Towards model-driven end-user development in CALL

The purpose of this article is to introduce end-user development (EUD) processes to the CALL software development community. EUD refers to the active participation of end-users, as non-professional developers, in the software development life cycle. Unlike formal software engineering approaches, the focus in EUD on means/ends development is especially relevant to CALL application design, which traditionally suffers from idiosyncratic development efforts, minimal organisational support, and poor documentation practices. With the continued emphasis on teacher-led development in CALL, there is an urgent need to investigate appropriate frameworks, methodologies and tools that assist end-user developers to produce quality-driven, fit-for-purpose CALL applications. To this end, we promote the use of model-driven architectures (MDA) in EUD environments, and describe how MDA strategies lead to better alignment between software engineering and CALL design practices. Our discussion in this article seeks to achieve two objectives: (1) to underscore current limitations and possible future directions in CALL software development; and (2) to inform end-user developers in CALL of an appropriate and accessible software engineering framework for language learning environments.