Design and Development of CALL Courses in Japan

Features of Japanese education and student learning styles influenced the authors’ design, development, and implementation of a computer-assisted language learning curriculum to support English writing and computing skills. The authors’ research extended over a four-year period while teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in a University setting in central Japan. This discussion covers implementation of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the language and computing skills students need to acquire for cross-cultural e-mail exchanges. CMC syllabus design within the Japanese context and within a second language acquisition (SLA) research framework is also discussed.