical and specialized terms used in linguistic writings should be avoided and modified'.

7.4. Integration

The ability to have everything within easy reach should be an important ergonomic consideration. The best way to reach everything is, of course, to integrate all of them in the same program. Instead of having a separate dictionary, a separate pronunciation tutor and a character tutor, we can incorporate these different components into one program with close links between the components. The argument for integration also goes beyond ergonomics. Integration also provides the larger context and justification for the separate components. For example, pronunciation and vocabulary can both be better learned in connection with the lesson.

It will be unfortunate if components within a single program are not related to each other. Interestingly, the five integrated programs referred to in this paper are not integrated to the same extent. One extreme example of compartmentalization is CX, whose different components such as the word list, dictionary, dialogs, China-related informational texts are not related to each other at all. ABC and PIC are much better in this regard.

7.5. Personality

CALL programs can have personalities as well. Some are charismatic and inspiring; some are quiet but helpful; some are pedantic and overbearing. Some are more fun than others. However, tastes do differ. What is charismatic to one may be overbearing to another; what is cute to one may be too cute to another. Though very hard to please everybody, the personality of a program should nonetheless be considered, if only to avoid jarring audience's sensibilities.

Appendix

Brief Descriptions/Evaluation of Software and Contact Information:

1. ABC Interactive Chinese (ABC) , 1 Windows CD-ROM
Amtrade Products Inc.
675 Brea Canyon Rd. Suite11
Walnut, CA 91789
Phone: (909) 595-1669
Fax: (909) 595-1971
$25 (basic); $99 (deluxe, including teacher's edition)

An self-study course meant for children of overseas Chinese. Lessons are based on Huayu Keben published by the Overseas Education Bureau of Taiwan (book 1 through book 9), but with pinyin and simplified characters added. Features include games, karaoke read along, animated display of speech production and character demonstration, recording, printing and English-Chinese dictionary. Notable for its voice-over explanation, innovative pronunciation and dictation exercises and student performance monitoring. Similar in format to Professional Interactive Chinese.

Some games do not provide pedagogical benefit. On-line vocabulary glosses hard to use. Somewhat character-based. Some uses of tape recorder control panel redundant. Menu icons and terminology confusing. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

2. Chinese Character Tutor (CCT, version 5) , Windows program on 8 high-density disks
Flashware International
E-mail: 71045.3475@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/fergab
$115; $35 (upgrade price)
$29 Audio Pack add-on; $29 Sentences Pack add-on

A feature-rich learning tool based on a large database of Chinese words and characters with extensive sorting, grouping, searching, viewing, printing and testing options. Includes main, user-defined dictionaries and vocabulary from two commonly used textbooks (Elementary Chinese Readers and Practical Chinese Reader). Option to find words, characters, phrases or word groups by sound, meaning, radical, subjects, index, lesson, frequency and shared characters. Notable for wild card search, parts of speech information, highlighted correspondence between simplified and traditional characters, auto-display, delayed presentation for self-testing, time limit in tests, performance tracking, user folders and user-addition of entries/sounds and annotations. Potentially useful for teachers and researchers. With detailed and clear documentation.

Animated demonstration of character not available. Grouping the features into basic and advanced categories and more guidance in the use of the wealth of features may enhance its use potential. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

3. Chinese Express (CX), 1 Windows CD-ROM
Perfect Media Inc.
Distributors:
SUP Bookstore- 818-293-3366 Monterey Park, CA
V&W Bookstore- 562-865-8882 Cerritos, CA
I.Q. Star Bookstore- 562-860-7827 Cerritos, CA
Great Wall Bookstore- 213-617-2817 Los Angeles, CA
ProSoft Training Center- 818-282-6280 Monterey Park, CA
$29.95

An inexpensive program for the casual browser. Components include bi-lingual cultural and business information about China, a list of words and phrases, dialogs on travel-related topics, and a mini English-Chinese Talking Dictionary. With recording option, digitized images and quicktime movie clips.

Different components are not related. Sequential presentation of dialogs sentence by sentence makes locating a sentence cumbersome. Translation provided for only whole sentences or passages. No vocabulary help for dialogs and texts on China. Movie clips not very useful.

4. HyperChina (HC) Mac program on 19 high-density disks
Sinologic Software
Phone: 800-869-9654 OR 510-420-0634
www.sinologic.com
$195

A self-study course notable for its keenly felt friendly and enthusiastic teacher presence, detailed explanations on grammar and usage, high quality of production, simple and elegant layout, user-friendly ergonomics and imaginative packaging. Features include recording, animated characters, and a dictionary. Other notable features include delayed presentation for self-testing, musical clips, innovative presentation of map, calendar, date and time, currency conversion and restaurant menus.

Pre-teaching of vocabulary questionable pedagogically. Graded vocabulary and no on-line vocabulary help contributes to lack of redundancy and therefore does not permit sufficient user control of sequencing. No vocabulary help on extra reading passages. Dictionary not related to the lessons. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

5. HyperChinese (HCS, the pronunciation modules, version1.1.) 1 Mac CD-ROM
Jing-heng Ma & Robert H. Smitheram
Cheng&Tsui Company
25 West Street, Boston, MA 02111
Phone: (617) 426-6074
Fax: (617) 426-3669
$79.95

A comprehensive course on all aspects of Mandarin pronunciation and pinyin romanization for beginners as well as dialectal speakers. Complete and detailed. Good selection and sequencing of materials. High quality sounds. Innovative tests. With recording, scoring and error-logging functions.

Long 'listen and repeat ' sessions uninteresting. Ergonomics leaves something to be desired. (Reviewed by Chu 1996, Zhang 1997)

6. PinyinMaster (PM) 1 Mac CD-ROM
San Pao Li & Jeff Winters
Ambassador Educational Services
7011 Coventry Circle, La Palma, CA 90623
Phone: (714) 523-2043
Fax: (714) 522-7410
$59.95

A pinyin and pronunciation tutor with recording, testing, score-keeping and error-logging functions, for beginners as well as dialectal speakers. Noteworthy features include complete syllable chart, movie clips of lip movements, on-line audio/visual help, inclusion of characters and user-selection of sounds for practice.

Menu items not descriptive. Practice items not varied enough. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

7. Professional Interactive Chinese (PIC, full version) 1 Windows CD-ROM
VentureTech. Inc.
2 East Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, PA 19003
Phone: (610) 896-9150
E-mail: pic@venturetech.com
http://www.venturetech.com
$199, $58 (teacher's edition)

A self-study course. Features include karaoke read along, animated display of speech production and character demonstration, recording, printing, games, English-Chinese dictionary, comparison of wave forms of the model and the learner and choices between Pinyin and Zhuyin, simplified and traditional characters. Notable for its voice-over explanation, innovative pronunciation and dictation exercises, student performance monitoring, capability for adding lessons, picture-based flashcards and interactive vocabulary builder. Similar in format to ABC Interactive Chinese. With detailed documentation.

Some games and sound waves comparison do not provide pedagogical benefit. On-line vocabulary glosses hard to use. Somewhat character-based. Some uses of tape recorder control panel redundant. Menu icons and terminology confusing. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

8. Step into China (SC, version: dialog 2.4) 1 Windows CD-ROM
RUIC Inc.
Publisher: Superlan Technology Co. Ltd.
Distributor: Summit Computer Technology Co., Ltd.
Phone:: (886-2) 6436226;
Fax (886-2) 643-6221.
www.inet-images.com/ruic/cstep
$79.95/64.95 (student price)

A self-study course targeting the traveler to China. Includes conversations on travel-related topics, as well as guides to pronunciation and character writing. Features include matching games, tests, recording, animated character writing, on-line dictionary, printing, audio/video effects and choice between simplified and original characters.

Graded vocabulary and lack of redundancy leads to insufficient on-line vocabulary help, especially if the course is not followed sequentially. English, terminology and ergonomics leave much to be desired. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

9. The Rosetta Stone (TRS) 1 Mac and Windows CD-ROM,
Fairfield Language Technologies
122 South Main Street
Harrisonburg, VA 22801 USA
Phone: (540) 432-6166 (or 800-788-0822 USA and Canada)
Fax (540) 432-0953
E-mail: info@trstone.com OR info@The RosettaStone.com
www.trstone.com OR www.The RosettaStone.com
$395

A whole course built around various association of voice, text and still color photos. Noteworthy for its rather unusual decision to not include identification and explanation of vocabulary and grammar, the option of direct presentation with no intermediary of the text and the possibility of taking tests before initial introduction. Choice between Pinyin, simplified or traditional character text and that between teacher-determined and user-selected sequence of activities. With detailed documentation and teacher manual.

Lack of explanation of vocabulary and grammar may hinder comprehension. Unnatural language.

10. Wenlin (WL) 1 Mac and DOS CD-ROM,
Wenlin Institute
Phone: (510) 534-1675
E-mail: wenlin@wenlin.com
http://www.wenlin.com
$150

A powerful learning environment with many uses but mainly an all-format (GB, Big5, Unicode, HZ, ASCII) text reader/editor linked to a huge database of words and characters, with information on their collocation, composition, related items, frequency of occurrence and etymology. Most notable for its instant bi-directional lookup and the amount of information provided. Multimedia features include digitized audio, pictures of oracle bone and bronze inscription style characters, animated demonstration of character-writing, character-recognition for input and testing. Other notable features include ability to added entries, user-assembled flashcards with testing facility, local and global file searching, inclusion of advanced level texts (Essays and stories of Lu Xun, Hua Xia Wen Zhai downloaded from the Internet ). Simple and fast navigation. With detailed documentation.

Addition of texts for beginners would enhance its use potential for beginning students. (Reviewed by Chu 1996)

References

Chun, D. 1989. Teaching tone and intonation with microcomputers. CALICO Journal 7.21-46.

Chu, C. 1996. Case study on the use of computer assisted language learning technology by Chinese language programs in ten U. S. institutions of higher learning. Unpublished manuscript. University of California, Berkeley. parts available on-line at http://philo.ucdavis.edu /CHINESE/ online.htm

Dunkel, P. 1991. Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Testing---Research Issues and Practice. Newbury House.

Dunkel, P. 1991. The Effectiveness Research on Computer-Assisted Instruction and Computer-Assisted Language Learning. In Dunkel, P. (ed.) Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Testing---Research Issues and Practice. Newbury House.

Higgins, J. and Tim Johns. 1984. Computers in Language Learning. Collins ELT. London and Glasgow.

Last, R.W. 1989. Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Language Learning. Ellis Horwood Limited.

Mowry, H.Y. 1997. The use of an Animated Tutor in Teaching Chinese. In Kent et al. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Microcomputers. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, Basel, Hong Kong.

Robinson, G. 1991. Effective feedback strategies in CALL: Learning Theory and Empirical Research. In Dunkel, P. (ed.) Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Testing---Research Issues and Practice. Newbury House.

Stenson, N., Bruce Downing, Jan Smith and Karin Smith. 1992. The Effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation training. CALICO Journal 9, 4, 5-19.

Teng, S.H. 1997. Towards a Pedagogical Grammar. Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association. Vol. 32:2.

Weizenbaum, J. 1984. Computer Power and Human Reason. From judgment to calculation. Penguin, Harnondsworth.

Wilkins, D.A. 1976. Notional Syllabuses: a taxonomy and its relevance to foreign language curriculum development. London: Oxford University Press

Yao, T. 1997. A Review of Some Computer-Assisted language Learning (CALL) Software for Chinese. In McGinnis (Ed.) Chinese Pedagogy: An Emerging Field. Chinese Language Teachers Association Monograph #2. Foreign Language Publications, Columbus, Ohio.

Zhang, Z.S. 1997. Review of HyperChinese: the pronunciation modules. Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association. Vol. 32:2.

Notes

* My thanks to all the individuals and institutions who have contributed to the writing of this paper, either by providing copies of their papers, review copies of software or in providing information concerning existing software, especially on the Chinese@kenyon.edu list. A special thank to Professor Teng Shouhsin for providing the initial impetus for this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Cecilia Chu of University of California at Berkeley for sharing her many software reviews with me. Dr. Xie Tianwei of the University of California at Davis has also provided much information and assistance. [back]

1. The CALL programs mentioned in this paper are limited to what I could locate at the time of writing, following the suggestions of some subscribers to the listserve group of Chinese@kenyon.edu. A more complete list of titles can be found in Chu (1996)'s review, as well as Yao (1997). Due to the logistics of obtaining review copies, I do not have any CALL programs from overseas. While the writing of the paper has benefited greatly from the Internet, the present paper has left untouched the whole new and exciting world of on-line Chinese language programs and resources. For obvious reasons, I did not include two of my own contributions to the field of CALL.[back]

2. Apple's Chinese Dictation Kit ($99) is for the inputting of Chinese into text editors with voice. While it does work, the user has to train it for three hours by reading pages of text. The dictating has to be done with slower than normal speed and correct pauses between phrases. It is available in North America exclusively from AsiaSoft (1-800-882-8856).[back}

3. ELIZA, described in Weizenbaum (1984), is the creation of Joseph Weizenbaum, an artificial intelligent researcher. With the ability to respond to open-ended language input, it appears to be an intellegent conversation partner. [back]

4. Phillipe is developed at Athena, the computing center at MIT. [back]

5. So, while the vowels represented by the pinyin symbol of 'a' and 'i' look different on the wave forms, due to the generally greater sonority of 'a', 'a' and 'o' and 'e' may not look all that different. Nor do 'i' and 'u', which have similar sonority. The different stops and fricatives also will not look appreciably different among themselves. Nor among the nasals and the liquid sounds. [back]

6. This is what NJstar has to say about the two features on its website: Chinese-English Dictionary: Chinese to English and English to Chinese two-way fast lookup, with 50,000 entries in the dictionary. Learning Chinese: with HanziInfo function; Converts a block of Chinese text to Pinyin with tone. [back]

7. Chinese Speech Partner ($89) by TwinBridge Software Corporation, Phone: (213) 263-3926; Fax: (213) 263-8126 [back]

8. The small program is included on the Hanzi Assitant CD-ROM developed at Dartmouth College. [back]

9. Strictly speaking, we may want to separate both drills and games from tests. While drills and games both incorporate immediate feedback, tests should not, if they are to mirror conventional tests and adhere to the purpose of testing and not learning. But since the tests in CALL programs are for the most parts seft-tests, which are intended for learning rather than testing, we will not insist on the distinction either.[back]

10. Two hand-writing recognition software:
Twinbridge's WisdomPen (V2.5, $299).
Gogopen ($179) by B.I.S. Information Systems (604-688-8916) [back]