Second Language Acquisition and

CALL

Andrés Zapata October the 8th, 2014

About Second Language

Acquisition:

2 points of interest to understand SLA:

• Process of obtaining

• People involved

It is, however, still uncertain.

About CALL (Computer Assisted

Language Learning):

A very changing field. Why?

CALL or classroom teaching? Which one comes first?

Found influences in:

Behaviorism & Constructivism, eg. Repetition & Creation

Machine Translation, from the first teaching method

Schema theory, internalization of ideas.

Why use CALL for SLA?

Benefits in regular computer usage. How to

get attention from the learner?

Exposition to language. Collaboration and,

consequently, negotiation of meaning.

The power of simulation. “Real” situations as

the key to learning.

“The sky is the limit”.

Fundamentals of CALL:

Framework Fundamentals Evaluation Module

Computer - teacher/materials - learner Levels of adequacy

How to evaluate CALL resources?

Identify resources: Think specific, think organizational, think current

book publishers. Mind courseware.

Identify environments: Be it local, online, or even mobile. Take the

possibilities into account.

Krashen: Optimal Input in CALL

According to Krashen, there are four characteristics for optimal

input:

• It is comprehensible.

• It is interesting/relevant to the acquirer.

• It is not gramatically sequenced.

• It is provided in sufficient quantity.

Problem: How do computers “grade”?

Solution: Difficulty level. CAT (Computer-adaptive testing)

According to Chappelle, design vs

evaluation:

An ideal model of SLA, the

negotiation of meaning:

Seven hypotheses relevant to CALL

development

1. The linguistic

characteristics of L2 input

need to be made salient

Notice important

structures/forms in L2 that

should be given more

importance, e.g. formality

markers.

CALL allows easy solutions

such as highlighting, underlining, etc.

2. Learner needs help

concerningsemantic/syntactic

aspects of input.

The offering of

modifications in input isuseful to ease the

comprehension process.

Expanding linguistic

knowledge requires

modifications.

3. Learners should

have opportunities to produce L2 output.

Expectation: To be

understood. Hence,

the program must be

able to accept theplethora of answers

available. As such,

good syntax and

pragmatic

appropiacy are

required, which is

another push

towards theirimprovement.

4. Learners need to

notice their own output

errors.

The program gives the

opportunity of what we

consider the classic

“check before turning it

in”. This is based on the

learner’s perception or

“linguistic intuition”.

5. Learners need to correct their linguistic output.

The program may provide hints towards common errors, referencesand even show certain special marks for errors, effectively providing

a new opportunity.

6. Learners need to engage in L2 interaction

whose structure can be

modified for negotiation of

meaning.

Interaction with the

computer is required.

Hence, the use of

hypertext links, speech

recognition systems and even personal knowledge

are needed.

7. Learners should engage in L2 tasks to maximize opportunities forgood interaction.

How to create interaction? Preferred type is for communicative

tasks. This means, use of real language over linguistic forms.

Sources:

Hubbard, P. (2014) An invitation to CALL: Foundations of Computer

Assisted Language Learning. (Online resource)

Beatty, K. (2010) Teaching and researching computer-assisted

language-learning.

Johnson, K. (2005) Facilitating Second Language Acquisition through

Computer Assisted Language Learning. (Online resource taken from

http://chiron.valdosta.edu/are/artmanscrpt/vol1no1/cobb_am.pdf on

October the 5th, 2014)

Chappelle, C. (1998) Multimedia CALL: Lessons to be learned fromresearch on instructed SLA. (Online resource taken from

http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num1/article1/ on October the 5th, 2014)