Emerging Technologies Focusing on Form: Tools and Strategies (Intelligent Language Tutors‪)‬

Using computers to help students practice and learn grammatical constructions goes back to the earliest days of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). With the coming of the Internet age, CALL began to focus more heavily on the new capabilities of group connectivity and computer-mediated communication. More recently, a gathering consensus has emerged that for adult learners, at least, an awareness of forms and rules is a vital component of online language learning (Skehan, 2003). Compared to the nature of earlier grammar-oriented applications, however, there is recognition today that a focus on form should not be an isolated, stand-alone activity but rather should be integrated into a communication-centered, networked language learning environment. Contemporaneously, it has become clear that grammar exercises need to require more than single word or phrase answers. The older exercise formats, such as multiple choice and fill in the blanks, should be supplemented by new and engaging interactions with real communicative goals. Something more than just canned feedback should accompany the exercises. Feedback should be informative, contextual, and, whenever possible, individualized. The expectation today is that programs will guide students to pay attention to forms and structures, to gain facility in their use, and to extend their language knowledge/usage to more complex constructions. Stated succinctly, grammar exercises need to be integrated, intelligent, and innovative. Fortunately, technology developments and creative language professionals are moving us down this path. Recent trends in intelligent language tutors (ILT) are quite promising, despite the multiple challenges of natural language processing (NLP). Having over-promised and underachieved in the past, developers of ILT (also known as ICALL, intelligent CALL, or parser-based CALL) have mostly narrowed their ambitions and scope, resulting in actually deployed systems rather than just research prototypes. Advances in collecting and processing language corpora have helped in that process. At the same time, Web developments offer new approaches to exercise design and distribution.