:: CALL :: From CALL to IMI :: Primary EFL Teaching :: A Project ::

From CALL to IMI

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has begun to develop since the seventies.
Nevertheless, there are some language teachers that have a conservative approach to technology in the classroom, because they recognize the discrepancy that often exists between what new technologies promise and what they can actually deliver.
It is largely because of this new critical awareness that the role of computers in language learning is now better defined and understood than ever before. It is now generally recognized that CALL is an especially effective tool, instead of what we wish it were - a miracle cure for language learning problems.

From drill-and-practice software, to word-processing programs, to network and hypertext software, the gradual integration of technology in classrooms over the last twenty years has tended to mirror the theories of learning and instruction developed by scholars and construed in teachers' actual practices. Thus, the introduction of hypermedia in education coincided with a shift in education from an interest in cognitive and developmental theories of learning to an interactive and collaborative view of learning.
Of all the technological advances embraced by CALL, none has improved its effectiveness more than interactive multimedia (IMM). This technology does exactly what its name suggests, integrating graphics, sound and text in a manner that is perfectly suited to modern theories of holistic language learning. Its applied form is know as Interactive Multimedia Instruction (IMI).

Computers and interactive media are becoming more and more apart of our children's lives. Students are often more knowledgeable and literate than the teachers who are teaching them. This fact can be used to the teachers' advantage if they so desire.
Actually these advantages seem to lie only in theory because multimedia software available is of poor quality or, for example, not specifically intended for classroom use. The so called edutainment is still based on unclear and/or old-fashioned linguistic theories. Nevertheless teachers can develop their own multimedia projects using authoring software, but this necessitates a specific training, time, energies, actually high costs in relation to the effective use of these technologies into the classrooms.

Above all a fundamental question rises: are the technologies actually available, really interactive? Can a computer provide appropriate response to our student's interests?
Computer programs with this degree of intelligence do not exist, and are not expected to exist for quite a long time.
Multimedia technology as it currently exists should involve a very important type of integration: integrating meaningful and authentic communication into all aspects of the language learning curriculum.

:: CALL :: From CALL to IMI :: Primary EFL Teaching :: A Project ::