NetCall : a distributed computer aided language learning system

Abstract

NetCall is a Computer Aided Language Learning (CALL) system. NetCall supports both lesson authoring from teacher side, as well as lesson answering from student side. The lessons make use of multimedia files, such as images and sound. The standard approach to foreign language teaching is the communicative approach. This is the approach of students learning a language by communicating with other students. NetCall supports this approach in two ways: by supporting communicative exercises based on the exchange of written material amongst students and teachers, and by allowing students to 'chat' to each other while answering lessons. NetCall also supports distance learning, where students and teachers could be on different part of the planet. One of the main goals of this project was to build a system that could actually be used in mainstream English language teaching. It was decided that this project must not become a purely academic project. The other main goal of this project was to build a system that was unique to any other system within this domain (CALL). This report describes what influenced design of system, as well as describing the system itself in detail.