A CALL Application in Vocabulary and Grammar [1992, rptd. 1996, 2008]

Abstract

The writer discusses a computer-assisted language-learning application in vocabulary and grammar based on a contextual study of a Georges Simenon ‘whodunnit’, Le Chien jaune, by means of a TACT database. The effectiveness of the approach described is posited on the students' interest in finding out what happens next (they read a chapter each week) and their progressive familiarity with the characters, the setting, and various thematic and typical items of vocabulary (such as that of poisoning, pipe-smoking, lighting and extinguishing). The TACT database lends itself to the exploration of items and groups of items belonging to various textual and linguistic categories: thematic, semantic, lexical, morphosemantic, semantico-syntagmatic, semantico-syntactic, morphological, grammatical. Examples given include the constructional differences between savoir and connaître, the syntagmatic functioning of boîte à and boîte de, and the gradual metonymic discovery of the identity of Léon. The paper also examines the question of text level, represented by narrative vs. dialogue, or the stylistic variants of newspaper headlines and articles, telegrams, notes, letters and legal language; and that of the situational use of forms of address. Mention is made of the usefulness of TACT both for exploration of the partly known and revelation of the unknown (the latter particularly through the Index and Distribution displays).