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Practicalities of a Computer-assisted Language Learning Project

Abstract Academic Literacy (AL) is an all-embracing term and most support courses can only target an aspect of it. Supporting academic language literacy has received some attention because of its significance in tertiary success. The present paper is a discussion of a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) project which was piloted at the University of Venda (UNIVEN) in response to challenges identified with a language support course, English Communication Skills (ECS). ECS was criticized as not resulting in significant linguistic development and blended learning – lecturer and CALL instruction - was seen as one solution to this criticism. The project was an intervention to reinforce some reading aspects of selected first-entering students, using MySkillslab, a computer software program. The paper concludes with reflections on the conceptual and practical implications of such a project.