1) Did the course incorporate the use of computer in the teaching and learning?
The answer is yes. The most obvious use of language related to
discourse analysis is regarding its function as one of the sources in studying
the real discourse from the internet. These days, the internet has led to many
research of human behaviour and indirectly, the spoken and written sources from
internet contribute a lot in studying language behaviour.
2) Are the computer-based activities related to any of the
three stages of CALL?
Yes.The computer-based activities of discourse analysis are
related to all the three stages of CALL.
3) What are the important concepts in the
three stages related to the activities?
Behaviourist CALL views language as a form of habit. Hence it stresses on the
computer-based activities that teach people the accurate use language and it
exposes people to the language through repetition of language behaviours. For
instance, activities like audio-lingual teaching and grammar translation keep
the learners within the fix language behaviours as what’s being taught in
textbook. The concept of memorizing language through these computer-based
activities is introduced as it is believed can help learners to acquire
language better. Thus, it stresses on the role of computer as mechanical tutor
for the learners as the source of language learning.
Communicative CALL on the other hand promotes discourse analysis through the
concept of discovery learning. It is a better approach in learning
language as oppose to behaviourist. Hence, it changes the function of computer
from a tutor to pupil. Discourse is being examined by the students themselves
instead of being taught one by one by computer. Here, computer has become one
of the pupils that can provide computer-based activity such as problem solving
activities which need the students to explore the language by themselves.
However, integrative CALL is
much closer to discourse analysis because it serves the language learners as
one of the tools for interactive communication. As mentioned before, the
internet is one of the sources in studying discourse because it provides
authentic use of language. For example, the language used in chat rooms
and YouTube can be analyzed critically which certainly will bring
discourse analysis into the bigger field of language study. Some of the
activities include task-based, content-based and project-based activities which
provide learners to authentic environment.
REFLECTION
From the three
stages of CALL, the integrative CALL gives more benefits to language
learners as it is integrating various language skills and it uses computer
as a tool in the ongoing process of language learning. Behaviorist approach has
become less important due to the fact that imitation does not
expose learners to the real context of the language used by real
people. Social interaction will always help learners to understand discourse
better. Observations of the language patterns used in the internet and social
interactions can help the process of language learning. The language used
in Facebook, Twitter and other chat room in the internet prove that
language can be different from what is solely being taught in the classroom
because language changes always happen in our real life.
Besides, the
cognitive theory on the role of teacher as facilitator put learners themselves
as the main role in language learning. It is true that instead of being told
everything by teachers, learners will learn more if they can construct their
own knowledge from their previous knowledge. In this sense, the role of the
computer as a pupil that facilitates learners is better than its role
as a tutor. However, the only obvious shortcoming of cognitive theory is it
does not enhance the collaborative need in language learning as propose by
integrative CALL.
Language seems to be an important part in
our everyday life since the early age. As time goes by, the importance of
language appears have been overlooked due to the development. Language is used wrongly
when more and more development occur. The users of language do not do justice
to the language. As Muslims, we need to be careful when dealing with
language and bear in my how we use language to represent ourselves.
This is because Allah s.w.t does not love
those people using bad language against other humans. There are also several
Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. that talks about avoiding bad language.
Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Amr: The Prophet never used bad language neither
a "Fahish nor a Mutafahish. He used to say "The best amongst you are
those who have the best manners and character." (See Hadith No. 56 (B)
Vol. 8).
And as
Muslims, we should use the language appropriately and talk using good words as
if we are talking to our creator. As mentioned by Prophet Muhammad s.a.w,
“Do not talk
excessively without remembering Allah, because such excessive talk without the
mention of Allah causes the heart to harden, and the person furthest from Allah
is a person with a hard heart”.
However,
there is nothing wrong with language as long as it is good and does not harm
others. It is noteworthy that language is one of the mediums in establishing
communication, interaction and harmonious society. In fact, language is also an
essential requirement for maintaining the unity among people. Apart from that, Islam also asks us to collaborate with each other
in gaining knowledge.
All approaches have their positive and negative
elements. For example, if we look at how the behaviourist approach helps
learners in the learning process we will agree that this approach by hook or by
crook has its own quality but it also has the downside which cause the learners
become passive. As in Islam, it is stressed that the learners are the one who searching
for their teacher in order to gain knowledge. So by only imitate and not trying
to put some effort, it will lead to many negative impacts. Plus, it is not a
proper behavior to imitate something without deep understanding.
Reference
Da'if hadith, at-Tirmdihi, Kitab az-Zuhud, 7/92, gharib; no one else has
transmitted it other than Ibrahim ibn Abdullah ibn Hatib, whom adh-Dhahabi
mentions, 1/43, stating that this is one of the gharib hadith attributed to him.
