Short history of CALL (Computer Assisted Language

Learning)

The 60´s and 70´s• Bulky computers. Access through terminals in the campus

• Big projects; huge funding; teams of experts; universities and research centres– PLATO (University of Illinois)

– TICCIT (Brigham Young University)

– Stony Brook (State University of New York)

• Influenced by Programmed Instruction– Drills

– Linear development

– Whole language courses, substitute for the class

The 80´s and 90´s

• Popularization of PC´s

• Teachers designed their own CALL programs (BASIC, HyperCard)

• Independent activities, supplement to the classroom

• More communicative activities, simulations– ATHENA (MIT)

– Camile (UK, France, Spain, Netherlands)

• Communicative activities demand linguistic competence– Knowledge representation

– Grammar

The XXI century

• Increasing cooperation between CALL and Computational Linguistics ICALL

• Cooperation still incipient

• Restricted mainly to parsers