The Influence of Learners’ Attitudes to and Perceptions of Call

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning – CALL – has grown tremendously and has seen a number of major developments: CALL has become accessible to a larger and more diverse audience and has developed didactic practices that can be implemented in education. In addition, there has been a growing amount of research that focuses on learners’ attitudes towards CALL and, more generally, towards computer-based language learning environments. These, however, seem to be fraught with methodological problems, often leading to inconsistent results. Rather than corroborating separate unidirectional relations between variables (e.g., the effect of instructional intervention on learning outcomes or motivation), researchers need to develop structural and integrative models that integrate multiple relations between several latent constructs. It is our aim in this pilot study to present a methodological framework for CALL-related theory construction. To reach this goal, we psychometrically validated the multifaceted construct of ‘attitude to CALL’. We demonstrate the development and validation of a preliminary integrative model on the concept of ‘attitude to CALL’. Structural equation modelling was used for the validation of our model.