Learning a Second Language for Specific Purposes within a Hypermedia Framework

Thierry Chanier (1)

1 LRL - Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Langage

This paper describes "A la Recherche d'un Emploi", ("Job Hunting") a hypermedia courseware teaching French for Specific Purposes and developed as part of the European CAMILLE project. "A la Recherche d'un Emploi" constitutes an early example of a task-based and problem-solving oriented software, which interweaves both linguistic and professional goals, on the one hand, and both theoretical knowledge and a hands-on approach, on the other. The paper looks firstly at the common features of the common features of the communicative and LSP approaches in Second Language Acquisition, and at the relevance of the use of hypermedia in the development of learning environments, from a theoretical standpoint. During the presentation of the courseware, our discussion has given rise to several general issues concerned with this type of software and with the more widely used large-scale hypermedia CALL software. These issues included: the relationships between linguistic contents and domain task, simulation activities, authenticity of material , linguistic and cultural resources, follow-up procedures of the learner's performances, etc. The courseware being presented, our attention was then directed to the manner in which the curriculum perspective should be integrated within the development of the CALL environment. Our methodology is explained throughout, from the planning phase and the learner's needs, through to an evaluation of the phase at its termination.

Keywords: Education—Data processing; Computer-assisted instruction; Language and languages -- Study and teaching; Interactive multimedia; Information and communications technology; Educational technologies; Foreign language/ foreign language as teaching language; Education/ Computer-assisted education; Language and literature

Keywords: Nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication; Enseignement assisté par ordinateur; Education et informatique; Langages et langues -- Etude et enseignement; Hypermédias

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Education

Thierry Chanier. Learning a Second Language for Specific Purposes within a Hypermedia Framework. Computer-Assisted Language Learning, 1996, 9 (1), pp.3-43. ⟨edutice-00000123⟩