Using patterns-based learning design for CALL tasks

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present a specific case of CALL task design adopting the patterns-based learning design approach. The approach provides a common framework/vocabulary for educational designers, particularly teachers, to systematically capture, articulate, make explicit, share and reuse expert knowledge of teaching and good design. Over the past 10–15 years, considerable advances have been made in both learning design (LD) and learning analytics (LA) research in terms of research outputs. However, the anticipated impact and benefits, e.g. the patterns-based approach, to the everyday practice of teachers and learners have been invisible or mostly unrealized. Research to explore CALL task design with reference to LD and LA is underrepresented in the literature. The aim of this paper is to explain the challenges faced by CALL designers/teachers in task design and reflect on them methodologically with relation to the patterns-based approach. It firstly provides an overview of the CALL task design literature to highlight the gaps and weaknesses in the research and practice, followed by an introduction of the concept of design patterns. This paper then examines three CALL tasks from two current online language learning beginners courses in a New Zealand university, and develops them into design patterns. Explanation of how they were developed and discussion of the possible added value of design pattern to the design of CALL tasks are provided.

Keywords:

• CALL design
• CALL task design
• patterns-based approach
• design patterns
• pattern language
• pedagogical patterns

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Y. H. Sun

Susan Sun is a senior lecturer in the School of Language and Culture at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Her research focus in recent years has been on designing for online language learning. She has published several articles on the topic.