Abstract:

This paper integrates the theory and practice of computer pedagogies in a variety of language courses, all stemming from participation in a graduate level course on computers in language teaching. First, the graduate level preservice CALL course is described, focusing on how connections between theory and practice were developed. Descriptions of how four participants from the course continued to apply theory in their practice of computer integration in four language courses follows. Each of these four courses demonstrates how computers can be integrated into language teaching to meet course and program goals. Drawing on task and computer pedagogy theories, the first two projects make use of the Internet to provide adult foreign language learners with authentic language input and interaction opportunities, one in a distance learning course in Finland and the other in a French as a foreign language course in the US. The final two projects ground practice on theories of English for specific purposes and computer pedagogies in adult courses in the US, the first a business English course integrating a computer simulation and the second a graduate electrical engineering writing course with materials developed using concordancing software and a specifically designed corpus of engineering texts.

Author: Sarah Rilling, Anne Dahlman, Sarah Dodson, Claire Boyles, Ozlem Pazvant