2 The role speech recognition software teaching and learning

The advantage of using computer in language teaching and learning
In the introduction of their book CALL, Hardisty and Windeatt (1989) comment that, compared with the language laboratory, it has taken for less time for language teachers to perceive what the computer has to offer to language learning. “It took the profession fifteen or more years to find effective ways of utilizing language laboratories. … It has taken CALL a considerably shorter time to move from its crude beginnings … to a stage where the use of computers is both innovative and truly appropriate.”⁵ . This statement reflects the experience in learning foreign language when using the information technology.
(1) The inherent nature of the computer
The computer can handle a much wider range of activities, and much more powerfully, than other technological aids. It offers a two-way learning session with the student. It is much more than a mere programmed textbook, whose powers of interaction are virtually limited to an ability to reveal the correct answer: the computer can ‘assess’ the student’s response. It can also display messages, take the student through subsequent attempts at a question, and even take the student to a different section of package, depending in the nature of the response. Most of all, the computer can complete all of these action very quickly and is always unfailingly accurate and precise.
(2) The benefit of the teacher
As for the benefit of the teacher, the computer presents several aspects of particular promise. Prominent among these is its versatility in handling different kinds of material. For example, the simplest is the one-way presentation of information, in the form of text, graphics, audio and video. Also, the computer can handle question-and-answer routines, simulated ‘dialogues’, hypothesis testing, and many other types of exercises. When the student has completed the session, the computer can record results, errors, success rates, the time spent, and much more information for the teacher to review at a later time. Unlike a textbook lesson, which the teacher cannot change, and to which at best some subsidiary materials can be added, the computer exercise can be easily modified.
(3) The benefit of the learner
The computer also offers many advantages for the student. ‘Access’ is one of the benefits. The computer offers the student the choice of when to study particular topics and how long to spend on them. The flexibility makes many educational courses accessible to students who would otherwise have no chance to take them.