Rubena St. Louis's List: CALL

Based on underlying theories of L2 reading comprehension and text comprehension with multimedia, and in light of the new tools and modes of information presentation that are now available, researchers have a variety of avenues for studying how people comprehend text in a second language with the help of multimodal instructional materials. In this paper we discuss how L2 reading research is focusing increasingly on the cognitive processes involved in reading, that is, the interaction of lower-level, bottom-up processes such as vocabulary acquisition with higher-level, top-down processes such as activating prior knowledge. We combine this knowledge with current research on learning with multimedia, focusing on how learners integrate verbal and visual information, particularly with respect to the individual differences among learners that moderate, if not determine, learning processes.

Update of Warshauer's 1996 article.

Abstracts

English Abstract

E-learning is now quickly expanding. One of the claims of its proponents is very popular – e-Learning will provide much better education for people from developing countries. The author teaches online courses for the KIT program of the University of Liverpool. Students from all continents participate in its virtual classes. Despite the large variety of countries and the students’ good study results, the author becomes more and more convinced that the Digital Divide is widening. Using statistical data and financial reasoning, the paper tries to explain why it is so and why it will likely remain unchanged for coming years.