Exercise

The text below is about multimedia CALL. It might not interest you or be relevant to your current study in which case normally you will not bother to read it. However, please try to go through it as an example. Please follow these steps and ask yourself: (1). Is there anything you know already about multimedia? What do you know about SLA (Second Language Acquisition)? (2). Survey the text and consider what it is about through title, date and where it is published? (3). Question whether it is relevant to your study and which part(s) may be useful for you. It may not be in your case, but try to find some points of references. (4). Read the context critically and apply all the reading strategies that you have learnt by following the exercise. (5). Recall the context and note down any relevant information when you have finished.

Questions

Title: Multimedia CALL: Lessons to Be Learned from Research on Instructed SLA

Carol A. Chapelle, Jowa State University

Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 2, No. 1, July 1998, pp.23

This paper suggests that some design features and evaluation criteria for multimedia CALL might be developed on the basis of hypotheses and provides a diagram of a model of SLA (second langague acqusisiton). These paragraphs relate to each section of the model

The SLA model of interest hypothesizes that target language input acts as the potential starting point for acquiring aspects of the L2. The model expands considerably on Krashen's (1982) idea that a lot of comprehensible input is what is needed for SLA. It attempts to articulate what makes input comprehensible and how it is processed to influence the development of the learner's linguistic knowledge (Long, 1996). The model illustrated is a simplified version of the one outlined by Gass (1997). It summarizes a consensus view among interactionist SLA researchers.

(NOTE: The paragraphs below are different elements of a model of Second Language Acquisition. However, they are not in the correct order. Please read the text and answer the 1st question)

COMPREHENSION The next box, COMPREHENSION, represents the hypothesis that understanding of the semantic content of a message can be accomplished either with or without any comprehension of the syntax. Semantic comprehension is not expected to help in the acquisition of the syntactic system because it may be accomplished through the recognition of isolated lexical items and interpretation of non-linguistic cues.

INTAKE When comprehension takes place through a combination of semantic and syntactic processing, the linguistic characteristics of the input can become INTAKE, that is, comprehended language that holds the potential for developing the learners' linguistic system.

INPUT at the left of Figure 2 refers to the target language that the learner is exposed to. Much target language input goes over the learners' head but only that which is apperceived has the potential to be acquired.

INTEGRATION is comprised of the processes for using or holding the intake in short term memory to influence the development of the linguistic system, which in turn affects the L2 output that the learner produces.

APPERCEPTION An important aspect of the learners' APPERCEPTION is their noticing aspects of the input. Therefore, one concern for designing instructional materials may be to include features that prompt learners to notice important aspects of the language.

OUTPUT First, producing linguistic output forces learners to use the syntactic system and therefore to develop this aspect of their ability. Second, it elicits subsequent input from interlocutors, some of which may contain indications of problems with the learner's output which will result in the learner's noticing aspects of the linguistic form, making new hypotheses, and producing more output. This process, referred to as negotiation of meaning, is believed to facilitate L2 development (Long, 1996).