The History of CALL

The History of CALL

Computers have been used for language teaching ever since the 1960’s. This 40-year period can be divided into three main stages.

I. Behaviorist CALL: In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the first stage of CALL emphasized on repetitive language drills, the so-called drill-and-practice method. It was first designed and reinforced in the era of the mainframe and the best-known tutorial system, PLATO, ran on its own special hardware.
II. Communicative CALL: This stage emerged in the 1970’s and 1980’s as a reaction to the behaviorist approach to langue to language learning. It stressed that CALL should focus on using forms rather than on forms themselves. Grammar should be taught implicitly and the students should be encouraged to generate original utterances instead of manipulating prefabricated forms.
III. Integrative CALL: The former one was criticized for using the computer in an special and disconnected fashion and using the computer made a greater contribution to marginal rather than central elements’ of language learning (Kenning & Kenning, 1990:90). And it searches for both to integrate the various skills of language learning and to integrate technology more fully into language teaching.