Towards a More Naturalistic CALL: Video Gaming and Language Learning

Recent social and technological developments are placing independent access to the Internet within the reach of more and more foreign language learners, who are increasingly using this access to pursue interests online through the languages they are learning. Conceptualized in this paper as “naturalistic CALL”, this phenomenon is described as a logical step in the evolution of CALL and, in particular, of its ‘communicative’ and ‘network-based’ phases. Following a brief review of early studies in this area, a framework for research is described based on dimensions of location, formality, pedagogy, and locus of control. Potential issues for future research within this framework are also identified with reference to data from a study of multilingual video-gaming practices among young people in Hong Kong. and learning to learners’ independent, out-ofschool use of software and materials that are not designed for this purpose. This paper is mainly concerned with the latter end of this range of CALL activity, described by Thorne, Black, and Sykes (2009, p. 802) as ‘entirely out-of-school noninstitutional realms of freely chosen digital engagement’, which lies a step beyond students’ independent use of online resources for language learning, described by Egbert, et al. (2011, p. 7) as ‘independent CALL’. We argue that, although purposedesigned CALL applications and activities will no doubt continue to play an important role in language teaching and learning for a long time to come, we also need to develop frameworks DOI: 10.4018/ijcallt.2011070101 2 International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, 1(3), 1-13, July-September 2011 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. within the field of CALL for research on the more naturalistic direction that our students’ digital engagement with foreign languages is taking in the world beyond the classroom. We will develop this argument, first, through a brief discussion of the history of CALL and, second, by illustrating some key issues in research on naturalistic CALL with reference to data from a study of the multilingual video gaming practices of young people in Hong Kong. FIVE PHASES IN THE HISTORY OF CALL Reviewing the development of CALL up to the end of the 20th century, Warschauer and Healey (1998) divided its history into three phases, which they called ‘behaviouristic’, ‘communicative’ and ‘integrative’ (Butler-Pascoe, 2011). In the behaviouristic phase, which began in the 1960s, CALL referred to the design and use of computer programs that were designed either to teach or to provide practice in foreign languages. Applications were highly structured in pedagogical terms and often based on computer prompt – user response – computer feedback routines. In principle, CALL freed learners from the constraints of classroom instruction, but in practice limited access to computers meant that CALL activities usually took place in timetabled lessons in the computer laboratory. Beatty (2010) also observes that, although the CALL literature stressed the benefits of “privacy and individualisation”, early applications provided limited opportunities for learners to organise their own learning or tailor it to their needs. In the communicative phase, inspired by the work of Underwood (1984), CALL applications were designed or selected on explicitly communicative principles. Text reconstruction, game and simulation packages were designed to engage learners in communicative problem-solving activities either directly with the computer or with other students engaged in the CALL task. In this phase, it did not matter so much whether applications were designed for the purpose of language learning as long as they stimulated communication in the target language. This also opened the door to creative uses of applications that were not specifically designed for CALL. These included new language-based applications, such as word processors, desktop publishing programs and concordancers, which could be used to manipulate foreign language texts in interesting new ways. From this point onwards, CALL involved both the design and use of language teaching and learning software, and the design of pedagogical activities to exploit all manner of computer technologies and applications. As a result, the CALL application now appeared less in the role of “teacher” in a dyadic relationship with the learner, and more in the role of “tool” in more complex triadic relationships involving actual teachers and other learners. At the same time, limited access to computers meant that communicative CALL activities were usually highly structured and typically took place in the computer laboratory, or often around one or two workstations in the classroom. The integrative phase was characterised by the introduction of multimedia, hypermedia and interactive technologies and is now associated mainly associated with comprehensive language courses delivered on CD-ROM or across local laboratory-based networks. In some ways these applications represented a return to the behaviouristic phase at a higher level of technological sophistication. Some CALL applications could, for example, not only recognize appropriate typed responses, but also appropriate spoken responses to audio cues. There was greater flexibility for the learner to choose activities and pathways and the potential for self-access use in open-access computer laboratories or language resource centres. There was also a departure from behaviouristic assumptions, as applications abandoned the role of “teacher” and began to emulate the classroom itself by incorporating teacher voices, textbook content and classroom activities within the software environment for example, Ibarz and Webb’s (2007) discussion of the use of the ELLIS software package in adult migrant education in the United Kingdom. 11 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/article/towards-more-naturalisticcall/56324?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Journals, InfoSci-Journal Disciplines Library Science, Information Studies, and Education. 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