History of CALL development

What factors influence the development of language learning using the computer over more than 50 years?

Factors that influenced the development of Computer Assisted language learning (CALL) are divided into three phases namely behaviouristic, communicative and integrative. Behaviouristic CALL was first introduced during the 1960s and it was based on the structural theories of learning. According to Skinner, learning is supposed to be divided into chunks and learners are drilled to mastery before they can progress to the next level. Skinner believed that learning can be successful if the knowledge and content are divided into a series of steps and by giving immediate feedback, reinforcement, and reward. An example of Behaviouristic Call program at that time was Ultimate Language Tutor V3.  As time goes by, some problems were identified regarding this program due to opinions about how the program instruction lead to repetitive drills and kills the enthusiasm and motivation to learn. Thus, a new approach was introduced which was Communicative CALL during the 1970s until 1980s. This approach provides further development of language learning as this is the era whereby the computer plays a critical role in learning. This approach was based on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) that mainly focuses on learning through communicating in which students gained authentic experience by using the target language in a variety of contexts and places great emphasis on learning language functions. Students can learn grammar implicitly instead of explicitly and they were encouraged not to use pre-fabricated dialogues and just engage in a real-life communication without any problems. Computer plays three vital roles in Communicative Call which were as a tutor (as a teacher), stimulus (stimulate critical thinking) and tool (to use and understand language). One example of Communicative Call programme is called Hungarian Pronunciation Tutor. This program aims to teach the learners how to pronounce words in the target language which is Hungarian by clicking on the pictures and by listening to the pronunciation. However, this approach is criticised as computer was being used in an ad hoc and disconnected fashion. Even though it promotes communicative skills, educators were thinking of ways to teach language in a more integrative manner. Therefore, the last factor that helps in the development of CALL was born which was Integrative CALL. Integrative approaches to CALL functions based on multimedia and electronic communication during the late 80s and onwards. The four skills of language learning which consists of reading, writing, listening and speaking were integrated into this approach. Learners can learn by seeing and have more authentic learning environments. In addition, Computer-Mediated Communication plays a vital role in this approach where it introduced two platforms of learning which are Asynchronous (not simultaneous) such as Email and Synchronous (simultaneous) such as chat rooms. Besides that, the current online program that we use is Web 2.0 which incorporates some teaching and learning strategies such as collaboration, cooperative learning, and constructivism. Some examples of Web 2.0 are Blogs, Wikis, Podcast and Social Networking Sites. Those are the factors that influenced the development of language learning using the computer over more than 50 years.