WEEK 2: ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS AND REFLECTION

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.