The text discusses the implementation and success of using computer software to teach English as a foreign language. The software, designed by the author of the text, is a web-based learning system entitled Computer Simulation in Educational Communication (CSEC). The text discusses trials of the system at four different middle schools in China. The first several chapters of the text delve into the topic of communication technology and language education in general, as well as hitting on several language education theories specifically. The text then moves into the nuts and bolts of CSEC, and the implementation thereof. Results are analyzed, and the cost-effectiveness of CSEC is discussed. The text will be of interest to educators looking for new ways to teach a language or the researcher looking at ways technology may be applied to learning.
– ProtoView Book Abstracts (formerly Book News, Inc.)
This book is highly recommended for practitioners and researchers in CALL studies. It not only looks at the history and the present of ICT-supported language learning, but also looks at the future of intelligent tablet-based learning. The findings about the students’ learning effect in relation to learning styles as well as the system’s cost-effectiveness will provide some interesting insights to CALL practitioners and researchers, and will help administrators to make more informed educational decisions.
– Zhenzhen Chen, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China