Hello
This is a forum for debating the text CALL: definições, escopo e abrangência. Take a look at what some students have written about it.
Student 1:
Hi, everyone. Well, some decades ago, the use of technology has been used in class, maybe without the teacher realizing that. In other words, different from what many may believe, boards are already a way of using technology in class. As time went by, more sophisticated forms of technology came up, such as personal computers, tablets, laptops, mobile phones, among others. Regarding Feenberg´s theories, the authors of this article summarize that there is nothing we can do about the changes technology provides, but accepting and getting used to it. Indeed, teachers should try to be updated in order to assist and encourage students in the use of technological tools. However, as Bax (2003) “reminds” us, it is not any kind of technology that is helpful, or effective in order to learn a second language, for instance. And in this vein, different “methods/approaches” were (or are) not successful at all, such as the audio-lingual method, which is tedious for students, as well as ineffective due to mainly focus in the input, rather than the output.
Student 2:
Technology has always been part of language learning and teaching, and, with the arrival of the computers and internet, studies about their relationship also came up. Recent studies show that the connection between technology, culture and ideology must be considered, as seen in Warschauer (1998) and Chapelle (2003). This one also mentions a new perspective: critical, technologically-informed pragmatism. According to her, this view might help educators to understand this complex relationship and clarify some mistaken conceptions about its use. Many teachers are still uncomfortable with the use of technology in language teaching, and it could be either because they don’t have knowledge about its potential benefits, or don’t know how to use them. For this reason, studies about CALL need to be spread and the teachers need to be instructed to learn about these perspectives and face this reality.
Student 3:
I believe it is undeniable that technology and language teaching have a strong connection. I find very hard to picture a language class in which technology is not part of it. The authors state that the first boom between technology and language teaching happened with the emergence of audio reproduction and recording, which can be understood as an efficient tool to the whole process. It all happened in the 60s/70s when languages laboratories were also created giving a new face to language classes.
Many perspectives were designed in order to fully comprehend the role technology would be playing into language teaching, however, the one that seems to be more accepted it the one proposed by Chapelle ( 2003) called Critical, technologically -informed pragmatism, as an attempt to better support teachers with the use of technological apparatus, Chapelle also emphasizes that questions related to students and teachers should be discussed. Another aspect that is relevant to mention, is that technology should be seen as a tool to support teachers, and not the opposite.