Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 16

Different types of CALL programs have evolved over the last few decades, all of
them keeping interaction as main focus. What is more important in a CALL
program is that the student transmits a message and the receivers, one in return.
With the help of the computer program, the student finds out whether his message
contained a mistake or not. The errors are corrected and explained by the
computer. Clear error messages help most students to achieve the satisfaction of
reaching the correct answer in the end. Students are also encouraged and
congratulated through messages sent by the computer whenever they give correct
answers.
The exercises in the book can be very original and creative, but students do not
receive feedback all the time. Even when they are given answer keys at the end of
the book, students often hesitate to check their answers. They often fail in finding
out their mistakes. Even when their answers are corrected by the teacher, they
look only at the score, forgetting the exercise.
A computer program of learning a foreign language can often prove to be more
effective than a lesson in the classroom, even though it does not involve an oral
exchange of language. This is because “the computer responds to or interacts
directly and continuously with the user of CALL exercise”. (Rivers183). Students
using CALL work at their own pace, which is not possible in oral exercises in the
classroom.
Students can make an infinite number of mistakes without trying the computer’s
patience and they can spend time only on their mistakes, without having to listen to
the teacher’s explaining something they already know. Last, but not least,
computer guarantees privacy. Only the student knows what mistake he did unless
the list
is given to the teacher. This may be the most important aspect of a
CALL program because the student becomes self-aware of the mistakes he has
done without being embarrassed in the public.
There are sophisticated CALL lessons that consist of activities at several levels of
difficulty. These activities prove to be more flexible than textbooks, workbooks or
tape recorders. Again, these activities allow students to follow their own pace and
control their own progress as well as suggest reviews or advanced exercises
based on the students’ performance.
The use of technology improves the activity of the teachers, avoiding the boring
course book sometimes and the same kind of exercises. What is more is that by
bringing technology in the classroom, the students feel familiar to them, as they
use smartphones, tablets, computers at home so they find easy and attractive to
be exposed to some things they have good knowledge of.
But even if we are living in the “age of technology,” many teachers still are
uncomfortable with the idea of integrating it into lessons. This is due to several
factors, including lack of preparation and tools, some negative perceptions about
technology in general.
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