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Overcoming the CALL firewall in the mind

Vance Stevens, Amideast UAE / MLI Project

Event number #4945 Thursday, April 11, 9:30 am to 10:15 a.m. Salt Palace 151A at the 36th Annual TESOL Conference, Language and the Human Spirit - April 9-13, 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah

An earlier version of this presentation entitled "Planning And Designing CALL For Serendipitous Outcomes" was delivered Friday, March 22 at the TESOL Arabia 8th Annual International Conference: "Critical Reflection and Practice" in Abu Dhabi

Abstract: The presenter brings 20 years of CALL experience to bear on traditional notions of how CALL is implemented and suggests alternative paradigms inherent in two development models he has been working with, one institutional and one on-line. Theoretical underpinnings are discussed and serendipitous outcomes shown for both approaches.

Here is an outline for the talk

Era Milestone Language teaching CALL
1970's How languages were taught before computers & early days behaviorist: audio lingual, transformations as a way of understanding syntax IDF, copying book exercises into computer, shooting movies on theater sets
1980's The move into humanism cognitive, learner centeredness, communicative competence, community language learning, silent way, TPR ... humanism in CALL, tools based approaches, culminating in networked computers and student scaffolding in business college at SQU, computer in my classroom
1990's Tutor / Tool distinction communicative approaches Internet; at the MLI - text manipulation to projects based curricula
This century Communities of Practice constructivist approaches Webheads communities online

The presenter wlll discuss the paradigms as delineated within this box while suggesting that we be thinking outside the box ...

Traditional
instructional

paradigms
shift to >> Constructivist
paradigms
Serendipitous outcomes for Teachers and
Institutional
Model
Learners Online
Model
Tool-based environments:
MLI & ERP
Zones of proximal development
and Communities of practice:
Writing for Webheads (LAN hyperlink)
Webheads in Action
Click here for an index of slides for an earlier version of this presentation

How languages were taught before computers

Self introduction

One teacher's solution to intrusions by inspectors checking to see if she was teaching the inauthentic dialogs:

Appearance of HP3000 / IDF Project:

Papert's Mindstorms

The move into humanism

In early 80's

Three observations:

Tutor / Tool distinction

My chapter on humanism (1992)

presaged a tool based approach I would apply to the MLI

and also discussed talk that goes on between students in the vicinity of computers (same room)

In the early 90's I had a networked computer in my classroom and was organizing student work via linked text documents

At the MLI, the CALL facility would include

For CALL planning and implementation, a toolbased environment is analagous with a workshop

Higgins: Authentic language is anything not created by a teacher for the purpose of teaching languages
At this time the Internet was revolutionizing access to language in ESL.materials

Serendipitous outcomes (examples)

Continued here: Communities online



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Last updated: April 10, 2002 in Hot Metal Pro 6.0