Examples
The electronic dictionary phenomenon will continue; as Stirling (2005: 64) suggested, “they seem to be here to stay, just as calculators, once welcomed by students and rejected by teachers, have stayed”.
Prensky (2001:1) defines the new generations as ‘digital natives’—those who were born as “native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet”— and the older ones as ‘digital immigrants’ who “speak and outdated language (that of the pre-digital age)” and are in need of having to learn the new language as a compromise.
Michael Levy (1997:1 cited in Figura & Jarvis, 2007) defines CALL as “the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning”.
Egbert (2005:4 cited in Figura & Jarvis, 2007) gives the definition of CALL as “learners learning language in any context with, through, and around computer technologies”.
Electronic dictionaries, especially pocket electronic dictionaries (PEDs) are common in South East Asian classrooms and their use is greatest in ‘countries where PEDs are more cheaply and easily available… and cultures in which microelectronic devices are extremely popular and fashionable (Midlane 2005).
In Thailand, a growing number of students reported using electronic dictionaries in classrooms and at home (Boonmoh 2003, 2009, Mongpeth 2007).