AZCALL 2020
Virtual Conference
A State-of-the-art Comprehensive and Theoretically Grounded Taxonomy of CALL Tools
Irina Kuznetcova; The Ohio State University
Biography
Irina's research lies on the intersection of educational psychology, technology, gaming and language learning. In my early academic career, I explored the used of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs), Virtual Reality and video games to create Deweyan, democratic classrooms in higher education and middle schools. I also did research on visuospatial skill training through technology. My interest in foreign languages led me to pursue research in technology-mediated language learning. Currently I am looking into how technology can mediate language learning in online communities.
*Ask questions and comment below
Abstract
With recent rapid technological developments, hundreds of online, mobile and computer tools have been made available to foreign language (FL) teachers and learners. Learners around the world successfully harvest the potential of these resources to engage computer-assisted language learning (CALL; Ahmadi & Reza, 2018; Levy, 1997). Much research in CALL has been dedicated to tools mediating learning, particularly certain mobile applications (such as Duolingo or Rosetta Stone), social media platforms (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter), and games (Jabbari & Eslami, 2019; Reinhardt, 2019; Viberg & Grönlund, 2012). While researchers have attempted to to create a taxonomy of these tools (e.g., Rosell-Aguilar, 2017), they tend to (1) include only a limited subset thereof; (2) exclude tools that are not specifically designed for FL learning and may support more informal types of knowledge acquisition; (3) consider and classify these tools outside of theoretical frameworks within the CALL field.
In the current paper, we provide an extensive, systematic taxonomy of major applications and social media platforms (including the most recent ones such as HelloTalk and TikTok)[1] and their possible use in CALL for FL instruction and learning. We include tools developed specifically for FL learning as well as tools that serve a different primary purpose but can be beneficial for teachers and learners. The proposed taxonomy and practical applications are grounded in language acquisition, sociocultural, and educational psychology theories.
This paper can serve as a reference for researchers (to identify potential research questions and new platforms to explore), practitioners (to pick most suitable technology tools for instruction), and learners (to experiment with various tools for informal learning).
