Week 11

Computer Assisted Language Learning and English Language Teaching in Thailand: Overview

Attapol Khamkhien

Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science, Kasetsart University

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

     CALL has emerged as a tempting alternative to traditional modes of supplementing or replacing direct student-teacher interaction, such as the language laboratory or audio-tape-based self-study.

     CALL can be generally categorized based on three teaching methodologies dominant in ELT:

1. Behavioristic CALL is recognized as the first phase of CALL.

2. Communicative CALL provides student learn and practice by using game activities.

3. Integrative CALL: students learn how to use a variety of technological tools as part of an ongoing process of language learning and use, rather than visiting the computer lab on a once a week basis for isolated exercises. 

👉 Advantages of CALL in Language Learning

- Support in language learning provides students with the authenticity of the input.

- CALL helps encourage foreign language learners to produce comprehensible output.

- The students can repeat their lesson at anytime and anywhere they want in order to understand the whole lesson more thoroughly.

- CALL can provide the facility to design the learning activities in tasks and to accomplish the learning objectives in the first instance.

- Learner-centered classes can be promoted by CALL.

👉 Disadvantages of CALL in Language Learning

- Given that the limited exposure to the target language input produced  by native speakers might be compensated by the presence of the Thai teachers in an English classroom.

- They might not feel at ease to adjust their teaching and learning styles and relatively rigid curriculum for CALL authentic activities. 

💁 Educational CALL Program and ELT in Thailand

     With the arrival of the internet, the computer has been transformed from a tool for information procession and display to a tool  for information processing and communication.