“This technology will revolutionize the teaching of foreign languages; it will bring pedagogy up to date with technology”

Underwood (1984:33)

It was proliferated thanks to the popularity in the 60´s of the behaviorist theories of american psychologist B. E. Skinner.

Behavoirist ideas were taken as the theoricalsoil on which to build the computer assisted learning /teaching framework.

This CALL teaching paradigm is known as an“instructional model”; however the initialpopularity of CALL soon came to an end due totwo main reasons:

1. The lack of imagination and creativity in designing new and challenging exercise.

2. The high cost and maintenance of the computers.

• Includes the learner also knowing how to use the language appropriately in a social situation.

• Students can understand the essential points of what a native speaker says to hear-him in a real communicative situation, the native speaker interprets the response with little or no effort at all.

• Meaningful practice rather than mechanical practice.

• Receptive skills (listening and reading) before productive skills (speaking and writing).

• Use of target language, little use of native language

• Implicit rather than explicit grammar.

• Modeling instead of correction.

• Low anxiety atmosphere.

• Activities will focus on acquisition practice rather than learning practice.

• Activities should require students to take a creative action in the target language rather than manipulating prefabricated language.

• Activity feedback will not aim at correcting or evaluating each response.

• Activities and instructions should be written in the target language.

• CALL activities should be flexible, not based on the principle that every stimulus has one and only response.

• CALL activities should allow students to explore an environment in which discoveries can be made, there is no predetermined material of any sort.

The lack of interest on the part of publishers in many areas.

Technological leaps leaving pedagogy in their wake.

Poor access to good training in instructional design techniques