Using Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the classroom Over the years, English Language teachers have

adapted to several technological changes. In times of the Direct Method, teachers taught using realia, which came from only books or printed illustrations. hen cassettes and videotapes appeared, and the classroom was filled with D!D"s and M#$ recordings% and finally the computer. he main advantages of computers are& hey can contain recordings, videos, music and multimedia so they contain other media hey are interactive and students use them creatively hey can be used to create links with communities worldwide. I ' Information echnology( is a curricular sub)ect *ith the Internet, the world became interconnected and this had a dramatic impact on the way mankind conducted their communications. eachers should& Integrate computer based activities to the lesson. +se it when it is really necessary. #romote cooperation, collaboration, negotiation, and creation of meaning. hey should not use technology ,because it is there-, or because it is in fashion raining is the key to success in implementing technology. .naly/e& the conte0t, the students" needs and the availability of resources. 1elect what type of activity which best blends with the ob)ective of the lesson. .ct as a materials designer. he design of materials has to preserve affective connections and leave room for learners to make their contributions to the materials. ICT applications Each generation of language learners adheres to a different approach. hese foundations are complemented, in our modern view of language teaching and learning by advances in research into the brain functioning and intelligences. *e will take ask2based Learning, 3ommunicative .pproach and 3onstructivism. Our design of materials should take into consideration, whether I3 applications& a( Involve the completion of integrative tasks, where language is used as the means to complete the task . hrough the computer you can develop 4eading, *riting, Listening and even 1peaking ' chat( b( Cater for life-like or real life communicative needs. Life like& because you may mimic situations such as role plays thorough the computer. 5our students pretend to be certain characters. 4eal life& through the computer you can communicate with e0perts in other university or send messages to other people. his is a real life task because real people were answering real 6uestions. c( Promote interaction among learners, teachers and the community . 3hat rooms or e2mails or posting to social networks. 5our foster interaction outside the classroom, and also with the community because you can invite other people to post. d( Allow learners to create knowledge on the basis of previously acquired knowledge . he computer helps learners to create knowledge. It is an invaluable source of information, and there are also programs for processing and presenting information. e( Allow learners to carry out autonomous work . he computer fosters learners" autonomy. *e have to ask ourselves if our students are capable of using this autonomy in a productive fashion. his is the big educational 6uestion we have to consider. *ill learners use 7acebook to interact ort to insult8 .re they going to use it for bullying8 Is this responsible autonomy8 It is a continuing everyday process which involves our society and the educational community and parents.

f( Provide an environment where different forms of intelligence may be used in an integrated fashion . 9ecause you need either to fine motricity to use the computer and also you will find images, te0ts, many elements that the person needs to handle. In general, they should also pose a reasonable intellectual challenge or cognitive push and be appealing, thus fostering motivation. Despite materials design, it is worth analy/ing how 3.LL has been inserted into different approaches and methods and what it has borrowed from each of them. *e have to ask ourselves pedagogic 6uestions and not technical ones. echnology comes in when we decided to implement all these aspects of learning in a practical fashion. What must we do in order to insert CALL into the syllabus? Carry out the same process we have gone thorough at this course . 7irst an analysis of your students" needs, of their possibilities as well, because if your students may need to work with wikis but they cannot because it is an overcrowded classroom and you only have three computers Find the tools which best fits your students concrete needs . :ere we have to be economical. Do not take your students from a wiki, to a blog, to a 5ou2tube video and back to a power2point presentation. #eople )ust go cra/y )umping from one application to another% one source to the ne0t. 5ou have to think what is useful for your students at that particular moment and use only that. ;ot different 3.LL applications in each unit, because we are teaching English not how to use everything. 7ind the right tool for the right purpose. !ake sure that your students can use the tool . 9ecause if your students cannot use the tool then you are going to spend a lot of time teaching them, and this is time they won"t spend learning English. "ever forget to ask yourselves& *:. 3.; 9E DO;E *I : :I1 OOL *:I3: 3.; ;O 9E DO;E *I :O+ I 8 In some cases you may find answering 6uestions on a wiki which could have been done without it and buy answering the 6uestions on a sheet of paper. #erhaps the wiki will give your students moir< e0posures and your students more motivation, a better disposition to make things, because they will be on the web and people are going to read them. hese are issues that surround these problems of 3.LL in =>?=% new challenges may crop up within the very near future and we have to be ready to face them. The Web 1 ! he *eb ?.> brought about great changes to the teacher"s role& @nowledge easily accessible to anybody, anywhere. It was like a huge library. eachers were no longer the main providers of information and were confronted with the problem of leading their learners in the process of selecting, processing and using the overload of information in the *eb Increase the teachers" work as materials designers. eachers had to be prepared to e0ploit them in an organi/ed and purposeful fashion. The Web " ! (the early "1st Century) It is primarily a medium for sharing and collaborating. he emphasis is placed on interactivity, interaction and communication. It is interactive, integrative, social and creative. It is all about a ,1ocial *eb It is open to all +sers can not only find information but also upload content to the web, share and edit it, and use free2 access applications. 4elated 1kills& organi/ing, classifying, ordering, creating and relating information.

 9y using these technologies the amount of participation and classroom discussion would increase. he teacher"s role as materials designer becomes even more relevant, as besides a wide range of resources, the teacher also has an array of design instruments, most of which learners are already using for non2didactic purposes. Much of the teaching which is done in a classroom will be replaced by teaching done through the design of materials. eachers and students can create sites #rovide teachers with new ways to engage learners in a meaningful way. 1how students that education is a constantly entity. 1tudents have the opportunity to learn by themselves and share that learning with their peers. Education must be not only socially but collaboratively constructed. *eb =.> in education *eb =.> technologies provide teachers with new ways to engage students in a meaningful way. *eb =.> shows students that education is a constantly evolving entity. *hether it is participating in a class discussion, or participating in a forum discussion, the technologies available to students in a *eb =.> classroom does increase the amount they participate. *hat needs to change about our curriculum when our students have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls8 9y allowing students to use the technology tools of *eb =.>, teachers are actually giving students the opportunity to learn for themselves and share that learning with their peers. One of the many implications of *eb =.> technologies on class discussions is the idea that teachers are no longer in control of the discussions. Instead, 4ussell and 1orge '?AAA( conclude that integrating technology into instruction tends to move classrooms from teacher2dominated environments to ones that are more student2centered. *hile it is still important for them to monitor what students are discussing, the actual topics of learning are being guided by the students themselves. One of the biggest shifts that *ill 4ichardson points is the fact that education must be not only socially but collaboratively constructed. his means that students, in a *eb =.> classroom, are e0pected to collaborate with their peers. 9y making the shift to a *eb =.> classroom, teachers are creating a more open atmosphere where students are e0pected to stay engaged and participate in the discussions and learning that is taking place around them. In fact, there are many ways for educators to use *eb =.> technologies in their classrooms. 7or instance, *eblogs are not built on static chunks of content. Instead they are comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated every day% the amount of participation and classroom discussion would increase. 'http&BBen.wikipedia.orgBwikiB*ebC=.>D*ebC=.>CinCeducation( he *eb =.> and its tools Effects on of work and study& #erhaps the greatest impact of the Internet on our daily lives is the way it has changed communication, giving it an unprecedented speed and reach. a. he fact that communications can travel so fast has shortened the period for decision2making. *hen a decision is needed, or a 6uestion needs to be answered, people usually e0pect to receive a response on the same day or even after a few minutes. *e have to ,think faster- because our communications travel faster. b. he boundaries between written and spoken genres are sometimes blurred, in favor of the spoken ones% with written communications appearing as transcriptions of dialogues, for e0ample, in some e2mails and in chats where people tend to write as they speak in te0ts messages. hey think they are actually talking to you, so we receive a message with nothing but a line. c. !isuals and symbols have become a part of written communications, as is the case with Emoticons and other graphics. d. ;ew genres have appeared, for e0ample, blogging, te0t messaging% they have their own conventions and language% posting on twitter with so many characters, is proper of the new media.

he hyperte0t enables the reader to )ump from one te0t to another. It changes in the way people read and even in their attention span. he hyperte0t has its own pros and cons, the pros being that it enables the reader to use glossaries, references, and enlarge on the information provided% the cons are that the reader may very easily get lost. f. 3ultural differences are sometimes replaced by Internet culture. +sers share the conventions, rules and values of the Internet in order to communicate effectively. Obviously the 3+L +4E O7 I; E4;E . It is the culture of interculturalism, tolerance and universality. It is interesting, positive. he tolerance of differences, they tell the way we have to erase boundaries, in order to become a global village. If education entails the transmission of certain values and concepts which are particular of a community, the new situation challenges this concept, because if I am not talking with .rgentineans fellows but with Eermans, and Indian, I should ask myself& *hat culture should I have been taken as the background to my professional development8 his is the trend% however, this is going to affect identity. 9ecause we want to feel that we belong to a particular community and country, religion, social group. *e want our identity but it seems that as far as we adopt the Internet"s identity we may forget about ours. +sing computers is not about technology, there are issues at the bottom of all these which are the Fmore serious and have to do with our pedagogical matters but fundamentally with sociological maters. *hat kind of people we want8 *hat kind of people we want to be as teachers8 he big challenge is to become universal, intercultural, to tolerate differences, to learn about other cultures, but at the the same time to keep our culture and to be proud of it, and to foster our values, national values. 9esides communications, the Internet has an impact on some aspects of academic life& a. Learners should use articles and any other information from authori/ed sources only if the authors are recogni/ed professors or researchers or if the work appears in the website of an academically solid institution, such as a university. b. 4espect copyrights and do not copy and paste without citing the authors. 3ommunication in or thought the Internet
3ommunication in or thought the Internet 15;3:4O;O+1 .dvantages It resembles face to face situations and enables people to e0change ideas and carry out collaborative work online, strengthening social and personal ties. It is also faster, so learners can ask a teacher a 6uestion and e0pect an answer oin the sopt, or several learners may be working on the same document and producing its final version while they are fully engaged on the task. +sers can communicate in real time, as if they were talking face2to2face or on the telephone. 3hat rooms, virtual classrooms Maybe one2to2one or one2to many and hundreds of people all over the world% they may be involved in a discussion or receive a newsletter. +sers send and receive messages at their own pace and they do not communicate in real life time. E2mails, forums, blogs where readers can post messages and wiki pages can be edited by several people. .15;3:4O;O+1

e.

It enables interlocutors to plan their e0changes more carefully, research before answering 6uestions and even resort to ready2made or packages of materials, to provide information.

In both forms of communication written, oral and visual messages can be e0changed and shared

The Web # ! It will contain most of the programs we use now *e will no longer buy them and install them in our computers. hey will be in the Internet for us to use without even having to download them. +bi6uity, efficiency, and trustworthiness. more efficient transfer and use of information available at anytime, anywhere, through any channel or device Individuali/ed filtered and shared by friends or trust networks relevant and conte0tual information findable It will be $2Dimensional.

C$%&UT'( A))I)T'* LA+,UA,' L'A(+I+, 3.LL is defined as ,the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning 'Levi, ?AAG& p. ?(. It is developed in the =nd :alf of the =>th 3entury and puts strong emphasis on student2 centered materials that allow learners to work on their own. It is a tool to facilitate the language learning process It is used to reinforce or to give additional support 9y Interactive learning Individuali/ed learning

Historical phases of CALL '*arschauer '?AAH( and *arschauer I :ealey '?JAA(( *arschauer '?AAH( and *arschauer I :ealey '?JAJ( identified three historical phases of 3.LL, classified according to their underlying pedagogical and methodological approaches. 9E:.!IO+4I1 I3 3.LL '?AK>2?AG>( he first concern we would like to raise is about behaviouristic, I3 2based activities often called ,interactive-, for e0ample, true2 false e0ercises, multiple choice 6uestions and clo/e passages, fill in the blanks, give one word answer to certain 6uestions, to mention but a few. he activities are behavouristic because all the activities you were able to do with the computer were programmed. he fact remains that behaviouristic, drill2type activities do have a place in language learning, as repetition or mechanical practice is sometimes useful to help the learner remember words or structures. 1ometimes, they are helpful and people seem to en)oy them but they have to be reduced to a minimum and they have to be short. echni6ues and activities lose or ac6uire degrees of relevance depending on the theoretical tenets of the approach where they are used. he main issue is whether the activities we use are coherent with the approach we claim to adhere to. .nything that gets into EL methodology remains there, what changes is the use. *e use them here and there for specific purposes. It is part of our eclectic methodology.