Hello world!

I’m no one

but I can be someone.

I’m no body

but I can be somebody.

After all I’ve done

I did nothing,

but I’ve got everything.

Designing CALL

There is a set of process should be done in designing Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The process consists of:

a)    Determining objectives;

b)   Choosing types of programs;

c)    Selecting materials;

d)   Choosing software;

e)   Determining task;

f)    Designing structure of the program.

A. Determining Objectives

Determining objectives should be an important and crucial step among the process. The objective is a guide to the nature of the structure of the program. According to Russell (1992:775), it is important to identify the purpose – objective – the materials are intended to serve.

B. Choosing Types of Program

In language learning, there are several types of computer-based program commonly used. They are:

1. drill and practice;
2. games;
3. tutorials;
4. simulations;
5. problem solving;
6. demonstration.

Among those types of CALL program, a tutorial type has been more selected and preferred. Criswell (1989:9) states that there are two types of tutorials: linear and branching.

Linear Program

Characteristics of the linear program:

• presents every frame for every student;
• much like a textbook;
• word oriented;
• the instruction presented is the same for every student;
• the time taken to complete a program varies from student to student;
• the information is in carefully sequenced small bits;
• the student is queried about each bit;
• the student cannot alter the forward progression of the program except to pace it.

Branching Program

Characteristics of the branching program:

• permit interaction with parts of the program without requiring formal completion of prior elements in the program;
• include pretest of major section in the program;
• the program computes the student score;
• advises the students to either skip over or complete the section;
• include review sequences that the student can select as needed;
• the type feedback given to students ranges from simple to more elaborate.

The example of a self access computer assisted language learning program is Hartoyo’s CALL tutorial program. It can be explained as:

a)    The program is intended to assist students in learning EFL, especially grammar.

b)   The program is similar to the branching program identified by Criswell, but there were some improvements that made the program more interesting, flexible, and handy to use.

c)    The tutorial was designed using multimedia authoring software to enable students to choose any topic or information they want to learn, based on their interests; and to enable them to review any part of topic or information without any limitation. It means the tutorial is non-sequential.

d)   The facilities are:

• Exercise
• Accompanied by interactive feedback and students’ record
• Help and Objective panel button.
  • To help the students to understand the objective of particular topic they were learning.
  • To find help to solve technical problems in using the tutorial program.

C. Selecting Materials

The materials should ne compiled and justified through discussions and consultation with supervisors, English teachers and other English native speakers. In compiling materials, some recommended English books, information and suggestion from English native speakers were used.

Johnson (1991) states that there are some important things in selecting material;

1)    Do not fall back in to the trap of setting the same dull old task:

• Performing meaningless drills
• Copying out lists of words
• Doing vocabularies or grammar tests with one-word answers
• Memorizing ‘paired associate’ out of text.

2)   Subjecting their students to demeaning, futile and often irrelevant ‘tasks’ which they can complete with their mind switch off, or occupied with other things

In the Hartoyo’s CALL tutorial (1998), the program consists of the grammatical structures which are considered to be the mean problems for Indonesian learners of English.

D. Choosing Software

There are some multimedia programs that can be used to design and/or develop a CALL program such as Asymetrix Multimedia ToolBook 3.0, an authoring system running under Windows.

The ToolBook offers:

1)    Offers the application programmer quick access to common features of the Windows environment

2)   The application can include a sophisticated graphical user interface with such elements as Windows, menus, dialog boxes, and graphic controls.

The advantages using ToolBook 3.0 for designing a self access computer-mediated language learning program are:

• ToolBook is a hypermedia system.
• ToolBook is supported by text, graphic and visual illustrations and it can be combined with audio as well as video.
• ToolBook is mainly run on PCs (IBM) which is widely used in the place where study was carried out and is intended to be developed.

E. Determining Task

It is suggested that the designer of CALL system which “understand” their users to be able to analyze what learning tasks should be provided to stimulate interaction between the user and the computer. (Wilson (1994).

F. Designing Structure of the Program

The program normally consists of three parts:

1)    Information/explanation about the tutorial program to help the students/users use the program.

2)   The material highlighted in the program.

• Further information related to the materials is provided in the form of popup windows which appear whenever the user clicks on the relevant “hot word”.

3)   A set of exercises hat enable the user to access their understanding toward the materials he/she has just learn.

• A short break may be given to the user after learning the material and prior to doing the exercise. In this point, the user may be given a song to listen during time.
• The exercise section is also completed with a popup window that gives a response to students whenever they answer the question, such as “Good luck!”, “Well done!”, etc.
• It provides several facilities such as “Objectives”, “Help”, “Previous”, “Next”, and “Main Menu” buttons to enable learners to navigate to a particular page or section.
• It provides an individual student record for student who wants to know the result of their efforts before leaving or exiting from the program.
• For the teacher, there are facility that provides documents a list of the students who have used the program, the frequency of using the program, the results of the students’ work (in doing exercises), the time they spent using the program, and self-rating that provides a comment for each student.

à That is called Teacher Record, which just the teacher has access to open.

The Principle for Designing and Testing the CALL Program

1. Interactivity (feedback and instruction)

–> refers to how the program can stimulate interaction, especially interaction between the computer and the user.

Æ it includes the effectiveness of the instructions and feedback provided in the program.

2. Usability (flexibility)

–>refers to the flexibility, ease and inherent interest of the program used, and how easy it is to navigate within the program.

3. Content appropriateness

Concerned with:

• the amount of material presented in the program;

• how easily the material is learned and understood;

• how far the material meets the students’ need.

4. Effectiveness

–> refers to how effectively the program assists language learners to improve their mastery of grammar.

5. Performance (attractiveness)

–> refers to presentation, layout of the screen, the color, and the illustrations (picture, diagram, chart, etc.) used in the program.

***********

Designing CALL

There is a set of process should be done in designing Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The process consists of:

a)    Determining objectives;

b)   Choosing types of programs;

c)    Selecting materials;

d)   Choosing software;

e)   Determining task;

f)    Designing structure of the program.

A. Determining Objectives

Determining objectives should be an important and crucial step among the process. The objective is a guide to the nature of the structure of the program. According to Russell (1992:775), it is important to identify the purpose – objective – the materials are intended to serve.

B. Choosing Types of Program

In language learning, there are several types of computer-based program commonly used. They are:

1. drill and practice;
2. games;
3. tutorials;
4. simulations;
5. problem solving;
6. demonstration.

Among those types of CALL program, a tutorial type has been more selected and preferred. Criswell (1989:9) states that there are two types of tutorials: linear and branching.

Linear Program

Characteristics of the linear program:

• presents every frame for every student;
• much like a textbook;
• word oriented;
• the instruction presented is the same for every student;
• the time taken to complete a program varies from student to student;
• the information is in carefully sequenced small bits;
• the student is queried about each bit;
• the student cannot alter the forward progression of the program except to pace it.

Branching Program

Characteristics of the branching program:

• permit interaction with parts of the program without requiring formal completion of prior elements in the program;
• include pretest of major section in the program;
• the program computes the student score;
• advises the students to either skip over or complete the section;
• include review sequences that the student can select as needed;
• the type feedback given to students ranges from simple to more elaborate.

The example of a self access computer assisted language learning program is Hartoyo’s CALL tutorial program. It can be explained as:

a)    The program is intended to assist students in learning EFL, especially grammar.

b)   The program is similar to the branching program identified by Criswell, but there were some improvements that made the program more interesting, flexible, and handy to use.

c)    The tutorial was designed using multimedia authoring software to enable students to choose any topic or information they want to learn, based on their interests; and to enable them to review any part of topic or information without any limitation. It means the tutorial is non-sequential.

d)   The facilities are:

• Exercise
• Accompanied by interactive feedback and students’ record
• Help and Objective panel button.
  • To help the students to understand the objective of particular topic they were learning.
  • To find help to solve technical problems in using the tutorial program.

C. Selecting Materials

The materials should ne compiled and justified through discussions and consultation with supervisors, English teachers and other English native speakers. In compiling materials, some recommended English books, information and suggestion from English native speakers were used.

Johnson (1991) states that there are some important things in selecting material;

1)    Do not fall back in to the trap of setting the same dull old task:

• Performing meaningless drills
• Copying out lists of words
• Doing vocabularies or grammar tests with one-word answers
• Memorizing ‘paired associate’ out of text.

2)   Subjecting their students to demeaning, futile and often irrelevant ‘tasks’ which they can complete with their mind switch off, or occupied with other things

In the Hartoyo’s CALL tutorial (1998), the program consists of the grammatical structures which are considered to be the mean problems for Indonesian learners of English.

D. Choosing Software

There are some multimedia programs that can be used to design and/or develop a CALL program such as Asymetrix Multimedia ToolBook 3.0, an authoring system running under Windows.

The ToolBook offers:

1)    Offers the application programmer quick access to common features of the Windows environment

2)   The application can include a sophisticated graphical user interface with such elements as Windows, menus, dialog boxes, and graphic controls.

The advantages using ToolBook 3.0 for designing a self access computer-mediated language learning program are:

• ToolBook is a hypermedia system.
• ToolBook is supported by text, graphic and visual illustrations and it can be combined with audio as well as video.
• ToolBook is mainly run on PCs (IBM) which is widely used in the place where study was carried out and is intended to be developed.

E. Determining Task

It is suggested that the designer of CALL system which “understand” their users to be able to analyze what learning tasks should be provided to stimulate interaction between the user and the computer. (Wilson (1994).

F. Designing Structure of the Program

The program normally consists of three parts:

1)    Information/explanation about the tutorial program to help the students/users use the program.

2)   The material highlighted in the program.

• Further information related to the materials is provided in the form of popup windows which appear whenever the user clicks on the relevant “hot word”.

3)   A set of exercises hat enable the user to access their understanding toward the materials he/she has just learn.

• A short break may be given to the user after learning the material and prior to doing the exercise. In this point, the user may be given a song to listen during time.
• The exercise section is also completed with a popup window that gives a response to students whenever they answer the question, such as “Good luck!”, “Well done!”, etc.
• It provides several facilities such as “Objectives”, “Help”, “Previous”, “Next”, and “Main Menu” buttons to enable learners to navigate to a particular page or section.
• It provides an individual student record for student who wants to know the result of their efforts before leaving or exiting from the program.
• For the teacher, there are facility that provides documents a list of the students who have used the program, the frequency of using the program, the results of the students’ work (in doing exercises), the time they spent using the program, and self-rating that provides a comment for each student.

à That is called Teacher Record, which just the teacher has access to open.

The Principle for Designing and Testing the CALL Program

1. Interactivity (feedback and instruction)

–> refers to how the program can stimulate interaction, especially interaction between the computer and the user.

Æ it includes the effectiveness of the instructions and feedback provided in the program.

2. Usability (flexibility)

–>refers to the flexibility, ease and inherent interest of the program used, and how easy it is to navigate within the program.

3. Content appropriateness

Concerned with:

• the amount of material presented in the program;

• how easily the material is learned and understood;

• how far the material meets the students’ need.

4. Effectiveness

–> refers to how effectively the program assists language learners to improve their mastery of grammar.

5. Performance (attractiveness)

–> refers to presentation, layout of the screen, the color, and the illustrations (picture, diagram, chart, etc.) used in the program.

ICT in Language Learning