article about CALL 10

Virtual CALL Library

The Virtual CALL Library aims to be a central point of access to the diverse collection of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software scattered across the Internet and available for downloading.

Please choose from the languages listed on the left.

How does it work?
No software is stored here. Each program's name forms a clickable link to download the package from its location elsewhere on the Internet. As far as possible, this will connect to the 'master distribution site' where new releases are uploaded, perhaps the author's website. Alternatively, there may be a link to download from one of the major software archives - e.g. Simtel or WinSite.

Shareware and freeware
Most software linked from this site is shareware - this is copyrighted software that is freely distributed with the requirement that payment is made to the author if the program is found to be useful. Some of the packages are freeware - this is also copyrighted, but no payment is expected. Commercial software is not generally listed, but we have some links which should help you.

Some of the software accessible from here is compressed using the ZIP format. You will need an unzipping (decompression) program to use the software downloaded: Windows users could try WinZip or the freeware ZipCentral.

If you know of any useful CALL shareware or freeware not listed here, and to tell me of updates, corrections and suggestions, please e-mail me: M.R.Platts@sussex.ac.uk

Disclaimer: Neither the University of Sussex nor its employees accept any responsibility... You download and use these files at your own risk. There are no implied endorsements of any cited commercial products and nothing should be implied by the presence or absence of a given site in a listing.

article about CALL 9

PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES IN NETWORKED CLASSROOM INTERACTION: DEFINING THE RESEARCH AGENDA FOR L2 COMPUTER-ASSISTED CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

Lourdes Ortega
University of Hawai'i at Manoa

ABSTRACT

The present paper focuses on the use of one networked technology, namely synchronous computer-mediated interaction, in the second language (L2) classroom. The scope is intentionally limited to research concerned with evaluating the potential benefits of computer-assisted classroom discussion (CACD) in terms of second language acquisition (SLA) theory. The findings stemming from the existing body of L2 research on CACD are critically examined and a number of methodological suggestions are offered for future research on CACD. It is suggested that in addition to analyzing language outcomes by means of well-motivated measures of L2 use and L2 acquisition, a multiplicity of data sources be used in CACD research, so as to be able to document the processes learners actually engage in when interpreting and carrying out CACD tasks. A process- and task-driven research agenda for L2 CACD is proposed with the ultimate goal of describing the nature of language, learning, and interaction fostered in networked synchronous communication and to ascertain which features of CACD may or may not be relevant to the processes involved in second language acquisition.

NETWORKED CLASSROOM INTERACTION AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

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 technological developments and limitations of each computer era as well as, more importantly, the theories of learning and instruction developed by scholars and construed in teachers' actual practices. Thus, the introduction of networked technologies in education coincided with a shift in education from an interest in cognitive and developmental theories of learning to a social and collaborative view of learning (cf. Hawisher, 1994).

Since the early 1990s, national and international networks, on the one hand, and local area networks (LANs), on the other, have been widely used for instructional purposes within social and critical education approaches. The use of electronic mail, bulletin boards, or discussion lists on worldwide networks such as the Internet enables learners and teachers to access and share information in a time- and space- independent fashion. By contrast, the instructional use of LANs, which link computers in a laboratory or a classroom to each other, has introduced the possibility of real-time, synchronous, many-to-many written discussion by a whole class or by smaller groups within the class (Warschauer, 1996b). Both technologies underscore a view of learning as a collaborative act that happens in a social and political context, with learners and teacher working together in the new medium of networked interaction.

Some scholars have suggested that the era of hypertext and networked communication that started burgeoning in the mid-1990s signals the need for an expanded view of literacy: Computers can no longer be seen as a surrogate of the teacher or an intelligent tool in the hands of the student, but as a new medium that has changed the ways in which we write, read, and possibly think (Selfe, 1989). Without committing to such a radical analysis of the role of technology on literacy practices, I would agree with Herring (1996), Selfe and Hilligoss (1994), and others that we need research on computers and education that not only extols the pedagogical and social virtues of computer technology but also determines exactly in which ways language, learning, and interaction have been transformed by the use of networked and hypertext technologies in our classrooms. In the case of L2 classrooms in which CACD has started to be used, the crucial question from an SLA perspective is in what specific ways CACD may or may not be relevant to the processes involved in second language learning.

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Computer-Mediated Discussion in the Language Classroom

The use of networked computers for the purpose of large group discussions in language educational contexts began with hearing impaired students learning L1 composition at Gallaudet University (Batson, 1988). The software application for computer-assisted classroom discussion (CACD) which is most widely used in foreign language classrooms is the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment (Daedalus Inc., 1989) and its application InterChange. This software was developed in the 1980s in the English Department at the University of Texas at Austin by Fred Kemp, a scholar in composition studies, and colleagues. Social theories of writing instruction that emphasize the collaborative nature of meaning and writing were at the core of the Daedalus software as it was intended to be used in composition classes (see Barker & Kemp, 1990; and for a discussion of the concomitant social epistemic theory of writing, see Berlin, 1987). In foreign language classes, Daedalus began to be used also in the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1990s, but the orientation was more on target-language practice than on the development of writing skills. In the last six years, a small number of FL studies (and most recently ESL studies) have reported on the use of InterChange/Daedalus in CACD in various FL classes in universities in the United States, typically for general classroom discussion purposes rather than in connection with L2 writing instruction.

How does CACD work? During a typical Daedalus/InterChange session in the computer lab, each student sits in front of a computer terminal and is free to type in messages that can be sent by clicking on the "send" button on the screen. Sent messages appear on the upper half of all individual screens, displayed in the order in which they were sent and automatically identified with the name of the sender. All class members can read each other's comments at their own pace by scrolling up and down the sent-messages window, and they can write messages at their own leisure without interfering effects (freezing, etc.) from incoming messages.

Among the many different types of CALL activities available for second language instruction, CACD stands as a promising area for research in second language learning and teaching for several reasons. For one, conducting class discussions on a computer network entails meaningful use of the target language and forces teachers and students away from treating language as an object rather than as a medium of communication (e.g., Colomb & Simutis, 1996). Not only is CACD a communicative CALL activity in Underwood's (1984) sense, but it can promote a task- and interaction-driven approach to L2 learning and teaching which is the backdrop to concrete proposals for curriculum design superseding traditional communicative approaches (e.g., analytic and Type B syllabi as outlined in Wilkins, 1976, and White, 1988, respectively; see also detailed discussion of procedural, process, and task syllabi in Long & Crookes, 1993). The communicative investment and the meaningfulness and relevance achieved in many CACD discussions appear to provide for a context in which opportunities for language development are enhanced, since students are motivated to stretch their linguistic resources in order to meet the demands of real communication in a social context. In brief, the CACD environment appears to be optimal for devising CALL activities that facilitate and promote comprehensible output (Swain, 1985) within a holistic, process- and task-oriented approach to the L2 curriculum (Long & Crookes, 1993). Other benefits of CACD associated with language learning that have been repeatedly singled out in the FL literature are:

• Learners are able to contribute as much as they want at their own pace and leisure; consequently, they tend to perceive CACD as less threatening and inhibiting than oral interactions and produce a high amount of writing, with all students participating to a high degree and all producing several turns/messages per session.
• Because of the interactive nature of the writing, learners are expected to engage in a variety of interactive moves on the computer and to take control of managing the discussion.
• Learners make use of the available opportunity to take time to plan their messages and edit them. In this way they engage in productive L2 strategies and processes.

article about CALL 8

oes feedback enhance computer-assisted language learning?

References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Elisabeth van der Linden^a

^aUniversity of Amsterdam, Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Available online 19 July 2002.

Abstract

Programs for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) are becoming more complex. On one hand, courseware designers develop programs of a more open-ended character, e.g. adventures, hypermedia courseware. On the other hand, courseware in the traditional drill and practice vein is more and more elaborate and offers extensive feedback to the learner. Developing this last type of courseware, in which feedback generally is based on an error analysis of a large group of learners, demands an enormous investment in time and energy. The question is whether this investment pays off: do learners indeed learn better by programs with a considerable amount of feedback?

This question was addressed in a research project at the French Department of the University of Amsterdam. Students' reactions to feedback were studied in two ways. First, log files were analyzed containing the series of tasks-responses-feedback of each student. In addition, think aloud protocols were analyzed. The results from the log files, which were confirmed by the analysis of the think aloud protocols, show that there was no overall successful strategy. While some students made optimal use of the feedback provided, others seemed to avoid using it in several ways.

article about CALL 7

article about literature 10

A very short concentration on the impact of war on contemporary poetry of Iran

Written by Administrator

Dec 26, 2009 at 08:24 AM

Since the declaration of war against Iran by the former president and dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, the theme of war have been the major theme of contemporary literature of Iran. The war, that is called the imposed war in Iran, has had a pervasive impact on the consciousness of Iranian poets shaping a new period of symbolism mostly applying mystic and religious outlook toward literature consequently the application of poetry in the turn of political system was mainly provoking the crowd. Following this method many poets dedicated their pens to convey the newly raised Islamic values especially those were about the concept of jihad (holy war) and shahadat (martyr ship). In contrast to what they had in mind, all these attempts never ended to a well-formed epic because the national aspects of their poetry never superseded its Islamic aspects. The war nurtured a new style in poetry that portrayed it romantically instead of giving a tragic or realistic picture. The outcome of such a view was changing the imposed war into holy defense. After war although this style remained to be the dominant style of poetry patronized by the government but the theme of nostalgia, which was supposed to be applied any way, made the picture of war more and more far from realism. In the very beginning small spots of lights of change sparkled in free verse. Claiming to be avant-garde poets, they suggested some other different views. Following those, in the recent decade Qazal writers proposed other ways to convey the theme of war. How ever they inherited that from free verse but they themselves gave a new taste to it. The war between Iran and Iraq still has drastic impacts on contemporary poetry of Iran but recently these impacts are mostly canalized in the way that even some times the literary products contradicts the values of the government.

article about literature 9

The romantic beast among non romantic beauties

Written by Administrator

Sep 07, 2008 at 02:00 PM

What do we mean exactly when we call some one or some thing romantic? The term is notoriously difficult to be defined and even got more complex by the amount of recent critical attempts. What makes this to be such complicated are those different fields, movements and genres in which the term has been emerged. Romantic spirit of politics seems to be synonymous with nationalism while romanticism in literature challenges a sense of national identity and nation hood [1]. Accordingly one may come to the point that Lovejoy was right to say “the word, romantic, has come to mean so many things that by itself it means nothing” [2]. Consequently it would be excused if we specify the term just in case. Hereby as we are dealing with the genre of novel we need to trace “romantic codes” in the works of some early novelists who are said to be among the fore runners of writing romantic novels or fictions including: Samuel Richardson, Horace Walpole and Mrs. Radcliff. These writers fed a taste for gothic tales of dark castles, midnight escapes and shining heroism, all given a somewhat sensational medieval setting. Mrs. Radcliff adds other romantic notes: nature and beauty [3] which are more suitably useable in our case. Considering the work of Shelly, one can find her beast to be born in the world not just strongly attracted to its beauty and transparently avid of nature but almost hopelessly impaled on them. In the time Shelly wrote Frankenstein, Lock’s idea that people were not born with innate ideas was a common belief. Lock imagined people as a kind of blank canvas or “tabula rasa” accordingly the monster in Frankenstein is portrayed in this way, as his most early impressions of the world surrounding and its inhabitants are combined with a kind of openness and innocence but soon he finds other people not charming and welcome but some sorts of beautiful beasts ( or it is better to say not too much ugly as he was) so he leaves the city and hides him self in the woods seeking the natural beauty of the world as a meaning for his life. By cogitating about former fictional and mythical characters and meditating about his needs, he thirsts for love and having a mate. But because he is detached from his origins, the beauty he loves should be some thing detached as well. He is not interested in other people as other people are not interested in him so he asks Victor Frankenstein to give him a mate from his own origin. This instinctual request leads the narration to its crisis point. Those former fictional characters we foresaid, all had their romantic and amorous moments in which they could laugh with or cry for their loveable mates. Perhaps if our monster had cried, for just one moment, in a monstrous feminine bosom, he would have also believed to be a wretched one not the most wretched. Perhaps this is the scene that is flashing in the creature’s mind and makes his thirst more intense, makes him jealous of life time of being in love. [4] The world surrounding deprives him of the love he seeks and this “not reaching” the love is what he writes on his “tabula rasa” by the hands of other people. This might seem to be so deterministic but quite contrary to this notion, one can find the beast a newly born creature with free will to choose, knowing that also he did not choose the form of his life but he could choose its theme. We titled this essay “the romantic beast among non romantic beauties” but as we know that romanticism is ruled by the laws of nature we can find the beast to be the non romantic one. Because he belongs to the realm of corpses and not living people, by insisting to live and love, he is the one who violates the regulations designed by nature. Perhaps it is not a wrong interpretation that corpses should stay dead…

article about literature 8

iterary landscape in Equatorial Guinea an afro-ibero-american universeBy Joaquin Mbomio Bacheng

Context

Donato Ndongo Bidjogo and other Equatorial Guinean writers' involvement in the University of Columbia-Missouri's cultural days featuring Hispano-American literature that was organised in the United States from 12-16 May 1999 was a pleasant surprise - Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country is currently undergoing a huge creative boom.
Once Spain's only colony in Sub-Saharan Africa, Equatorial Guinea became independent in 1968 and the new government very quickly cut all ties with its former coloniser by setting up a repressive autarkical regime. The intellectual elite that grew during Spanish sovereignty was gradually eradicated in a series of purges under the new regime. The country's first Head of State, Macias Nguema, ran the country with an iron fist and was behind what Max Miniger-Goumas (a specialist on Equatorial Guinea and member of the Spanish college of African studies) calls "Nguemism". Between 1968, independence year, and 1979, when the coup d'état against Macias took place, literary expression was banned. Important figures from the literary and art worlds were systematically eliminated. The execution of Dr Manuel Castillo Barril at the Bata prison, and the assassination of Professor Mambo Matal in the Black Beach penitentiary in Malabo, are perfect examples of the vehemence of this anti-intellectual movement. To preserve their integrity, the surviving intellectuals had no other choice but to take exile in Spain. Dr Nzé Abuy, the first Archbishop of Equatorial Guinea and author of a number of works (1) was one of the first to leave.
The fall of Macias in 1979 marked the renewal of relations between Equatorial Guinea and Europe. In 1980, Equatorial Guinea and Spain signed a co-operation agreement. Culture became an important feature of the new relationship between the two countries. Three men (previously exiled in Spain and very much in the lime-light) were to play a vital role in reviving Hispanic culture in Equatorial Guinea: sculptor Leandro Mbomio Nsue (2) (the Minister of Culture), writer Donato Ndong Bidjogo (3) (Deputy of the Hispano-Guinean cultural centre and co-ordinator of the cultural magazine, Africa 2000), and Professor Constantino Ochaa Nvé (4) (Director of scientific research). The Centro Hispano-Guineano cultural centre, which opened in Malabo in the early 1980s and hosts a publishing house, rapidly became the nerve-centre for the cultural revival, with Spain's support, through the publication and distribution of quality works of literature written by authors from Equatorial Guinea.
During the 11 years following the 1968 independence, Equatorial Guinea only had one recognised novel. Cuando Los Combes Luchaban was written in 1953 by Leoncio Evita (5). During the 1980s there was a veritable literary renaissance, encouraged by a swarm of writing competitions and literary awards. This was Equatorial Guinea's "siglo de oro" (golden age). Equatorial Guinea's literary renaissance was consolidated in the 1990s with the publication of a number of novels, essays and treatises, often included in University syllabuses in neighbouring countries (especially Cameroon and Gabon). Such was the case with Donato Ndongo Bidjogo's Las tinieblas de tu memoria negra [Darkness in your black memory](6) and El Parroco de Niefang [The cleric of Niefang](7) by the author of this article.

Original literature

At a crowded conference during the cultural festival at the University of Columbia, Donato Ndongo Bidjogo presented his country's literature as being unique in Africa, having developed within a mixed Hispano-African environment. Equatorial Guinean literature takes its inspiration from stories by Cervantès, and Octavio Paz and Pablo Neruda's poetry. However, it is also first and foremost a way of expressing tradition, a product of the ancestral imagination, deeply rooted in the very soul of Africa - an Africa of ritual, of myths, of legends, of tales, of dance and of communal discussions. Artistic creativity in Equatorial Guinea is thus fed by very different, and yet very complimentary African, Hispanic and American cultures. Literature from Equatorial Guinea is the product of a tri-dimensional cultural environment - that of Afro-Ibero-Americanism - and this is what makes it unique.
Literature from Equatorial Guinea is also unique in the way it is evolving, as the beginnings of a literature of transition. It is an expression of the fight to deconstruct colonial hierarchy, a cry of anguish in its post-independence exile. It is a song of freedom in its eternal quest for a new world. It is formed by new cultural realities bearing the mark of a new cultural identity.

Authors and themes

There are basically three main generations of literary expression in Equatorial Guinea. These are clearly defined by their historical and chronological context. They are: the Elder Generation (colonial period 1900 - 1968), the Exiled Generation (1968 - 1985) and Contemporary Generation (after 1985).
The literature of the Elder Generation is dominated by the colonial period. It first reflects the rupture in African society violated by the brutal appearance of the "white man" and his colonialism. The Elder Generation is characterised by descriptions of the new African situation with the eradication of ancestral society, replaced by the realities of the colonial period. Lastly, this literature provides the first accounts of a new awareness of the indigenous identity and takes the first step in the fight for the country's independence. Leoncio Evita's work, Cuando los Combes Luchaban (cited earlier) had a strong influence on this period.
The intellectuals of the Exiled Generation lived through the terror that reigned during the first eleven years of independence. Most of these authors left their mother country and those who stayed under the dictatorship were exiled and isolated within their own country. During this period - a time of anguish for those who stayed and a time of anonymity for those who left - Equatorial Guinean intellectuals could not help but write about the people's suffering. Literary expression became the African's cry from within, his reaction to the awful realities of the time. This literature is marked by a powerful lyricism that Professor Mbare Ngom (8) has called the "moriña". The "moriña" is the heart-felt expression of an intense pain used as a form of political protest. The Exiled Generation is a generation of poets, a generation that bears both physical and mental scars. Some of the authors of this period have remained anonymous while others are now well known. Zamora Loboch, Balboa Boneke, and Ciriaco Bokesa are all part of this generation, but their greatest representative is Anacleto Olo Mibuy (9), Equatorial Guinea's literary griot, exponent of Afro-Hispanism and defender of the Bantou identity.
The Contemporary Generation arose out of the cultural renaissance that took place in Equatorial Guinea during the 1980s, with the support of the "Centro Hispano-Guineano de Malabo". This generation, unlike the previous generations that were far more homogenous, groups together authors on very different paths. They work with different themes and have different backgrounds. The Contemporary Generation includes writers like Maria Nsue Agüe, author of "Ekomo"(10), the first novel to be written by a female author, or poet Juan Tomas Avila Laurel(11). Maria Nsue Angüe's work is remarkable in that it breaks with traditional forms imposed by Spanish Classicism. Using Castilian vocabulary Maria Nsue Angüe creates an African semantic universe to describe one African woman's struggle within the traditional and everyday realities of her world. Ekomo has had a powerful impact on Equatorial Guinea's literature. At the other extreme are other still unknown creators. Their poetry is like the song of an innocent child. Sometimes, the nostalgic memory of time spent with a lost friend clouds the peaceful skies painted by the new poets who are running from the realities of contemporary Africa, preferring to watch their world pass by from the shade of a coconut tree.

By Joaquin Mbomio Bacheng