Primary research concerns in CALL shift with each stage. Cross-disciplinary contributions to empirical CALL research were found wanting and published studies had often vaguely described key definitions.
In regard to the examination of learner behaviors, or strategies, CALL researchers need to explore the framework of “constructively responsive” readers. This perspective, based on the underpinnings of cognitive constructivism (for an overview, see Driscoll, 2000), regards comprehenders as flexible, concerned with main ideas, and, most importantly, responsive to the presentation of textual resources as they attempt to build a coherent macro-structure.
The need for evaluation of CALL projects and activities is a recurrent theme in the literature and has become more urgent as the field expands (Chapelle, 2001, p. 26). Broadly speaking, the increased emphasis on computer-based learning throughout education has produced new tools for analysis, increased funding, and widened interest.
Lynch notes that proponents of integrative CALL must be careful to strike appropriate balances between those activities which focus on electronic literacy skills and those which provide opportunities for language learning.