The JALT CALL Journal
Vol. 3, No. 3, December 2007

Is Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) efficient for grammar learning? An experimental study in French as a second language

Florence Chenu, Frederique Gayraud, Bruno Martinie and Wu Tong
Université Lyon 2, France
　

Abstract:

The issue of the efficiency of CALL is controversial. Our goal is to investigate whether CALL has an advantage on the learning of French relative clauses by intermediate non-native learners. Participants were randomly distributed across a control and an experimental group. A pre-test confirmed that there was no significant difference between the two groups. The control group attended a 3-hour traditional class on French relative clauses. The same content was taught to the experimental group in a 3-hour self-training session during which participants used a CALL system. Finally, both groups took a post-test assessing their level of improvement. In addition, the experimental group had to fill out a questionnaire about their attitude towards CALL. Whereas most participants expressed a strong preference for traditional teaching, both methods revealed a similar improvement for both groups. Further analysis taking into consideration the level of proficiency revealed that low-level participants tended to make more progress in the experimental condition. We claim that classroom instruction involving both spoken and written presentations of the same material is detrimental to understanding, especially among less proficient learners.