Come Ride the Wave: But Where Is It Taking Us?

Anyone who has ever tried to surf knows that it is not easy to actually catch a wave. A person has to paddle the surfboard out to where the waves are and work on his/her timing and paddle fast enough to catch the wave. In this article, the author chooses the surfing metaphor in accordance with the theme of the 2006 CALICO conference at the University of Hawai'i and with the obvious parallel to surfing the Internet. She focuses on the process of catching the CALL wave and speculates as to where it seems to be headed. As Keola Donaghy said in his opening plenary at the beginning of the conference, just as a surfboard is a tool, technology is also just a tool. Researchers and teachers need to determine pedagogically sound uses of technology in order for them to catch the wave. Here, the author first summarizes the subareas of language learning and teaching that are currently "hot" in two CALL journals in the U.S., the "CALICO Journal" and "Language Learning & Technology" (LL&T). Then, she discusses what researchers and teachers know from research and practice in CALL environments and integrate them with the trends in foreign language teaching in general. Finally, she suggests possible directions in which the CALL surfboards can be steered. (Contains 4 tables.)