Journal #5 My Point of View about CALL

My Point of View about CALL
According to the definition of CALL on Wikipedia, CALL is a tool instead of a method, and it also helps learners with limited language proficiency. Indeed, I totally agree with this for that I do benefit a lot from computer-assisted tools and materials. For example, when I was doing the translation work or writing compositions, I make good use of Concordancer and Collocations Retrieval System, which are extremely pragmatic instruments.

The idea of taking focus away from the teachers to the students in “Theoretical basis for CALL instruction design” section reminds me of Professor Lin Mon Yen in Business Administration Department. Prof. Lin said that his role in the class plays as a facilitator who guides students to think and state their own opinions. According to Prof. Lin, through student-centered activity, it is beneficial for students to acquire independent thinking skill, and also learn from the counterparts. Based on the Harvard teaching style, he claims that he wishes the percentage of in class speech of the teacher and students should be 30% to 70%; however, students in his class, including me, tend to have 70% to 30%. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that learners must negotiate meaning and assimilate new information through interaction with someone other than the teacher. Same as mentioned in the Wikipedia definition, learners should learn to elucidate the information and experience on their own words.

Furthermore, concerning that students tend to prefer where they have control over content, as a learner, I like the way the students have the dominance of what and how to learn. For instance, in CALL I might skip unnecessary items or doing remedial work on difficult concepts. Indeed, the computer has the role of providing attractive contexts for the use of language rather than directly providing the language the student needs.