Computer Assisted Language Learning: A Client's View

Perhaps one of the significant milestones in English Language Training (ELT) in the last decade was the introduction of personal computers as an aid in the ELT classroom. Although this was mainly associated with the more affluent societies, the fact remains that major publishers were quick to jump on the bandwagon to produce a sizeable body of teaching material for CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning). Papers have also been published which deal with the topic in one way or another. The views range between hailing the computer as the best answer to the otherwise monotonous task of practicing language items in the classroom setting, and considering it as yet another classroom novelty analogous to the rise of the language laboratories in the sixties. Whatever the view might be, it is perhaps surprising that the clients, and I mean here the learners and not the institutions, have not properly been consulted to find out what they like or dislike about CALL; nor have any serious attempts been made to measure the effectiveness of CALL based programs. This paper attempts, through a questionnaire, to shed some light on the first issue, i.e., the view of the learners and their reactions to using the computer in learning a foreign language. It also tries to identify the strategies used by these learners in dealing with CALL exercises, and discusses some general issues related to the uses of CALL.