Call Dimensions

CALL Dimensions

This volume gives language teachers, software designers, and researchers who wish to use technology in second or foreign language education the information they need to absorb what has been achieved so far and to make sense of it. It is designed to enable the kind of critical reading of a substantial literature that leads to a balanced and detailed knowledge of the field. Chapter by chapter, the book builds, through description, analysis, examples, and discussion, a detailed picture of modern CALL. In this book, the label “CALL” is interpreted broadly to include technology-enhanced language learning, Web-enhanced language learning, and information and communication technologies for language learning. The work is distinguished by its attention to a range of languages rather than just English. The authors first set the scene and introduce major areas of interest and growth in CALL, and then look in depth at seven important dimensions: design, evaluation, computer-mediated communication, theory, research, practice, and technology. Chapters on each of these topics include a description that reviews the recent literature, identifies themes, and presents representative projects that illustrate the dimension, followed by a discussion that provides in-depth analysis, and a conclusion offering suggestions for further work. Detailed references and links connect the description and discussion with original works and primary sources so the reader can follow up easily on areas of personal interest. Two concluding chapters discuss how the various dimensions might be brought together, the first from a practical point of view, the second with a view to the development of CALL as a whole.

Voice Data Logger

Psychosocial Job Dimensions and Distress/Well-Being: Issues and Challenges in Occupational Health Psychology

Over the last three decades a large body of research has showed that psychosocial job dimensions such as time pressure, decision authority and social support, could have significant implications for psychological distress and well-being. Theoretical models, such as the job demand-control-social support model (JDCS model), the effort-reward imbalance model (ERI model), the job demands-resources model (JDR model) and the vitamin model suggest that distress and positive dimensions at work (well being and motivation) can be considered as two sides of the same coin. If the job is designed to provide the right mix of psychosocial job dimensions (e.g., optimal time pressure, decision authority and social support), work can boost job engagement and well-being as well as productive behaviors at work. When the job is not designed in an optimal way (e.g., too much time pressure and too little decision authority) work can trigger stress reactions and burnout. Although some insight has been gained on how job dimensions could predict distress and well-being, and also into the dimensions that might moderate and mediate these associations; research still faces several challenges. Firstly, most of this research has been cross-sectional in nature, thus making it difficult to conclude on the long-term effects of psychosocial job dimensions. Another challenge concerns how the contextual dimensions can be incorporated into micro-levels models on employee stress and well-being. Nowadays, work is carried out in the context of a wider environment that includes organizational variables. So far the role of the organizational variables in the theoretical frameworks for explaining the relationships between psychosocial job dimensions, employee distress and well-being, has often been underplayed. The main aim of this research topic is to bring together international research from different theoretical and methodological perspectives in order to advance knowledge and practice in the field of work stress.