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2 years ago
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Blog #1 Introduction to CALL
I have only taken one course that utilized CALL. We did weekly online exercises, which included listening activities and short assessments. I thought it was a nice way to get additional practice outside of the classroom and to hear authentic pronunciations. I think an important aspect of CALL, which was mentioned in the reading, is that it's not a teaching approach in and of itself, but rather can accommodate many different teaching theories and styles. It just depends how it is used. A negative side to CALL is that some teachers may use computers to do their work for them. This brings me to wonder... Is is possible that CALL will become so effective that language teachers will become obsolete? Has this begun happening already?
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Good question! I think no matter how effecient computers are, there will always be a need for a guide (re: instructor) to be at least present for part of the instruction. I do think that technology will enable classroom sizes to grow to be much bigger...
ReplyDeleteI don't think computers will replace teachers though I think the nature of our role might change. Maybe our role be more in moderating interaction and managing the content virtually rather than being a physical presence in the classroom. This seems to be the case in distance learning already. It's a good question though and something that would be interesting to discuss in the class.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that teachers would ever become obsolete. CALL cannot be a substitute for a teacher. Although CALL carries an important feature such as individualized learning, it does not mean that the teacher should be left out of the whole learning process. The teacher still has to guide and interact with the students.
ReplyDeleteThe question in this blog addresses the issue of replacing humans with computers which has been evident in other fields as well. I think CALL could never be so advanced, so that it replaces teachers in the classroom. In the language learning process students need interaction with their classmate and guidance from the teacher. I also feel that CALL activities could never give the quality of the individualized feedback that teachers can provide.
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