Methodological issues in research on learner-computer interactions in CALL

CALL materials may provide a mechanism for implementing theoretically-ideal conditions for second language acquisition and for conducting empirical research to investigate effects of these conditions.This paper explores methodological issues involved in realizing this potential by focusing on investigation of the noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990) in CALL reading materials.It reviews the problem of assessing noticing in classroom and experimental settings through a) conditions for noticing, b) retrospective assessment, and c) concurrent assessment.Concurrent assessment, which provides the most direct measure of noticing, is illustrated through CALL materials that gather data on noticing, test retention of word meaning, and calculate the correlation between noticed and remembered words.Methodological issues of implementation and validation are discussed.Teachers and researchers interested in improving the effectiveness of CALL activities sometimes look for guidance from second language acquisition (SLA) research with the hope that CALL activities can be designed to create ideal conditions for SLA.Despite convictions that SLA theory and research should inform CALL practice, details of how to form such links need to be spelled out.One might look to the SLA research that has used computer-assisted materials for developing experimental language learning tasks and for gathering performance data, but with some exceptions (e.g., Doughty, 1991;Hulstijn, 1993), the tasks used in such research appear decidedly experimental because they require participants to learn specific forms of an artificial language, for example.Even such experiments on learning rules of a natural language may require learning specific aspects of a language not of the learners' choosing for short duration determined by the researcher.Although such experiments carefully model the desired cognitive characteristics for formal learning, critical elements of learner motivation and communicative language use are likely to be missing.In fact, given the artificiality of the learning situation created by the laboratory experiment, Hulstijn warns that ". ..without additional research in real L2 learning environments, one should be extremely cautious in drawing immediate conclusions from laboratory studies to language pedagogy" (Hulstijn, 1997, p. 132).This paper addresses the need for research in real L2 learning environments by illustrating how SLA theory can inform the design and evaluation of a CALL task that can be used in language classes or for self study.Methodological issues in the study of CALL from the perspective of interactionist SLA theory (Gass, 1997;Long, 1996;Pica, 1994) are explored through analysis of how one of its hypotheses, the noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990(Schmidt, , 1992)), can guide the process of CALL development, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.The methodology is illustrated through sample texts in English, French, Spanish and German which allow readers to play the role of an L2 learner--who reads the text, requests definitions, and takes the post-test--and the researcher--who sees the report of student data and the statistical analysis.Discussion of the methodology highlights two issues: the quality of the task for creating conditions for noticing and the validity of assessment of noticing through this method.