Review on Week 5 Reading

Levy’s article first introduced some theoretical sources that have been used for CALL work, such as theories of psychology, theories of language, and theories of instruction and so on. However, Levy also found that some CALL projects have not been driven by theory as such.
These two situations can be well presented by two kinds of practitioners, namely formalists and proceduralists. The former likes to solve problems by formulation theory and apply the theory to the CALL context, while the latter likes to solve problems by writing programs and test them with language learners.
We could not tell which one is better since there are drawbacks in both ways. For the formalists, they must be careful whether their theories encompass the context of CALL. For the proceduralists, the danger for them is that their practice might be limited by what the technology can do and the reason for that is probably that they have no theoretical support.
After the CALL Survey, Levy discussed the result and made conclusion that there are potential strengths and weaknesses in the approaches of the formalists and the procedualists, as I put above. Therefore, from Levy’s point of view, we should be well aware that the dynamic nature of the development process in language learning and the concept of “fit” between the theoretical framework and the computer’s capabilities, then we could make sure the theory and the application could be compatible with one another.

Reflection on Week 3' Reading

Roed’s paper demonstrates the advantages of the online language study, and most importantly, it helps us identify the hardly noticeable problems during the study. Firstly, the students’ behaviors can change when they are exposed to a virtual environment, compared to their behaviors displaying in the classroom. Secondly, a virtual environment could in part increase the participation, but it could not contribute to the communication in the real life, since it is impossible for the students to depend on the e-mail or in chat room for their whole lives.

Every coin has two sides. A virtual environment is, to some degree, effective to solve teaching limits of the classroom. However, it also creates the other problems itself. These two problems above are what may be encountered in the actual practice when using computers in language learning. As teachers, we should be objective towards any teaching strategy and do not rely on any single one. It is better to explore new pedagogic approaches when coming across particular teaching problems.

A virtual environment is still a new land for most learners and teachers. There must be a lot of advantages for us to discover and unexpected problems to be solved. All in all, let us be the explorers and make the most of every new strategy.