CALICO at Center Stage: Our Emerging Rights and Responsibilities

Abstract

<p>The year of languages (see www.actfl.org) in the United States is a good time to reflect on where CALICO is as a professional group of technology users, developers, and researchers. My thoughts on this issue come from my background and concerns stemming from my work in ESL in higher education. However, most CALICO members are likely to share at least some of my concerns. After all, higher education has a considerable impact on people throughout the profession— at least it should. In higher education, our mission, simply put, is to create and disseminate knowledge. Issues in ESL are sometimes seen as distant from those in foreign language, and there are some important differences, but when it comes to technology and language learning, a lot of common ground exists as well. Intellectually, we are all concerned with issues in applied linguistics—particularly issues of language learning, teaching, and assessment. Sociologically, we are positioned within departments of languages and linguistics, where we represent a minority. In fact, historically speaking, many CALICO members can recall their position as an eccentric minority in their language department. CALICO members were the strange professors who were writing programs for learners to study past tense verbs rather than papers on the underlying structure of gerunds or the influence of a Canadian author on the literature of the 1940s. Technology held a very marginal place in language departments.</p>