Abstract:

To devise ways of tracking learning processes is one of the goals of current CALL research. However, the data collected must be able to account for the learner's approach as well as his/her performance. A study of a novice learner of Spanish using a CALL system designed for vocabulary enlargement, shows that introspective evidence may be used to validate performance data within a theoretical framework which characterizes the learning approach as "surface' or "deep," depending on the degree of the learner's engagement with principles of structure underlying the target language lexis. It is proposed that this framework offers a basis on which effective computer based vocabulary teaching strategies can be developed.

Author: Robin Goodfellow, Diana Laurillard