A Liou and clear CALL

First off, I'm happy that we finally get to read an article on CALL written by an Asian from an Asian university. It's always encouraging for us Asian English language teachers (ELTs) to see one of our own engaging in a discipline that that are involved in.

Liou's lengthy article focuses on something a lot of ELTs have done - showing movies and videos in class. In particular, Liou describes an interactive video disc (IVD) course ware for English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching study in a Taiwanese institution. Unlike regular videos, this IVP features interactive tools that allow viewers/learners to click on the icons on screen to access dictionary translations, background information on the characters and even information on the characters' dialects. Hence, students can navigate through the IVD course ware on their own. The course ware is developed to enhance EFL instruction and learning and prepare for research in EFL learning. There's also a computer managed instruction (CMI) that checks the hardware and records the time a learner spends going through the course ware as well as monitoring his or her own performance. Everything sounds straightforward until the technical aspects of design and implementation come into the picture.

Tools like Microsoft Windows and IconAuthor are utilized to construct the databases of the aforementioned film information. Templates are also written to allow lay teachers who understand very little about IT to customize the program for their own pedogogical needs. Then, the course ware is to be implemented in the classroom, which does not have to be limited to an online setting as offline dictionaries and note-taking can facilitate activities like re-sequencing the story.

Evaluation of the program is also complicated and inconclusive as a myriad of factors contribute to its effectiveness like human factors, user friendliness, time, and matching of student type with program type. All in all, designing a comprehensive and effective IVD is extremely time-consuming.

Amidst all the technical mumble jumble, one must not forget to set sound teaching and learning objectives before even thinking about designing a program. One must consider the language, the learner and language learning. Do your learners really need to watch a video or film to learn the target language? Does the video match your curriculum goals? If not, then you'd be better off not using any video or film.

The researcher chooses the American film Ghostbusters to be the movie of focus because the curriculum guide set by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education specifies American Literature as a required course and indeed, films help students learn better because they provide strong visual stimuli and entertainment value, present realistic clips of life and offer rich, genuine target language input like accent, intonation, formal and informal expressions. But again, don't play videos for the sake of playing them or killing time. Make sure they fit your curriculum and provide adequate support and resources for students like the full movie script, full subtitles (DVD subtitles sometimes miss out because of actors' improvisation; hence, extra work on your part), translation of unfamiliar words, definitions of local slang etc. Furthermore, pre-task and post-task activities are also essential to the learning and understanding of the movie and its language elements, for example, the background of the movie, the actors involved, the film's setting, title and plot for the former and the movie's theme and symbolic meanings for the latter. Turned off? You betcha so think twice before showing your kids a trailer, let alone a feature film.