O n f e r e n c e

References 
Meskill, C. (1999). Computers as tools for sociocollaborative language learning. In K. 
Cameron (Ed.), CALL: Media, design and applications. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger. 
Smith, B., Alvarez-Torres, M., & Zhao, Y. (2003). Features of CMC technologies and their 
impact on language learners’ online interaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 19, 703
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729. 

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-22- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Virginia Westwood 
Murdoch University, Perth, Australia 
[e-mail] 
Using Design-Based Research for Qualitative Investigation of CALL 
in an Oral Indigenous Language 
Bio data 
Virginia Westwood
is a PhD student at Murdoch University in Western Australia. With 
her partner Heather Kaufmann, she established Protea Textware in 1994 to develop 
interactive multimedia language, literacy and numeracy programs. Since 1994, Virginia 
has been director of design and programming in the company which has produced many 
internationally successful English CALL programs. Following an invitation in 2009 from 
an Aboriginal Language Centre to create similar CALL for their language, Virginia lived 
and worked in the Kimberley for 2 years. Now relocated in Melbourne, Virginia visits 
remote areas of Australia to work on CALL programs with other language communities. 
Abstract 
This presentation describes an instance of a design-based research (DBR) approach used 
in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) research. The research investigates a 
potentially replicable design process for a CALL package for oral Indigenous languages 
(IL). CALL has been researched and developed principally for the more commonly 
spoken languages (CSL). The design process for the development of CALL programs has 
arisen in CSL environments. CSL have been written, analysed, described and 
documented over hundreds of years, in contrast to many IL. Few attempts have been 
made to develop CALL for Indigenous languages, and the success rate is not high. The 
wider study to investigate how CALL could be responsive to IL started from a critical 
standpoint in partnership with the Nyikina community in the remote northwest of 
Western Australia. Within this, DBR was chosen as a research approach to work up a 
model process for the design and development of a CALL program as it supports both 
Western and Indigenous situated methodologies. DBR is a participatory approach and 
calls for collaborative cycles of iteration through (sometimes concurrent) phases of 
exploration, development, implementation and reflection and results in a practical 
solution and theory, or Design Principles, which can be tested in replication of the 
research. This approach afforded continuous data collection and interpretation through a 
critical lens. Challenges arose both as a result of investigating the design and 
development of CALL in an IL, and as a result of using DBR in the investigation. The 
major challenges, which are broadly methodological and epistemological, and their 
impacts on the course and outcomes of the research, are discussed in this paper.