1. Background
As the development of the world technology is now getting more advanced everyday, there must be part in which the educational sector plays its important role to introduce, utilize or at least help students cope with one of the most relevant devices that is the computer. It is said so since the computer figuratively represents a wide open door to see the world from many different angles and horizons. Especially in Indonesia as a developing country, the teachers, the students and any educational related elements have to acknowledge and enrich themselves with the latest knowledge and sciences to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process. This can be carried out by utilizing the computer, a convenient and sophisticated gadget in the new information era. Utilizing the computer can also be very useful and beneficial for teaching of English in Indonesia. Moreover, since the application KTSP curriculum is officially implemented, teachers are given space and authority to make adjustments by modifying any exercises, practices, materials and approaches used to accommodate the needs of the learning environment based on the internal interests of the school, the social and cultural condition or even the local government policy. So there are enormous opportunities for those educational institutions that are able and intend to step forward to make great progress in delivering the English teaching and learning process. By taking advantage of all the compatible features of the computer, they can apply the new approach of the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). But before this new approach can be satisfactorily implemented, there are some factors that should be carefully comprehended, considered and prepared.
1. The Definition
CALL is the acronym for Computer Assisted Language Learning and it is related to the use of computers for language teaching and learning. It is an approach in which the computer-based resources such as multimedia computing, the internet and World Wide Web are used to present, reinforce and assess material to be learned. The most important aspect of this approach is its interactive element for which it provides the self-study feature meant to supplement the face-to-face language instruction. Thanks to the developing technologies, CALL is finally achieving the recognition it deserves as a substantial part in the application of the teaching and learning process. It has been made possible since the supporting devices such as desktop computers that are now able to play natural human speech together with full-screen interactive video. Users can now communicate and interact with one another in real-time. Such virtual chats provide solid opportunities for authentic language use among native and non-native speakers on an unprecedented scale in terms of the numbers of users and the geographical distances involved. Another thing is the proliferation of commercial CD-ROMs that help boost the widespread application of CALL. A lot of programs have been produced to assist the practices of all the language skills, including the grammar and vocabulary.
1. General Advantages and Disadvantages of CALL
Actually, CALL has much to offer to English language teachers and will have more to offer in the future. That is why teachers cannot just ignore its existence and never care to the seductive and powerful technology that it represents since any life aspects nowadays, including education, are not separable far from the advancement of technology. So, it is vital for teachers and any educational elements to keep up to date with the latest issues developed worldwide and maintain critical or responsive attitude towards the changes. One way is by introducing CALL program into the classroom and implementing it as one of the teaching and learning methodologies to enhance the improvement of the English teaching and learning process. Among others, some general advantages of CALL can be defined as follow:
1. Self-Access Study
The greatest advantage of utilizing the computer (Philip: 1986) is that it offers a powerful self-access facility that helps to generate autonomous learners who will experience freedom of choice. The tools that learners find in computers allow them to assume mastery of their own learning experience. They can explore the exercises and the practices based on their capability and interests to measure how much they have learned. They can call up the programs held by computers whenever they want to adjust their learning pace. Besides, computers are sensitive to the learners’ level of proficiency. Some CALL programs are created meticulously to anticipate any responses given by the students properly and of course with encouraging feedback. This is to stimulate the students not to give up easily and also to help them recognize the mistakes. This means that students do not have to take risks of loosing their face among their peers whenever they make mistakes. Some programs are enriched with colorful and interesting illustrations or visualizations. This can be very helpful and attractive for students whose learning styles are various. For those who are visual learners, they will be overwhelmed with things that can be seen on the screen while they are studying. While for auditory learners, they can satisfy their needs of hearing something such as read out sentences, instructions, or just background music. On the other way around, for kinesthetic learners who prefer the hands-on practices, they fulfill their curiosity by typing their answers, dragging the mouse to the appointed objects, and making or building up something based on read out instructions.
2. A New Role to Teaching Materials
As mention before, CALL programs can function either as a complementary tool to classroom sessions or to their greater extent as a major tool to present teaching materials. Out of the context of CALL, teaching materials are passive. There are no two-way interactions. Nothing the student said or did could influence in any deep sense the linear progression of the content (Philips: 1986). In CALL, materials adapt themselves to the requirement of the individual student. That is how they are created to become interactive. Anticipations of any given responses or answers have been prepared. Consequently, there will always be mutual interactions between the programs and the students before they finally find the correct answers or give proper responses and before the students decide to quit the section then move to another. These programs are also typically demanding since the students’ individual active participations are ultimately required for the programs to be run and operated. Unlike material given as a classroom activity, there may be only several students who are willing to be actively involved while the others may stay behind and still the class session goes on, no matter how much participation has been attracted.
1. Changes in the Teaching Methodologies of English
Using CALL programs is highly expected to be effective since there are cases in which they are just used to give old materials a new aspect. This is the case of teachers who put students in front of the computer just to make fill-in-the-gap exercises. Therefore, there is an important fact in the application of CALL that should be constantly analyzed whether the uses of CALL are just to reinforce current practices or to promote curriculum renewal. In order to fully benefit from the potentials of the computer for language learning, language teaching specialists have to promote a complementary relationship with computers. The technology that computers offer has to be integrated with pedagogic programs that guarantee a real evolution of the teaching methodologies and procedures. This is the opportunity given by the KTSP curriculum for creative teachers to make necessary adjustments to modify the way or methodology used in conducting the class and delivering the materials using CALL programs. According to Chris Harrison, teachers should ask themselves about what, why and how they are teaching their students before they enter the class. They should bear in mind that students learn English in order to build up their communicative abilities. That is why teachers should place more emphasis on fluency than accuracy activities, even though accuracy is also crucial in the EFL context. They also should stress more on interactions between students rather than on one-way teacher-students traffic. They need to allow students to take risks without being threatened by penalties, to cooperate rather than compete, to introduce the unexpected and to take the initiative. Those are the needs that should be provided in the student-centred setting in which the teacher abandons his informative role and delegate it to the computer as the new source of information. This would result in an innovative teaching methodology in which the dichotomy between teacher as transmissor and student as receiver is broken. Now, teachers are going to promote communication and interaction mainly among students. The teacher’s role is only as the analyst and planner that make him possible to analyze potential drawbacks or errors in the development of the teaching-learning process. In order to attain this objective, teachers should encourage students to take risks, leaving aside penalties for producing incorrect bits of language. Finally, the introduction of the unexpected will be determinant to give students enough motivation to take an active part in their learning process. With the practice of this kind of activities, curriculum renewal is guaranteed, so that there is no doubt that a real and evident progress in teaching methodologies is taking place.
So far the priceless benefits of CALL are not comparable to the slight disadvantages that actually can be overcome whenever the preparations are well-managed. First, CALL programs are in fact very demanding in terms of time. A good CD-ROM can take hours to explore. And to add value to the program by creating supplementary materials or study-paths is an extremely time-consuming process. Similarly, the riches of the Internet, especially since the advent of the Worldwide Web, can lead tempt students into hours of “surfing” with very little concrete to show at the end of it. These problems relates to the school policy about the cost of the internet connection and about how good that the teacher’s lesson plan can facilitate the process of achieving the lesson’s objective and which parts of the programs that should be accessed. Another challenging aspect in classroom management is about the number of computers provided should ideally match with the number of the students in a class at the maximum. It is like that since the computer is aimed more at individual student rather than groups. Though, if it is only due to the insufficient number of computers, CALL program still can be conducted in groups of three at the most for the teaching experience to be effective.
1. Technical Support
Since CALL is related closely to the utilization of the computer, surely this technical issue is the most important and expensive device to be taken into account. It is obvious that availability of a computer room on a regular basis is the main facility that teachers need for CALL to be successful. For this, probably only certain private schools that can allocate the budget or state schools that have been subsidized by the local government in Indonesia that can adapt this new teaching approach of using CALL programs. Besides that the computers must be those with compatible standard specifications for the software installations. Teachers should also have, at their disposal, software especially designed for English language learning. But if appropriate software of a specific material or for certain level of students is not available, teachers can try to browse the internet to look for free software that can be found in the web. And on the other hand, to do the navigation on the web implies other specific requirement such as:
a. Access to a reliable network environment.
This is recommended in order to be efficient in budget spending for the internet connection cost. The school can choose either to have dial-up or wireless connection. If the internet connection is not needed on regular basis or just used for only a couple of hours per week, the dial-up connection may be considered the best alternative since the cost is charged hourly or how many kilobytes have been used. But of course the access to the internet will be very limited, especially when it is related to downloading or uploading data. Another option is by using the wireless internet service such as the unlimited broadband access. The monthly internet expense will be fixed. This will be beneficial whenever the use of the internet connection can be optimized for the teaching and learning process considering that subscribing for this kind of connection is not really cheap either.
1. Use of modern equipment and browser software.
The use of outdated equipment may result in unacceptable download times and thus failure of the experience. The fastest modems should be used (at least 28,800 bps) and, if possible, the best computers to work on the web and that would be the kind of personal computer with large amounts of memory required to operate the new generation of plug-in multimedia applications. Besides, teachers should note that many newer sites are designed to be used only with the latest versions of browser software, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. In short, the computer must fulfil the standard hardware specifications to be able to connect with the internet.
Otherwise, whenever there is not enough number of computers but the school insists to introduce CALL program to the students, using a single computer and then projecting the screen with an LCD can be an optional solution for a classroom activity. Although the result will not be very satisfying but it can be a prospective step forward.
1. CALL Programs
There are three different kinds of CALL programs that can be applied in the classroom:
a. Programs especially designed for English language learning
Most programs in this group offer two different versions. The first is called tutorial and the other is known as authoring. Tutorial programs (Davies: 1986) consist of some short introductory notes, followed by a series of questions, to which the student responds at the keyboard. Discrete comments can be built in, and error, review routines are automatically given by the computer. If required, a set of help notes can also be called up during the question-answer sequence. In order to be informed about the student who has not fully understood the point of the exercise, the results of students’ attempts at each section are stored on the computer. On the other hand, the later or the so-called the authoring programs allow teachers to create their own exercises. They can program part or all of the content to be learned. Some examples of these programs include Cloze master, Choice master and Multitester. With these, the format is pre-programmed and the instructor puts in the material. General authoring programs like Macromedia Director can be used to make an entire course. However, unfortunately most teachers do not have the time or the technical ability to make use of such programs.
b. Ludicrous Programs
Programs that are not designed specifically for language learning can be adapted for this purpose. Generally, these are called task-based activities where the stated goal is not originally for teaching English. However, using the target language is essential and highly motivating for getting the task done. The programs include Facemaker with which students create different faces by using words in the language to command the computer. Another is My English Partner, a kind of role playing games in which the students create and control the character in a fantasy realm. The program is based on pictures that enable students to work with lexical items and texts. For this, students are asked to look for objects that correspond to a certain word or the other way round, complete dialogues, maintain conversations with characters belonging to the program, or do comprehension texts, crosswords and hieroglyphs, among other things.
1. Word Processors
Word processors can be used to create an endless number of exercises in English -filling in the gaps, rearranging disordered paragraphs in a text, replacing incorrect words by the corresponding correct ones. In a way, doing exercises in a word processor implies giving traditional exercises a new format. In fact, this way of working in the English language classroom results in enjoyment that students experience of having all the practical convenient aspects in manipulating the computer. We also have to take into account that every single student has also the possibility of working simultaneously with his/her own digital dictionary without having the need to carry it from home. This is the advantage that CD-ROM dictionaries offer. Besides, computers allow teachers to give exercises a more attractive aspect by means of colors, different letter styles, pictures or even animation. Some people could argue that there are currently many textbooks that have a very attractive visual aspect. Nevertheless, we should also consider that always working with the same text turns out to be quite boring for students in a short term. On the other hand, presenting students these texts in photocopies would be excessively expensive and surely less interesting compared to loosing the technological flavor that computers give them.
1. The Readiness of The Human Resources
In order to implement CALL programs in a well-merged national standard curriculum or KTSP, another factor that should be carefully prepared is about the readiness of the human resources directly involved. And they are the teachers and of course the students themselves. First of all, it is important to evaluate the computer skills of learners. Learners with little or no knowledge of computers will first require a thorough introduction in basic computer skills including word processing, e-mail usage and the operation of browser software. The second factor is related to the learners’ language level and navigation on the web. If teachers want their students to work with ESL or EFL web sites, they will have to take into account that only intermediate or advanced level learners will ensure an effective navigation on the web, since most of the sites require high knowledge of the English language. Then absolutely is about the teachers. They should be familiar with basic computer and internet technology in order to anticipate potential problems during the teaching and learning process. That is why it is much better if they prepare everything before they conduct the program, including the right web sites and appropriate CD-ROM or on-line materials for the students to work with. Well, in fact it is not only the responsibility of individual teacher but any elements related must also be cooperative and supportive to realize the improvement of the English teaching through the implementation of the new teaching methodologies using CALL programs. The school management or the department of education must be willing to allocate some budget and provide trainings or seminars to boost teachers’ knowledge and skills around the applications of CALL.
1. The Application of CALL for the teaching of English in All Aspects
1. Computers and Grammar Teaching
According to Higgins (1986: 35), there are three different models of grammar teaching: Instructional, Revelatory and Conjectural. In Instructional grammar which is commonly undertaken in an English language classroom, explicit statements and formal exercises are consciously learnt and presented in a systematically organised way. So it is easy enough to be computerized. These functions would be presenting the students statements in the form of rules and ask them to memorise those rules; using some examples to explain students the theoretical points and assigning mechanical tasks Besides, attention to error correction is also considered to be quite relevant. The task of judging the different reasons why students commit different kinds of errors is better fulfilled by teachers than by computers since they know every one of their students as individual beings. This enables them to distinguish between errors due to carelessness, those due to round misunderstanding of a grammar principle, and those which consist on some kind of students’ experimenting with the target language. In sum, the teachers’ knowledge about their students cannot be systematised and turned into a language that computers can understand.
In Revelatory grammar, the exchange of meaningful language is promoted. Grammatical correctness is not the goal and sometimes it is not even demanded from students. No systematic progression of contents is followed and no memorisation is required. The main objective is to enhance language acquisition through motivating activities. Any language item is used to potentiate the target language. Then any text shown by the computer is considered to be meaningful language. And this obviously includes the instructions given by the computer to install a program that are written in English. If the programs that have to be installed are the latest version of a game or simply one that they really like, the interest that they are going to put in order to quickly understand the instructions for the installation is amazing. If the teacher wants to potentiate group work, then he just will have to arrange groups of students working with the same computer. Soon, the teacher will witness how enthusiastically students collaborate in order to achieve the desired goal. Some of the tasks that student prefer are branching stories, adventures, puzzles, or logic problems in which the computer has the role of providing an attractive context for the use of language. Many teachers may think that, although highly motivating, these tasks do not really help students to improve their grammar knowledge.
Conjectural grammar implies working with the target language in an inductive way. Thus, students work out rules from data, form hypotheses and test them. By this kind of grammar, it is also understood when students arrange their partial knowledge of a language into a system that they can share it with someone else.
2. Computer, Reading and Writing
Not many people object to the fact that the comfort of reading for pleasure in paper format such as novels, comics, magazine or any other entertaining reading text can ever be replaced by texts displayed on the computer screen. The phenomena happens since this kind of extensive reading bring unsaid joy or typical amusement to those who do it while they are being couch-potato in front of the TV, lying on the beach, or just sitting under a tree. And while they can really feel the arousal of their anxiety or excitement when they turn the pages backward or forward to find previously read ideas. And these are the things that can not be attained from a computer screen. But the situation changes when it comes to intensive reading, although there is no investigation that can prove whether students prefer doing intensive reading in books rather than in computers. But what is true is that intensive reading is more effective in computers than in books. Thus, for example, computer activities which involve rebuilding or rearranging texts have realized their value, not to mention the act of reading the instructions that are included in a CD game so that players know what to do in order to be able to play effectively. In the case of writing on the computer, there is only one disadvantage and that is the majority of students are not used to using a keyboard. Consequently, the process of writing may become a painfully slow one but this insignificant drawback can overcome by short term practice. Writing an essay on paper has not the same attractiveness for them than writing it with a word processor. To this, we have to add the advantages that word processors attach to writing tasks. First of all, mistakes can be corrected much more easily. On the other hand, students do not have to give much importance to the order in which they write their ideas, since they can easily change text order, and thus rearrange ideas as many times as they want. Besides, the grammar and spelling correction devices that word processors incorporate can be activated whenever teachers consider necessary. This way, students are made conscious of the mistakes or errors they have made and have the possibility of either checking or trying to guess the correct option.
3. Computer in Listening and Speaking
A large amount of specific software that has been created for learning English includes the teaching of listening and speaking skills. The problem is that rather, being truly interactive, the activities designed to improve those two skills are mainly based on drills. Thus, students have the possibility of enacting dialogs, generally of the question-answer type with the characters in the program. But these are closed dialogs so students can not ask whatever they want since they have to limit themselves to predetermined texts. Nevertheless, despite the lack of true or real interaction, this experience has been proved to be highly motivating and eventually turn out to be quite realistic if students concentrate on the activity. They may feel, to a certain extent, just as if they were really speaking to a receptionist in a hotel, a waitress in a restaurant or to a cashier in a supermarket. Besides, there are many other programs that also offer the possibility of listening to English with an American or British accent such as encyclopaedias and games.
4. CALL and the Internet
The web as the endless source of English language learning materials can be very powerful in building students’ knowledge and skills whenever it is utilized properly. It offers various and rich web sites related to TESL or TEFL in direct or indirect way. One of the most important aspects of the internet is the computer conferencing (CC), using a computer network for real-time synchronous discussion, that has successfully increase students’ motivation in practicing all of their language skills. Skinner and Austin’s survey showed that CC has caused three reasons how it increases the students’ motivation:
1. CC provides an opportunity for real communication and community.
They can have real audience and fully meaningful communication when writing since the purpose is not only for learning how to write but mainly in order to communicate with other people. They also feel that they are being members of a real community of their own age or of the same EFL learners. With these feeling in mind, they were progressively creating a shared knowledge for each of the tasks they develop during the conference. And what is more important is that they realised of having an important part to play in those tasks.
2. CC improves personal confidence.
Many people may think that the same activities that students undertook in computer conferencing could be developed in a normal classroom environment. It means that CC does not really bring anything new into the EFL classroom. Nevertheless, those people will probably change their mind if they discover that communicating with the aid of a computer enhance the students’ personal confidence. Austin and Skinner state that students mentioned that once they were used to the computer conferencing technology they felt less stressed and more confident than in other language learning situations.
3. CC encourages students to overcome writing apprehension.
Finally, enhancing personal confidence is directly linked to the third motivating factor: overcoming writing apprehension. Students felt that they could use the language without too much anxiety about surface errors, and instead they can focus their attention more on higher levels of text structure, such as creating and developing ideas.
Above all of the advantageous things mentioned before, still no total reliance should be given to CALL, including CC. Thus, for example, we may fear that if students become dependent on computers when using English, they will never have the courage of using English in real conversations in English. We cannot forget that oral interaction involves various aspects that are not potentiated in CC, such as body language, and the most important of all, the use of the articulatory organs. On the other hand, many teachers may find the inconvenience that the institutions where they teach do not allow them to be on the web for a long time. Nevertheless, nearly the same benefits can be found using another devise that CALL offers: the e-mail. It is true that e-mailing does not allow real time synchronous discussion, but the students also feel the same way of being involved on real communication or meaningful use of the language.
1. Conclusion
It is not deniable that the important of mastering English language must be among the major priorities in the educational sector in Indonesia since English, as an international language, has been penetrated into all aspects of everyday life. Most books now are written in English. Private or government appointed international-standard schools use English as the instruction language. To be able to access the broad source of information from the internet, students’ mastery of intermediate level of English is needed. Those are the reasons why it is urgent to keep up with the latest development of the world issues and the most recent technological advancement through English as the main tool. To realize this, CALL brings about a new dimension and a new way of thinking towards the implementation of KTSP curriculum in which teachers are required to be creative in adjusting and modifying the methodologies used to improve the English teaching in Indonesia. Not only that, any kinds of support are also needed from all educational elements related such as the school managements and the local government for CALL to be successfully conducted. The aids are either about financial support, facilities, or periodic trainings or seminars in empowering teachers’ computer skill and knowledge. But one final aspect that we should analyse in relation to the implementation of computers in English language teaching is ultimately an ethical question about the kind of classroom environment that is going to be created. The CALL classroom should not be conceived as a room in which every student is studying in isolation in front of his or her computer. The creation of autonomous learners should not be associated to the concept of human alienation. Teachers must think of activities that enable group work or human interaction and computers to be compatible. To conclude, great English teaching methodological advances can be made with the help of CALL. The specialised software together with the resources available in the internet makes more effective learning and improvement of the four language skills possible as does the new roles of students as active participants and teachers as the programs analyst and planner that the computer allow them to take. In this sense, the motivating power that computers have for students guarantees that they are going to face English with a positive attitude and this increases the possibility of the learning acquisition process to be a successful one.
Bibliography
PHILIP, M. (1986) CALL in its Educational Context, in LEECH, G. and CANDLIN, N.L. Computers in English Language Teaching and Research. London: Longman, 2-10.
DAVIES, G. (1986) Authoring CALL courseware: A Practical Approach, in LEECH, G. and CANDLIN, N.L. Computers in English Language Teaching and Research. London: Longman, 12-29
HIGGINS, J. (1986) The Computer and Grammar Teaching, in LEECH, G. and CANDLIN, N.L. Computers in English Language Teaching and Research. London: Longman, 31-45.
SKINNER, B. and AUSTIN, R. Computer conferencing- does it motivate EFL students. ELT Journal 53/4: 270-279
Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Context and Conceptualization
Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Concepts, Contexts and Practices
Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning
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