Biting the Hand that Feeds Me: The Case for e-Language Learning and Teaching

Previous attempts to typify the field of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have focused explicitly on technology or on trends in language pedagogy. This article offers a practical reexamination of CALL’s development, as well as its moniker, and its fundamental best practices. The expression, CALL, is deemed inadequate to describe our field, for reasons including overemphasis on computers and underemphasis on the role of the instructor. E-language learning and teaching is proposed as a preferred term, one that more clearly describes our field and is therefore more likely to be understood and widely accepted by language educators, educators-at-large, and language learners. Best practices in e-language learning and teaching are described as those which are productive, informative, collaborative, communicative, and aggregative.