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Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) may be defined as "the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning". This is a catch-all definition, which is endorsed by and figures in the names of the growing number of for CALL throughout the world.
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Though CALL has developed gradually over the last 30 years, this development can be categorized in terms of three somewhat distinct phases which I will refer to as behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL (cf. Barson & Debski 1996).
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm -
Implemented in the 1960s and '70s, was based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning. Programs of this phase entailed repetitive language drills and can be referred to as "drill and practice". The system used is the PLATO system.
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm -
In the 1970s and 80s, John Underwood who in 1984 proposed a series of "Premises for 'Communicative' CALL" (Underwood 1984:52). It provides skill practice but in a non-drill format. The model used for communicative activities involves the computer as tutor, computer as stimulus and computer as tool.
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm -
Multimedia technology - exemplified today by the CD-ROM - allows a variety of media (text, graphics, sound, animation, and video) to be accessed on a single machine. What makes multimedia even more powerful is that it also entails hypermedia. That means that the multimedia resources are all linked together and that learners can navigate their own path simply by pointing and clicking a mouse.
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For the first time, learners can communicate indefinitely. This communication can be asynchronous (not simultaneous) via email, or it can be synchronous (synchronous, "real time"), using a program such as MOO.
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm