My reflection on Technological Change and the Future of CALL by Mark Warschauer

       The way I see Mark Warschauer’s paper of Technological Change and the Future of CALL, I got that technological determinism refers to the idea that the introduction of new technology automatically brings certain results. Also, there is a useful distinction between hard determinism and soft determinism. Hard determinism implies strict causation, and it is a concept refused by most scholars. Soft determinism more sensibly suggests that while technological development does not automatically cause outcomes, it does enable new processes and outcomes.

       The use of ICT appropriately in education can add value in teaching and learning process, by enhancing the effectiveness of learning, or by adding a dimension to learning that was not previously available. The role of ICT in enabling change must also be studied at the individual level.There are ten developments in ICT. The expected effect on English teaching: Effective CALL is no longer a matter of using e-mail and the Internet to help teach English but is increasingly directed at teaching English to help people learn to write e-mail and use the Internet.

     Computer Assisted Language Learning has faced 3 main stages;1^ststage: Structural CALL “1970s-1980s”. Technology that is used is mainframe. 2^nd stage is Communicative CALL “1980s-1990s”Technology used that is used is PCs. 3^rd stage is Integrative CALL “21st Century”The technology that is used is Multimedia and Internet.

      Lately, Saudi Arabia has witnessed these ten developments; the five areas (new contexts, new literacies, new genres, new identities, and new pedagogies) emerged in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The growth in the number of broadband subscribers more than 30 fold in less than 4 years represent about digital subscriber lines (63%) of the total broadband connection. Finally, I think it will be a bright future in the field of education in our country.