CALL Environments: Research, Practice, and Critical Issues
(Continued from Page One)

Reviewed by Greg Jewell
English Language Center
Drexel University

Perhaps the greatest strength of the book are the articles that very seriously promote the above optimal learning conditions, either by examining CALL implementations in light of what theory and research has shown, or by providing sensible advice that comes from years of practical CALL experience and rethinking. Among the best theory/research-oriented articles are: Part II, Chapter 5, "Audience, Language Use, and Language Learning" (Johnston, pp. 55-64), which discusses the ways that networked communication is altering the concept of audience; Part III, Chapter 8, "Investigation of ‘Authentic’ Language Learning Tasks" (Chapelle, pp. 101-115), which provides methods for evaluating tasks and observing the language that learners produce while doing them; Part IV, Chapter 12, "Input, Interaction, and CALL" (Holliday, pp. 181-188), in which there are very insightful comments about how software should be designed for interactivity; and Part VIII, Chapter 24, "Autonomy and Language Learning" (Healey, pp. 391-402), which offers a clear and realistic perspective on learner autonomy. Three of the CALL issues chapters are particularly focused on learner concerns as well: In Part I, Chapter 4, "Building a Computer-Enhanced Language Classroom" (pp. 41-49), Shayla Sivert and Joy Egbert describe their room layout and desk design that make classroom interaction the number one priority; in Part VII, Chapter 23, "Introducing Students to Computers" (pp. 362-385), Sheryl Beller-Kenner has written an excellent, detailed, must-read guide for anticipating and managing the kinds of problems that very often occur for ESL students with even some computer background (and be sure to take her "guess the icon" quiz on page 383 for a first-hand experience of how difficult software can be for students); and finally, Part VIII, Chapter 27, "Designing CALL Software" (pp. 442-458) by Elizabeth Boling and Keng-Soon Soo is strongly recommended both for those who create computer interfaces for students and for those whose judgment in choosing software is depended upon.

While many of the articles speak to the eight collective aims of the book, there is some variety of viewpoints. Most frequent is the difference between those that present learner response to technology as very positive and productive (e.g., "Internet communication ... increases self-esteem ... [and] encourages and motivates students" (Gaer, p. 69, chapter 6)), as well as chapters 7, 10,19, and 25--and those that deal extensively with the problems that arise when technology is introduced (e.g., "technophobia is clearly a force to be reckoned with ... Like it or not, computer-assisted learning adds computer anxiety to the other sources of anxiety and stress that learners may be experiencing" (Johnston, p. 342, chapter 21)), and also chapters 2 and 23.

Another point of divergence is on whether or when attention to form has a place in an optimal learning environment. Deborah Healey, for example, allows for "learners who work well by starting with language rules" as well as "those who prefer to start with language data" (p. 116 of "Communicative Skill-Building Tasks in CALL Environments"). Contrastively, in his "Audience, Language Use, and Language Learning," Bill Johnston takes the stand that "An authentic audience is an audience that is concerned exclusively with the meaning of the speaker’s message" (p. 60), and the authors of the two articles that follow indicate that they have adopted this idea as well (Gaer, p. 66; Opp-Beckman, p. 79). We might assume that attention to form has a place in language skill building, but not in human interactions, which always involve an audience.

But consider this: One ESL student receives a message from another in which verb tense shifts so much between present and past that the first student cannot clearly understand whether the message is about what the second student habitually does or already did. Can we say that the first student is to be concerned exclusively with the meaning of the other’s message? And if the student is not, may we declare that student, who might be struggling to understand the message, as an "inauthentic" audience of the second? The point being made here is that meaning and form are intricately interrelated, that there are times when inaccuracies of form do impede the interpretability of meaning, and that in the process of interaction, the correspondents involved may clarify their intended meanings through the selection of appropriate forms. Therefore, it is a mistake to conceive of audience authenticity--and, as it would follow, the kinds of communicative activities that students, their teachers, and their native-speaker peers could engage in--within such narrow confines.

Whether you agree or disagree with ideas presented in this book, there are opportunities to find out more in what might be the most instructive way of all: by investigating on your own. Each part of the book ends by suggesting several "Explorations" for classroom research. A step-by-step guide for conducting research is presented on pages 7-12 of the introductory "Overview" article by Egbert, Chao, and Hanson-Smith.

CALL Environments complements its theoretical bases for learner-centered classroom research with a vast amount of information on technology and many recommendations for using it. A perusal of the nine appendixes in the back allows quick access to information on software, authoring programs, web sites, e-mail discussion lists, MOOs, and archives of freely available materials, most of which are discussed in detail within the volume.

What first seems to be a flaw but may actually be a strength, depending on how one uses the book, is the noticeable repetition of the same resources or types of resources in more than one chapter. To give just a few examples, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University is introduced in chapters 9, 14, and 26; John McVicker’s (1995) NewReader software is discussed in chapters 13 and 25; multimedia simulations are covered in chapters 3, 4, 9, 13, and 19; and MOOs get mention in chapters 3, 9, 26, and especially 22. Although this might seem like a lot of redundancy, these same resources are being presented in terms of different learning conditions in the various chapters. Thus, a reader who is interested in multimedia simulations as authentic tasks would read chapter 9; in addition, thanks to the frequent cross-referencing of information and ideas throughout the book, the reader will also be directed to chapters which discuss simulations in terms of interaction, exposure and production, and learning styles. Combining this cross-referencing with an index of the pages on which resources are mentioned, this book would be a highly effective CALL resource; unfortunately, there is no such index.

It will be interesting to see how much of the software described in this book will still be in use by 2005. Although most of it is from the mid- or early-1990’s, some of it dates as far back as the mid-1980’s. This is not to say that a program is good or bad simply because of its date of origin. Creative teachers (e.g., Egbert, pp. 257-271; Healey, pp. 116-136; as well as others) who understand the possibilities and limitations of a software title know how students can learn something valuable from it.

But, as Sivert and Egbert note, there isn’t much ESL software that suits their purposes (p. 47). Both they and Hanson-Smith (pp. 137-158) are certainly not alone in taking things a creative step further by adapting software that was not intended or designed for ESL. This ties in with what Meskill, in the concluding chapter, calls the "hand-me-down syndrome": while education has at its disposal technologies that were developed using the funds of other sectors, the down side is that the technology was not specifically designed for what we know serves the best interests of learners (pp. 460-461).

Thus, by 2005, it will also be interesting to see how far teachers and especially software developers (or better yet, a well-balanced combination of both) will have gone toward rectifying this problem. Let’s wish them success, and make CALL Environments a required reading.