Sendai JALT:

Is CALL losing steam?

Date: Sunday, March 28th, 2004 Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Speaker: Peter Connell

Description:
At the JALT 2003 conference in Shizuoka, Peter Ruthven-Stuart discussed attitudes towards CALL within the language teaching profession. (CALL stands for Computer-assisted language learning). Ruthven-Stuart's survey clearly demonstrated that CALL is underused in language classes. However, apart from mentioning the inadequate training factor, there is no analysis of why teachers are not doing more to integrate computer-based features into their programs.
It would be nice to have a discussion about the cause of this resistance to CALL. In this presentation, Peter Connell welcomes the knowledge and experience of the participants in uncovering whether they have had success in motivating students through CALL. We will look at CALL's (positive and negative) influence on goals such as the following:

improving student assessment results,
stimulating communicative ability,
reinforcing the teacher-student relationship,
facilitating an independent means of learning.

Other goals that teachers would like to pursue through CALL can be elicited during the meeting. By the end of the meeting, we will hopefully have a better understanding of why CALL has not achieved its potential over the years and, subsequently, how this teaching aid can be more readily accepted in language learning.
About the presenter: Peter Connell is a newly-appointed English instructor at Tohoku University. His teaching interests revolve around CALL these days but he doesn't claim to be an expert.

Organization: Sendai Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Sendai JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Non-members: Non-members-1000 Yen; student non-members-FREE for their first attendance, then 500 yen thereafter

Venue: AER kenshu-shitsu 2, AER Bldg, Sendai

Location: Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan

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