1. Communicative and digital competence
1.1. Canale and Swain created a model which consists of four elements:
1.2. Linguistic competence: knowing how the language works.
1.3. Sociolinguistic competence: understanding how language is used in context.
1.4. Discourse competence: ability to create and use larger pieces of language to create texts or conduct conversations.
1.5. Strategic competence: ability to manage and navigate communication to repair communication breakdowns, and work around unfamiliar areas of language.
1.6. It is believed that there is a parallel digital competence
1.7. This model consists in four elements:
1.7.1. Procedure competence: manipulate technology in terms of hardware and applications.
1.7.1.1. Socio-digital competence: understanding what is appropriate to use in different social contexts and knowledge domains, in terms of technology and language.
1.7.1.1.1. Digital discourse competence: the ability to manage and extend task, possibly using several applications and/or types of equipment.
2. Computer assisted language learning (CALL)
2.1. Warschauer and Kern argued that computer assisted language learning (CALL) developed in 3 phases, which they aligned with dominant paradigms of language learning and technology.
2.1.1. Bax’s alternative model, which refers to “approaches to CALL” rather than phases, includes elements that Warschauer does not consider, such as the location of computers (lab, classroom, pocket), the role of the teacher, the type of activity, and the type of feedback provided within each approach.
2.2. 1st phase of Warschauer’s model: “structural CALL” which was based on a view of language as a formal system of structures (grammar, phonology, etc.) and focused on drill practice methods to achieve accuracy.
2.2.1. Bax essentially concurred but called this approach “restricted CALL” because the type of questions, tasks responses, and feedback tend to be closed, restricted to whatever is programmed into the system.
2.3. 2nd phase of Warschauer’s model: it was called “communicative CALL”, with and underpinning view that knowledge about language is constructed in the learners’ mind and with a dominant methodology of communicative language teaching.
2.3.1. Bax argues that CLT (communicative language teaching) has not been superseded as an approach to language teaching.
2.4. 3rd phase of Warschauer’s model: it is called “integrative”, by Bax “integrated”. Warschauer talks about multimedia and the internet. Bax argues that “integrated CALL” will be achieved when the technology is fully normalized.
2.4.1. Bax says, as we become accustomed to something new, the technology itself recedes and becomes simply a normal part of the way that we do things.
3. Tutor, tutee, or tool
3.1. Taylor in 1980 argued that the computer could play one of the 3 principal roles of learning- tutor, tutee, or tool.
3.2. Tutor
3.2.1. , the computer teaches the learner, typical examples are adaptive tutoring systems or drill-and practice applications. The knowledge resides in the machine, from where it is delivered to the learner. Although we now understand that there is more to learning a language than simply knowing vocabulary and the rules.
3.2.1.1. Authoring software allows teachers to create a bank of activities which learners can access either from home or in study centers.
3.3. Tutee
3.3.1. the learner teaches the computer. The principle is that the learner constructs knowledge, often through trial and error, by teaching the computer.
3.3.1.1. This is based on the constructivist paradigm which stems from the work of Piaget, who argued that learners have to construct knowledge themselves through experience and through a process of accommodations and assimilation.
3.4. Tool
3.4.1. This is a broad role that applies to any context in which technology is the means by which a task is achieved. Examples of technology used in the role of “tool” include using a word-processing program to write an essay or editing-software to create a video.
3.4.1.1. This leads on to “social-constructivism”, a theory of learning that has obvious parallels with and benefits for language teaching.
3.4.1.1.1. Socio-cultual theories of learning argue that learning occurs more effectively when people are working together. A more recent development is connectivism.