Where do we go from here - and who is leading the way?

Extract

The effort to develop CALL can be thought of as progressing through three eras. In the first era, the technology itself led the way; constraints on hardware and software dictated the pedagogical uses to which we could put the machinery. In the second era - where we still find ourselves - language teaching leads the way. In the third era - the golden age of CALL - it will be language learning which motivates and controls the development of the whole effort, but we are not there yet. (I shall discuss in more detail why I believe that current developments in ‘learner-centred’ and ‘learner-controlled’ activities on the computer do not as yet really qualify as computer-assisted language learning.)