COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING (CALL) IN MODERNIZING THE PROCEDURE OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

“What and for which areas will specialists in the near and far future economic development be needed? .... Our future depends on the solution of this issue.”

Sh. M. Mirziyoyev

Teaching foreign languages includes different sources and methods which must be beneficial and effective in order to reach the goal of both a teacher and a learner. Teaching a second or foreign language to a learner has had changes because of a lot of factors, such as innovative, social, economic and so on. Since a myriad methods of language education were discovered in methodology, such as grammar translation, suggestopedia, silent way and so on, a number of theories and rules have been applied to help both a teacher and learner. Using a method also involves doing research and analysing all the elements in the main process of language education [1]. As the result of modern pedagogical and innovation technologies in education spheres of society, teaching foreign languages has been innovated and provided with new means, resources, for instance, graphic, video materials, e-books and so on. Besides that, a teacher can use not only the sources which are mentioned above, but also other new technologies to teach foreign languages to learners, such as social networking services and messengers, such as Google Plus, VK (ВКонтакте), Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp.

People have already been accustomed to digital means, and they are using them to do all their work, such as projects, studies, tasks and so on. As a consequence of this process, one can claim that innovative technologies of science have brought a great number of benefits into a human life. In the sphere of teaching and learning foreign languages the innovations have made the learning environment more convenient for learners. Moreover, nowadays language learning and teaching has become more responsible and important to deal with than in the past. The reason for this can be shown by the answer that today’s learners are totally different from the learners of the earlier time, because they are living in a digitalized environment. So a teacher who teaches a foreign language is to be well familiar with not only methodology, psychology or pedagogy, but also information and communication technologies (ICT) and psycholinguistics. Another question may appear why not psychology itself only, but also psycholinguistics? The answer to this question is also connected with the time, that is to say, the generation of the current time have complicated psychological processes and feelings. That is why, knowing basic principles and theories of those subjects enables teachers to make progress when they work with different levelled learners in a classroom.

So, according the wide usage of the SNSs and Messengers around the world, the usage of theirs in TFL classes may enable us the following:

• The chance of sharing materials on the social networking services and messengers are easier and more comfortable for a teacher;

• Teacher can organize groups of learners accurately and successfully on them;

• Learners can contact a teacher via many ways and forms, such as text-messages, video, voice calls;

• Effective functions of social networking services and messengers help a teacher to work with learners productively because of special pages, groups, notifications, direct additional websites, applications on them.

It ought to be admitted that both organizing study-materials and controlling the whole procedure in a classroom is not easy for a teacher because of physical, psychological aspects. Accordingly, new terms appeared in teaching foreign languages methodology (TFLM), such as computer-assisted language learning (CALL) AND mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). In the following the most crucial factors and advantages of applying the method of CALL are outlined in detail based on our research results and observations at higher education of Uzbekistan step by step.

According to the above-mentioned reasons, a number of questions may appear in applying the CALL as innovative technology in teaching and learning foreign languages at higher educational institutions. What benefits can be obtained from this method? How can the continuous education be consolidated through this method? How important is the teacher’s role in the process? What chances are created for the benefits of learners when this method is in motion? Is this way as much effective in drawing the learners’ attention to learning foreign languages as it is expected? The answers to these questions are given in the following with the results and proof gradually.

CALL embraces a wide range of information and communications technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, from the "traditional" drill-and-practice programs that characterised CALL in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent manifestations of CALL, e.g. as used in a virtual learning environment and Web-based distance learning [1].

CALL programs can be (and have been) developed for the many parts of the language learning process. Some of the factors that determine the characteristics of any CALL program include:

• the language taught;
• the language of instruction;
•  the language writing system (both roman and non-roman character based);
•  the level of the language to be taught (from absolute beginners to advanced);
• what is to be taught (grammar, informal conversation and pronunciation);
• how it is to be taught [2].

Implementing computer devices into the procedure of acquiring this or that foreign language includes various steps and tasks which are presented in the following with reasonable advantages:

• Organizing lessons. This step is connected with a teacher’s activity fully which means that a teacher uses the device to prepare study-materials, make online lessons for learners during the whole process. While doing these, the following tasks are done in practice:

• To prepare study-materials – there are a number of computer programs which are used to design information sheets in which basic theoretical information is given. Generally, the forms of the materials can be divided into the following types:

• Text form – this may seem a simple type of distributing information to students; however, it is sometimes complicated for teachers or they do not pay attention to such a type of study material. To state more clearly, teachers ought to be able to dispense information in both a brief and interesting vision, and this can be done by presenting most significant information in a source using visual graphic elements, such as tables, diagrams, fonts, styles, and so on. Here, it is also significant that study materials must be in different forms to draw students’ attention making them to learn the target language continuously.
• Graphic form – especially, photos in which information about a second language is presented visually before language learners’ eyes. As the current modern language teaching atmosphere is getting highly developed, teachers themselves can use special editor programs to make graphic materials. Furthermore, it ought to be mentioned that while choosing graphic elements, templates to prepare language teaching and learning sources, a teacher ought to focus on students’ ages, specialities to avoid additional outcomes or misunderstanding. If we take the system of higher education as an example, materials are made taking the requirements of academic studies, in other words, writing academic essays, research papers and so on. Consequently, being able to choose appropriate colour, font, and means in this type plays a remarkably crucial role.
• Audio form – as students differ from each other according to their learning styles, audio sources can also be made for students of higher education making the lessons in a second language more and more intriguing. For this reason, audio materials can be made as files to improve listening skills and audio forms of lectures in that foreign language as an effective feature of distance education. That is why, an instructor cannot just record audio materials in a simple version, but there should be special effects, sounds, even pieces of music by assisting students to acquire the second language in a convenient and innovative atmosphere progressively.
• Video form – this type of a study material is considered to be the most effective one because of its visual effects and features. Taking this factor into our consideration, we have planned to prepare video materials to use during the lessons at universities and to utilize after lessons as further materials.

• To inform learners of lessons in dissimilar forms – this is done as notifications on various platforms in the virtual environment. This factor is important because students’ being aware of contents of upcoming lessons in advance prepares them psychologically, so the notifications of lessons should include dates, duration, main points of lessons, and benefits for learners which serve to foster their language skills.
• To check students’ knowledge and test their language skills – this step is totally up to a teacher’s approaches and methods. It is often stated that testing students’ knowledge and skills is not easy because there can be different levels of learners in the same classroom which should be considered deeply by a teacher before involving them to participate mock exams or tests. For these reasons, at universities, a teacher should focus on not only one aspect while taking exams, but also tasks must be complicated and fascinating for learners by which they can automatically develop their critical thinking skills at the same time.
• To know students’ feedback and attitudes about lessons – it is natural that any teacher wants to know learners’ feedback and opinions about the lessons so as to see results of their efforts. As this is so important for teachers to work on themselves more and more, a teacher can form special tests or questionnaires using computer programs to make this process happen.

To conclude, the CALL method is the most crucial means of teachers of foreign languages in modern education so as to fulfil the main tasks of being a modern teacher and specialist in condition of the rapidly changing world strongly and productively.

References:

1. Гришакова Е. Социальные сети и их классификация. 2012. C.35
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning
3. https://www.computing.dcu.ie/~mward/mthesis/chapter3.pdf