CALL in EFL
CALL stands for Computer Assisted Language Learning. Many people use their phones, computers, or tablets to look up information, use a translator and do research. It doesn’t seem like a very new or innovative way of learning a language; however CALL is relatively new field of study to ESL and EFL. About 2 decades ago, many classrooms didn’t have computers. With the advancement of technology it’s, nearly impossible to think not using computers and other devices in the classroom. CALL isn’t just about the use of computers, but other technology as well in order to felicitate language learning.
I will briefly analyze a CALL lesson plan that uses computers to help EFL learners.
Called-Based Lesson Plan: Teaching Colors (Pages 4-5)
https://www.academia.edu/15068836/A_CALL-based_Lesson_Plan_for_Teaching_Reading_Comprehension_to_Iranian_Intermediate_EFL_Learners
The objective of this lesson plan is to teach colors to EFL students through CALL. The equipment need includes computers, electronic dictionaries, a PowerPoint and head phones. The teacher will get students attention through using a personal weblog or PowerPoint. Then the teacher will felicitate and develop students’ interests and thoughts towards learning about colors. Next students will spend the second part of class using electronic dictionaries and the computer to learn about colors. The students are finally assigned homework and are given time to surf and explore materials on the web.
The strengths of this lesson plan are that the teacher has a good lead in or scaffolding to cultivate students’ interest and to direct them on the topic of colors. It also incorporates the use of other technology such as electronic dictionaries. This lesson not only works on reading and word identification, but listening as well. Students can play and listen to the audio through their headphones. This lesson plan also has an evaluation at the end of the class.
The weaknesses of this lesson plan include the following. The pre, during, and post lesson times are all an equal length. Usually the pre and post lesson times should be shorter in length, allowing students plenty of time to practice and digest the lesson content. Another weakness is that a lot of assumptions are made and some of the instructions are vague. Do students have their own headphones or does the school/institution supply them? Also it says that the students should already know how to use the computer, so there aren’t really any specific instructions to help students that might be struggling technologically. There isn’t a secondary lesson objective and the grammar concepts that should be taught are not very clear.
I would use a modified version of this in my classroom because the students must use a computer to learn during most of the class time. I could see that this lesson would be a nice break from only using a textbook in class. I would shorten the pre-lesson introduction and make the questions more appropriate because some of the questions were too wordy for beginners. I would also create a secondary goal/objective. I might incorporate nouns and prepositions as well. The car is red. There is a red car. It’s on the street.
Sources
https://web.stanford.edu/~efs/callcourse2/CALL1.htm
A brief analysis of CALL in EFL learning
Teaching Vocabulary to EFL College Students Online
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Reima_Al-Jarf/publication/267370620_Teaching_Vocabulary_to_EFL_College_Students_Online/links/548a9cb30cf214269f1acb0f.pdf
This article is about college students in Saudi Arabia. The participants are 53 female college students, ages 12-19. All of the students had at least 6 years of prior EFL study. CALL was used as an addition to the traditional classroom setting. Students used the CALL material outside of class to improve their vocabulary. The study looks to see if online instruction had positive effects of students’ “vocabulary achievement” and “attitudes” about learning vocabulary. In addition, the study wants to see if active participants had better achievements than passive users of the online material.
The study used pre and post testing as well as a survey to analyze students. The results showed that 53% of the students were active participants, using and posting frequently to the online platform. After the class was completed and the data analyzed, a positive correlation between students’ use of online material and vocabulary achievement was show. As shown in table 1, CALL had a significant effect on students’ test score. Results also showed that the students who used the online resources had a positive view of technology on language learning.
The strengths of this study are that it uses a survey, pre and post testing to evaluate the effect of CALL. The results were also evaluated by two different people in order to check or errors and evaluator bias. The tests were anonymous because students put their student ID instead of their name on the test. The online material was regularly checked and updated by the teacher.
Some of the weaknesses included that not all of the students used the online material due to various reasons (cultural, academic, beliefs, computer accessibility, ect.) The study doesn’t give any examples of students’ responses to the questionnaire/survey that was taken at the end of class.
The results of this study are in favor of using CALL to help students learn in the EFL classroom. Implementing and using CALL in the EFL classroom (or at least supplemental to the tradition classroom) has the ability to improve students language achievement.