CALL Program Assessment
According to Hartoyo (2006, pp. 90-91), we can understand that a call program is good if it can fulfill 5 principles as follows:
1. Interactivity(feedback and instruction)
2. Usability(flexibility)
3. Content appropriateness
4. Effectiveness
5. Performance
Here we have 4 CDs that we would like to asses based on the principles above. By doing the assessment, we can find the strengths and the weaknesses for each CD. The CDs are Issue in English, Speak English, Easy to sing and Learn English.
1. ISSUE IN ENGLISH
After we play and study with the CD, we can asses it based on the five principles as follows:
- Interactivity
The program can stimulate interaction between the user and the computer since it gives clear instruction and feedback directly. For example, doing listening exercise; here the user can do matching spoken and written language by clicking the right word from the box or matching picture and spoken sentence by clicking the picture on the screen. And the computer will give response for the user’s answer whether it is right or wrong.
- Usability
The program is easy to use and interesting to learn. In addition, the user is free to study with this program, starting from choosing the topic, the level and the activities because he or she just clicks the icon on the screen and gets the things he or she wants to work on.
- Content appropriateness
Mostly, the topics which are presented in this program are suitable for SMA students and the activities which follow each topic are useful to improve their skills (e.g. listening, speaking and writing skill) and to upgrade their mastery in vocabulary and grammar.
- Effectiveness
This program is effective to assist the user or the student to learn language. Every level provides some various activities starting from the easy one to complex one, for example, doing with grammar in level 1; here the program presents three kinds of verbs (e.g. simple present, simple past and simple present continuous) and personal pronouns (e.g. I, you, her or mine) where the user is asked to type a right verb form or proper personal pronoun to complete a sentence.
- Performance
This program has good performance which can attract either SMA students or SMP students to learn. It is displayed in interesting colours and pictures which describe the topics. For example, when we play the CD, it shows a menu such as the seven topic issues in callout shape, the four levels in list shape and teaching points in the corner.The strengths:a. The topics are very challenging for the students to learn and discuss, especially for SMA students.
b. The activities can be very helpful for the students to improve their four skills such as listening, speaking, and writing. And it is also very useful to improve their mastery in vocabulary and grammar.
c. The teaching points are very useful and helpful for the teachers who want to conduct teaching language by using CALL program.
d. The structure of the content fits with the level of the students’ background knowledge.The weaknesses:
* There is no student’s record.
* The size of video is small.
2. SPEAK ENGLISH
After we play and study with the CD, we can asses it based on the five principles as follows:
- Interactivity
The program can stimulate interaction between the user and the computer since it gives clear instruction and feedback directly. For example, doing quiz; here the user can choose the best option from the offering options to answer the question by clicking. And the computer will give response for the user’s answer whether it is right or wrong.
- Usability
The program is easy to use and interesting. The user only clicks the topic from the list and joins the activities starting from the practice, recording and quiz.
- Content appropriateness
The topics which are presented in this program are suitable for SMP and SD students and the activities which follow each topic are helpful to improve their speaking skill and their mastery in vocabulary.
- Effectiveness
This program is effective to assist the user or the student to learn vocabulary in word, phrase and sentence because it can record his or her own voice and gives feedback directly whether his or pronunciation is excellent or poor.
- Performance
This program has good performance which can attract SMP and SD students to learn because it shows many good pictures and interesting colours. For example, when we open the CD, it shows a menu such as the nine topic issues in left side and student record, change help language and quit in the right side. The strengths:a. The topics are suitable for SD and SMP students
b. It focuses on speaking and listening skills.
c. It helps students to understand the words or the phrases easily because it provides pictures which describe the words or the phrases.The weaknesses:* The activities are not challenging as the activities the user meets in “Learn English” CD
* The performance of this CD is not interesting as “Learn English” CD
* There is no teaching point.
3. EASY TO SING
This CD presents twenty five children songs. When we open and play it, we can enjoy with the video clip and read the lyrics of each song. The duration for each song is less than 5 minutes.
Honestly, this CD can not be assumed as CALL program though it is very useful to attract the children to learn English and to build image that learning English is easy and fun. Taking a look the points above, so it can not be assessed by using the five principles.
4. LEARN ENGLISH
After we play and study with the CD, we can asses it based on the five principles as follows:
- Interactivity
The program can stimulate interaction between the user and the computer since it gives clear instruction and feedback directly. For example, in learning numbers; when the user clicks the hard game, the program gives response for every answer whether is correct or not.
- Usability
The program is easy to use and interesting to learn. The user only clicks the topic and joins word practice, the speaking practice, easy game, hard game and quiz.
- Content appropriateness
The topics which are presented in this program are suitable for SMP and SD students and the activities which follow each topic are helpful to improve their speaking skill and their mastery in vocabulary.
- Effectiveness
This program is effective to assist the user or the student to learn vocabulary in word, phrase and sentence because it can record his or her own voice and gives feedback directly whether his or pronunciation is excellent or poor. a. The topics are suitable for SD and SMP students
b. It focuses on speaking and listening skills.
c. The activities which aim to develop speaking skill are interesting and challenging.
d. It helps students to understand the words or the phrases more easily because it provides pictures which best describe the words or the phrases.
e. This CD is better and more interesting than “Speak English” in presenting the materials, activities and performance.The weaknesses:There is no teaching point.
