Discussion

Answer the following questions:

1. What do you think are CALL’s main advantages and disadvantages as a way of learning foreign languages?

2. Do you think it is possible that one day language teachers will be completely replaced by computers?

Writing

Imagine you are in charge of language teaching in an institute. Write a short report to the principal recommending the introduction of CALL.

Organize your report as follows:

Paragraph 1 – explain what CALL is.

Paragraph 2 – describe the different options available (e.g. one computer per class; a special classroom with several networked PCs).

Paragraph 3 – recommend one of the options you mentioned in paragraph 2.

Related Reading.

Neuromorphic Microchips.

When IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer edged out world chess champion Garry Kasparov during their celebrated match in 1997, it did so by means of sheer brute force. The machine eval­uated some 200 million potential board moves a second, whereas its flesh-and-blood opponent considered only three each second, at most. But despite Deep Blue's victory, com­puters are no real competition for the human brain in areas such as vision, hearing, pattern recognition, and learning. Computers, for instance, cannot match our ability to rec­ognize a friend from a distance merely by the way he walks. And when it comes to operational efficiency, there is no con­test at all. A typical room-size supercomputer weighs rough­ly 1,000 times more, occupies 10,000 times more space and consumes a million fold more power than does the canta­loupe-size lump of neural tissue that makes up the brain.

How does the brain—which transmits chemical signals between neu­rons in a relatively sluggish thousandth of a second—end up performing some tasks faster and more efficiently than the most powerful digital processors? The secret appears to reside in how the brain organizes its slow-acting electrical components.

The brain does not execute coded instructions; instead it activates links, or synapses, between neurons. Each such activation is equivalent to executing a digital instruction, so one can compare how many connec­tions a brain activates every second with the number of instructions a computer executes during the same time. Synaptic activity is staggering: 10 quadrillion (10¹⁶) neural connections a second. It would take a million Intel Pentium-powered computers to match that rate—plus a few hundred megawatts to juice them up.

Now a small but innovative community of engineers is making sig­nificant progress in copying neuronal organization and function. Re­searchers speak of having "morphed" the structure of neural connections into silicon circuits, creating neuromorphic microchips. If successful, this work could lead to implantable silicon retinas for the blind and sound processors for the deaf that last for 30 years on a single nine-volt battery or to low-cost, highly effective visual, audio or olfactory rec­ognition chips for robots and other smart machines

Overview/Inspired by Nature

Today's computers can perform billions of operations per second, but they are still no match for even a young child when it comes to skills such as pattern recognition or visual processing. The human brain is also millions of times more energy-efficient and far more compact than a typical personal computer.

Neuromorphic microchips, which take cues from neural structure, have already demonstrated impressive power reductions. Their efficiency may make it possible to develop fully implant able artificial retinas for people afflicted by certain types of blindness as well as better electronic sensors.

Someday neuromorphic chips could even replicate the self-growing connections the brain uses to achieve its amazing functional capabilities.

(Scientific American. May 2005).

PC-Based Tester.

CWAV has added the USBee AX Test Pod to its USBee product line. The AX

is a PC-based pod that relies on the USB 2.0 bus to turn a personal com­puter into a programmable oscillo­scope, digital signal analyzer, and logic analyzer in one compact unit. It is used for testing and controlling cir­cuit designs, verifying analog voltage levels and digital logic, and generating a visual representation of the signals. The USBee AX Test Pod can stream data to and from the PC and perform all triggering and data storing. The AX-Standard comes with an oscillo­scope and logic analyzer; the AX-Plus adds a signal generator and USB, 12C, SPI, and Async decoder modules; the AX-Pro includes a data logger, fre­quency and pulse counter, frequency generator, remote and pulse-width modulation controller, and the ESBee AX Tool Builder source-code library.

Data Acquisition Software

CEC Capital Equipment has an­nounced DASYLab V 9.0, the latest version of the company's Microsoft Windows-based graphical data ac­quisition software, featuring an up­dated user interface, improved online help, and interactive tutorials. The software gives more than 150 exam­ples to help users accelerate setup and development of data acquisition and analysis, process monitoring and control, data logging and display, and reporting applications. The DASYLab 9 workspace has been updated with modern icons and graphics, and has been restructured to include module browsing and dynamic information areas. DASYLab's wide range of measurement and control hardware drivers has been extended with a se­ries of new drivers that now support the National Instruments M series and CAN boards.

(Physics Today. February 2006)