This chapter describes the modelling of learner interaction in computer-assistedlanguage learning (CALL) environments. Here, I call for the development and adoptionof situated task analysis frameworks in CALL system design and evaluation. Theintegration of existing CALL, human-computer interaction (HCI) and softwareengineering techniques constitutes a primary concern for the future of CALL softwaredevelopment. As such, this chapter describes the application of learner-centred designand situated task analysis principles within a flexible and integrative meta-framework:Cognition, Activity, Social Organisation and Environment (CASE). Finally, thischapter demonstrates how application of the CASE framework in CALL contexts leadsto the development of more fit-for-purpose and personalized CALL systems.

Recent work suggests that learning object design can be improved by greater integration of instructional design, learning theory and software development methodologies. Despite this, there is a lack of research in the field that seeks to establish an association between the contextualised nature of learning object design and empirical properties of learner-computer interaction. In addressing this issue, we argue for a situated learning perspective on learning object design. Using the CASE framework as an exemplar of situated learning, we describe an holistic approach to eliciting socio-cultural properties of learning objects.

Relations between learning outcomes and the learning objects which are assembled to facilitate their achievement are the subject of increasingly prevalent investigation, particularly with approaches which advocate the aggregation of learning objects as complex constituencies for achieving learning outcomes. From the perspective of situated learning, we show how the CASE framework imbues learning objects with a closed set of properties which can be classified and aggregated into learning object assemblies in a principled fashion. We argue that the computational and pedagogical tractability of this model provides a new insight into learning object evaluation, and hence learning outcomes.

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