--- Forwarded Message from Thomas E Griffin <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 14:39:11 -0500 (CDT)
>From: Thomas E Griffin <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Recent CALL research

Our foreign language department needs the "hard sell" on our foreign
language lab component of our general education courses.  The students are
required to complete six assignments which use the language lab's media
and technology.  I have seen a decline in compliance (number of completed
assignments) to about 60 to 70 percent at the end of each semester over
the past two years since the program was instituted.  I am starting to
feel that this is due to relaxed enforcement of the policy and the need
for new assignments (the latter I am currently fixing). I feel that
instructors are not using stiff grading penalties for missed assignments
and more emphasis is placed on formal testing.  The faculty unanimously
approved the lab program but I need to sell them on the necessity and
effectiveness of CALL and language lab activities and instruction.  If
anyone can recommend recent articles on the subject it would be greatly
appreciated.  As you know a few recommendations is less time consuming than
a full library/Internet search.  I need to bang together some type of
justification by the start of the fall term when most of the faculty
returns.


Please reply to [log in to unmask]
Thomas Griffin
Director,
Foreign Language Lab
Northeastern Illinois University