Call research: major themes and issues

Abstract

Rather than provide a purely subjective perspective on major themes and issues in CALL research, this paper aims to provide an account where, at least in part, the views advanced are drawn from empirical evidence. It is hoped that this approach will provide a more objective description of contemporary CALL research work. To achieve this goal, the present paper is based upon a corpus of 47 CALL research articles published in books and journals in 1999. With this foundation it sets out a framework for the description and analysis of CALL research as it is represented in the literature. Two major directions and three important, though less frequent, directions are described in detail, using examples from the corpus, and the implications for research in the future are considered. Particular emphasis will be placed on identifying the goals of CALL researchers and on clarifying the unique attributes of research in this field.