The CALL Experience

1    1)  Experience in the BENL courses taken

Who would have thought that we would be English majors? 

In the BENL courses taken, we are taught to value language, its learning processes and uses. We are also taught to discover more than what are included within the syllabus with the help of computer be it the internet or even computer software with regards to language learning. 

For instance, the course English Literature: Romantic and Victorian. The courses helped us by boosting up our self-confidence to voice out our opinions and speak up in front of audiences. In addition to that, we were also required to act according to our creativity as one of the assessments for the course. 

2) Assignments which required the assistance of computer applications

In the era of globalization, technologies have grown to be inseparable with human lives where it is involved in everything that we do in our daily lives. It can't be denied that it has made human lives a lot easier.

As far as we are concerned, most of the subjects in BENL required us to apply the use of computer to assist us in completing the assignments. Subjects that involve written reports, looking up for references and even video-making obviously necessitate the use of computer applications. These uses of computer contribute a lot in our learning process and can be considered as one of the perks of the technology development.

We have come to a point where these computer applications are exceedingly significant used by students and lecturers in assisting language learning process.

3) The assignments

“True knowledge is not measured in relationship to how much you memorize and then narrate, but rather,true knowledge is an expression of piety [protecting oneself from what Allaah prohibited and acting upon what He mandated]."

[Related by Abu Na`eem]

Students are usually assessed through assignments, mid- semester test, quizzes, participation, presentation and students performances throughout the semester.

Assignments give us deeper understanding of what we have learned by letting us discover more than what we are expected from the course. Assignments are usually written but also can be interactive; it can take up the form of video-making, advertisements, education poster-making, etc..

The use of computer applications and software in assisting  the courses' learning progress is very common. In fact, we can say that all students need computers. Throughout the subjects that we have learned, we have experienced all three behaviorist, communicative, and integrative CALL in learning or completing our tasks. One common technique used by the lecturers falls under the category of behaviorist CALL. Exercises and drills imposed on students are aimed to assist better understanding through familiarization and memorization. In the subject Phonetics and Phonology for instance, to remember the symbols representing the phonetic sounds students are given a lot of exercises when the lecturer will display the words on the screen for the whole class to answer.

Besides that, example of a subject is the Varieties of English in which the subject continuously engages students in online discussion as a medium to complete the tasks given. An example of a communicative CALL is Edmodo.com used in the subject Pragmatics where students can engage in online discussions, online quizzes, and share their assignments. It can also be a medium of interaction between students and lecturers where lecturers can also monitor and give feedback on their students' learning progress through the application.

As for integrative CALL, in some subjects, we were asked to create a video by using video or movie- making applications or software. This helped us to discover a new skill which is making a short film or video which we have never done before while expose us to the tons of its benefits in helping our improvement in language learning. In this matter, the computer software, or the video used to convey and present information is used as a medium in language learning.