Complexity Theory: CALL @
The Edge of Chaos "WOLFRAM CLASSES/LANGUAGE CLASSES"
by Stephen A. Shucart 

venturing out...
Offering new ways of
thinking about learning and
computers by Scott H. Rule 

Media and Formats on the Net by Paul Daniels 

CALL lab management: A hardcore story byKazunori Nozawa

Reviews
Azar Interactive
The Computer and
          the Non-Native Writer
The Third Culture

Officer Reports

CALL News
Letter from the Editor
IATEFL Reports
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Coordinator: Elin Melchior

Hello to all,

I hope that you have all been having a productive spring. The CALL N-SIG is roaring into summer. Just around the corner is our annual conference. The conference has a record number of sponsoring parties. The CALL N-SIG, JALT Tokyo, JALT West Tokyo, JALT Yokohama, TMIT and Kitasato are joining together to hold CALL: Human Connections, the 3rd annual international conference on computers and language learning in Japan. ELICOS (The Australian Association of Institutions to Teach English Language Intensive Courses to Overseas Students), SITEC (Sydney Institute of Technology), the Australian International Education Foundation, and the TMIT CALL Study Group are cooperating organizations. It will be held at TMIT (Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology) in Hino City, Tokyo from May 29 to June 1, 1998. Thirty-four sessions are planned over the four day conference with most sessions happening between 10am and 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Plans for the national JALT conference at Omiya have now been finalized. The CALL N-SIG will be represented with a record 3 sessions on top of our business meeting!! This is mostly due to the efforts of our program chair, Scott Rule, who has come up with a truly unique forum for the CALL N-SIG's featured session "Mindtools for Supporting Language Learning" on Sunday, November 22nd from 16:30 to 18:15. Scott Rule will also be resurrecting the software fair (last held at JALT 95 in Nagoya) under the new title of "CALL N-SIG Swap Meet" on Sunday, November 22nd from 15:30 to 16:15. David Brooks will be organizing the CALL N-SIG colloquium, "CALL: Classroom Interactions" on Monday, November 23rd from 9:30 to 11:15.. I will be leading the Annual General Business Meeting on Sunday, November 22nd starting at 18:15. For more information, please read Scott Rule's report.

All financial reports and necessary papers from 1997 have been turned into JALT Central.

Paul Lewis, our telecommunications chair, is preparing to put together this year's book.

Plans for a CALL N-SIG sponsored workshop at an international high school near Kyoto are underway. This is planned to take place sometime in September.

One of my goals as CALL N-SIG coordinator is to unite us more firmly with other CALL groups around the world. At TESOL 98, I attended the TESOL CALL-IS business meeting and the IALL (International Association of Language Labs) informational meeting. Both groups have indicated a desire to be affiliated with the JALT CALL N-SIG. We are currently trading publications. We are also exchanging publications with IATEFL and EUROCALL. I would like to see us move beyond the simple exchange of publications into some type of joint project. I am proposing a joint CALL conference page. I feel that there are no comprehensive conference pages at this time. I would like to see us come together in creating one global page that will be linked to all the participating organizations' websites. If anyone is interested in helping on this project, please contact me at elin@gol.com.

People with ties and contacts outside of Japan and the US will be especially welcomed.

Work, ideas and suggestions for the improvement of the CALL N-SIG are always welcome. We have jobs of all sizes. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact me at elin@gol.com.

Volunteers are needed in the near future for the CALL conference at TMIT at the end of May. I hope that I will see you at CALL: Human Connections.

Elin Melchior, Komaki English Teaching Center

JALT CALL N-SIG Coordinator, SIGNIF listowner

See the CALL N-SIG website at http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/nsig/call

elin@gol.com------office phone: 0568-76-0905

Editor: Kevin Ryan

Here is a fictionalized email exchange explaining many of the issues of the switch in newsletter formats to electronic web-based.

New Member: I joined the CALL NSIG when I renewed my membership in January. I haven’t seen any newsletter yet. What’s going on?

Editor: We’ve moved our newsletter online. C@LLing Japan is now C@LLing Japan Online (CJO). You can access it through the CALL NSIG home page at http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/nsig/call/call.html. You can read columns by regular authors like Paul Daniels on technological issues, Bill Gatton on a developer’s perspective, Steve Shucart on latest trends in science, and Scott Rule on hypermedia. There is CALL news and reviews, and messages from the CALL NSIG Officers.

New Member: That sounds like a lot of work. How many people are involved?

Editor: Well, on the CJO we have 3 editors (news, academic articles and web presentation) as well as the authors. We are looking for a Reviews Editor at the moment, and someone that can write in Japanese about CALL in high schools. Interested?

New Member: But I don’t have access to the WWW.

Editor: The CALL NSIG can make up floppies with the web content if 20 or more people get in contact with me (ryan@gol.com or fax 044-853-7058 before 10 PM) and request this. You are number one on the list.

New Member: If I can get everything on the WWW, what advantage is there to sign up for the CALL NSIG and pay Y1,500?

Editor: You can get a discount on entrance to our annual International CALL Conference. Check out the flyer we are sending out. Most of the officers are really working hard on this conference right now, along with the cooperation of other JALT groups, most notably David Brooks and West Tokyo, with the offer of James Wada and TMIT to host it in Hino, Tokyo.

Also, have you seen the Proceedings from our last conference? A collection of papers with 150 pages of new CALL information put together by the CALL NSIG. Last year, we charged members Y1,000 for this at the conference. It is still available for Y1,500.

THIS year, we are using the savings from putting the newsletter online into a new collection of papers, 200 pages edited by Paul Lewis. He has a call for papers out, and it should be ready just in time to pick one up at the national conference in Omiya. Free to all CALL NSIG members.

New Member: Sounds great. I’ll be ready!

Editor: Just be sure that whenever you renew your JALT membership, sign up for the CALL NSIG. It’s hard for us to accept money at other times. Thanks for your interest!

Contact List:

Coordinator: Elin Melchior elin@gol.com

Treasurer: Neal Jost neal@bosei.cc.u-tokai.ac.jp

Membership Chair: Malcolm Swanson malcolm@seafolknet.ne.jp

Program Chair: Scott Rule rule@gol.com

Newsletter Editor:Kevin Ryan ryan@gol.com

Telecommunications Chair/Webmaster: Paul Lewis pndl@gol.com

Member-At-Large: Larry Davies lbd@gol.com

Publicity Chair/Newsletter Webmaster: Paul Daniels daniels@interlink.or.jp

Librarian: Patricia Thornton pct@gol.com