5. Integrating EFL CALL, ‘E- B-M Learning’: New Trends in ELT

ELT professionals and educators endeavor to seek ways to make different tools available for students to be involved in their learning. CALL has played a vital role in the language learning context of both synchronous and asynchronous modes. New tools such as mobile phones, podcasts and social networking have emerged in the field to have their effect on the learning mode. Online and Blended learning has proved to be a vital tool for increasing learners’ motivation and satisfaction.

Keywords: CALL, MALL, Social Networking, digital culture, virtual presence, digital natives

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

It is increasingly important to base the implementation of educational technology, regardless of its nature and format, on sound pedagogical principles and criteria. This is applicable to the innovative field of CALL. It is essential to make a profound analysis of Web as a language learning environment, not only due to the novelty of associated technologies (social networks, virtual worlds, Computer Mediated Communication, etc.), but also of the existence of highly heterogeneous contents and usual lack of quality control for such contents, among other drawbacks (Felix, 2003).

CALL has been projected as a means to extendlearners’ opportunities to engage in communicative practice in the target language and thereby overcome classroom teaching limitations(Chapelle, 2003). It promotes personalized instruction and individualization in language learning, which, consequently, can increase learners’ motivation since students direct much of the learning themselves. Moreover, CALL allows language teachers to process and present authentic materials with flexibility (Stevens, 1992).

In CALL, learners have an opportunity to acquire linguistic forms when they are directed to notice some aspects of the linguistic input they are exposed to. The scope of such input is to transform their language. Linguistic input can be made outstanding by highlighting or stressing its structure and by repetition. It can also be made more understandable to the learner through various means of modification like simplification, clarification, translation and repetition. Another method is elaboration, which is intended to increase a learner’s understanding of the input by offering additional grammatical phrases and clauses like relative clauses and restatements (Chapelle, 2003).

Interaction and Integration with CALL

Interaction is one of the key features of CALL which is provided in three different ways: interpersonal interaction, computer-learner interaction, and intrapersonal interaction. The first refers to interaction between learners and teachers, in which the latter negotiate the meaning of a linguistic form, co-construct its meaning, andare prompted topay attention to the form. The second refers to interactionbetween the learner and the computer program by clicking,typing, and recording after listening or observing multimedia material.The third concerns interaction that takes place withinlearners’ mind, which stimulates their inner speech and engagestheir attention to linguistic forms and cognitive processing of input (Chapelle 2003: 60). Moreover, CALL tasks give learners an opportunityto produce linguistic forms, first, by planning before producinglanguage; second, through self-evaluation of linguisticproduction; and, third, through error correction prompted by teacher, other learners, and computer (Chapelle 2003).

Integrating new CALL technology into existing teaching programs creates challenges for both teachers and learners. Students are conceived to show better computer skills than teachers- a fact that could both facilitate and challenge teachers’ role in the classroom. Teachers could either choose to integrate their students’ digital skills in the classroom activities or feel that their role as controllers of knowledge is jeopardized by new webogogical skills that they do not master. The young generation of last three decades is conceived as “digital natives”;Prensky argues that they have “grown up among digital technologies like computers, video games and portable phones” (2001:2). Fairman investigated relationship between teachers and students as a result of introduction of computers in EFL classroom. She found that teachers’ recognition of their students’ digital skills had persuaded them “to see themselves as partners in learning with their students...” (2004:1). By contrast, Jenkins (1999) contends that one of the barriers to integration of ICT is teacher’s fear to lose “authority and class control because they believe their competence in working with ICT is inferior to that of their students”.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

The ready-to-hand access of mobile devices, which could function as a personal ‘learning hub’ (Wong et al. 2010), creates the potential for a new wave of evolution of technology enhanced learning, characterized by ‘seamless learning spaces’ (Chan et al. 2006, p. 3). Such spaces are marked by continuity of the learning experience across different environments. Mobile learning is pervasive as it gives an abundance of networked mobile and embedded devices, and ambient, in the sense, it is completely around us with learning enhanced buildings and networks or wireless cities. By facilitating seamless switching between varied learning scenarios, it is envisaged that these interventions will influence the nature, processes and outcomes of learning (Chan et al. 2006).

There is significant potential in the portability and versatility of mobile devices in promoting a pedagogical shift from didactic teacher-centered to participatorystudent-centered learning (Facer et al. 2004). Recentdevelopments of MALL demonstrate a similar tendency. No doubt, mobilelearning is undergoing rapid evolution. While early generations of mobilelearning tended to propose activities that were carefully crafted by educators and technologists, learners are increasingly motivated by their personal learningneeds, including those arising from greater mobility and frequent travel. At the same time, it is often argued that mobile devices are particularly suited to supporting social contacts and collaborative learning--claims that have obvious relevance for languagelearning.

In a study ofLan, Sung and Chan (2007) states that the use of mobile in EFL reading activity reduces students’ stress and opens new possibilities for them where they have access to EFL reading activities anytime anywhere with learning support and real time feedback. Learners who are not dependent on access to fixed computers can engage in activities that relate more closely to their current surroundings, sometimes crossing the border between formal and informal learning.