Françoise Blin | Dublin City University, Republic of Ireland
In the last decade, the term “affordance,” coined by the ecological psychologist James Gibson (1986), has become a buzzword in CALL research. Often used to denote possibilities offered by technologies, the concept has been imported into CALL from cognate domains, such as human-computer Interaction (HCI). However, the CALL community has yet to engage in in-depth discussions on its meaning and usefulness for CALL research and design. The concept remains confusing, often misunderstood, and, at times, misused. This chapter provides an introduction to the concept of affordances, with a view to clarify its meaning and potential applications within CALL. Following a brief overview of Gibson’s theory of affordance, it presents and discusses leading HCI interpretations and conceptualizations of affordance that are particularly relevant to CALL researchers and designers. More specifically, it explicates HCI cognitivist and post-cognitivist views of affordances before exploring their relation to CALL affordances and their possible place within a CALL research agenda focusing more particularly on learner-computer interactions.
(2001) Affordances in activity theory and cognitive systems engineering. Roskilde, Denmark: Risø National Laboratory. Retrieved from [URL]
Baerentsen, K.B., & Trettvik, J
(2002) An activity theory approach to affordance. InProceedings of the second Nordic conference on human-computer interaction (pp.51–60). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
Bakhtin, M.M
(1981) Dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Baumer, E.P.S., & Tomlinson, B
(2011) Comparing activity theory with distributed cognition for video analysis: Beyond “Kicking the Tires.”Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp.133–142). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
(2011) The human-artifact model: An activity theoretical approach to artifact ecologies. Human-Computer Interaction, 26(4), 315–371.
Bonderup Dohn, N
(2009) Affordances revisited: Articulating a Merleau-Pontian view. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 4(2), 151–170.
Chapelle, C.A
(2009) The relationship between second language acquisition theory and computer assisted language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 741–753.
Cole, M
(2012) Preface. The ideal in human activity: A collection of the writings of Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved from [URL]
Conole, G., & Dyke, M
(2004) What are the affordances of information and communication technologies?ALT-J, 12(2), 113–124.
Coughlan, P., & Duff, P
(1994) Same task, different activities: Analysis of a SLA task from an activity theory perspective. InJ.P. Lantolf & G. Appel(Eds.), Vygotskian approaches to second language research (pp. 173–193). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
(2012) Cognitive dynamics: Language as values realizing activity. InA. Kravchenko(Ed.), Cognitive dynamics in linguistic interactions (pp. 1–32). Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars.
Dalgarno, B., & Lee, M.J.W
(2010) What are the learning affordances of 3-D virtual environments?British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(1), 10–32.
Darhower, M.A
(2008) The role of linguistic affordances in telecollaborative chat. CALICO Journal, 26(1), 48–69.
De Haan, J., Reed, W.M., & Kuwada, K
(2010) The effect of interactivity with a music video game on second language vocabulary recall. Language Learning & Technology, 74(2), 74–94. Retrieved from [URL]
Descartes, R
(1647) La description du corps humain. InV. Cousin(Ed.), Oeuvres de Descartes (Vol. 11). Paris, France: Levrault.
Dourish, P
(2001/2004) Where the action is: The foundations of embodied Interaction (Kindle edition). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Dreyfus, H.L
(1991) Being in the world: Commentary on Heidegger’s “Being and Time”, Division 1. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Dreyfus, H.L
(2014) Skillful coping: Essays on the phenomenology of everyday perception and action. M.A. Wrathall(Ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Engeström, Y
(1987/2014) Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Garrett, N
(2009) Computer assisted language learning trends and issues revisited: Integrating innovation. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 719–740.
Gaver, W.W
(1991) Technology affordances. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp.79–84). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
Gay, G., & Hembrooke, H
(2004) Activity-centered design: An ecological approach to designing smart tools and usable systems. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Gibson, J.J
(1970) Terms used in ecological optics. InJ. Pittenger, E.S. Reed, & M. Kim(Eds.), James Gibson’s purple perils: A selection of James J. Gibson’s unpublished essays on the psychology of perception. Retrieved from [URL]
Gibson, J.J
(1986) The ecological approach to visual perception (Kindle edition). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Heidegger, M
(1962) Being and time (J. MacQuarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York, NY: Harper.
Hoven, D., & Palalas, A
(2011) (Re)conceptualizing design approaches for mobile language learning. CALICO Journal, 28(3), 699–720.
Hsu, C.-K
(2015) Learning motivation and adaptive video caption filtering for EFL learners using handheld devices. ReCALL, 27(01), 84–103.
Hutchby, I
(2001) Technologies, texts and affordances. Sociology, 35(2), 441–456.
Ilyenkov, E.V
(1977) Problems of dialectical materialism. Moscow, Russia: Progress.
Ilyenkov, E.V
(2012) The ideal in human activity. Marxists Internet Archive Publications. Retrieved from [URL]
Kaptelinin, V
(1996) Distribution of cognition between minds and artifacts: Augmentation of mediation?AI & SOCIETY, 10(1), 15–25.
Kaptelinin, V
(2014) Affordances. The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (2nd ed.) Retrieved from [URL]
Kaptelinin, V., & Nardi, B
(2012a) Activity theory in HCI: Fundamentals and reflections. San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool.
Kaptelinin, V., & Nardi, B
(2012b) Affordances in HCI: Toward a mediated action perspective. Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp.967–976). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
Kaptelinin, V., Nardi, B., Bødker, S., Carroll, J., Hollan, J., Hutchins, E., & Winograd, T
(2003) Post-cognitivist HCI: Second-wave theories. CHI’03 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (pp.692–693). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
Kirschner, P
(2002) Can we support CCSL? Educational, social and technological affordances for learning. InP.A. Kirschner(Ed.), Three worlds of CSCL: Can we support CSCL? (pp.7–47). Heerlen, Netherlands: Open University of the Netherlands. Retrieved from [URL]
Kirschner, P., Strijbos, J.-W., Kreijns, K., & Beers, P.J
(2004) Designing electronic collaborative learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 52(3), 47–66.
Kreijns, K., Kirschner: A., & Jochems, W
(2002) The sociability of computer-supported collaborative learning environments. Educational Technology & Society, 5(1), 8–22.
Lektorsky, V.A
(2009) Mediation as a means of collective activity. InA. Sannino, H. Daniels, & K.D. Gutiérrez(Eds.), Learning and expanding with activity theory (pp. 75–87). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Leontiev, A.N
(1978) Activity, consciousness and personality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Leontiev, A.N
(1981) Problems of the development of mind. Moscow, Russia: Progress.
Levy, M
(2009) Technologies in use for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 769–782.
Levy, M., & Steel, C
(2015) Language learner perspectives on the functionality and use of electronic language dictionaries. ReCALL, FirstView, 1–20.
Linderoth, J
(2012) Why gamers don’t learn more: An ecological approach to games as learning environments. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 4(1), 45–62.
Linell, P
(2009) Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically: Interactional and contextual theories of human sense-making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
McGrenere, J., & Ho, W
(2000) Affordances: Clarifying and evolving a concept.
Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2000
(pp.179–186). Montreal, Canada. Retrieved from [URL]
Newgarden, K., Zheng, D., & Liu, M
(2015) An eco-dialogical study of second language learners’ World of Warcraft (WoW) gameplay. Language Sciences, 48, 22–41.
Norman, D.A
(1988) The psychology of everyday things (Vol. 11). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Norman, D.A
(1999) Affordance, conventions, and design. Interactions, 6(3), 38–43.
Norman, D.A
(2002) The design of everyday things (Reprint ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Norman, D.A
(2013) The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition (Kindle ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Pozzi, G., Pigni, F., & Vitari, C
(2014) Affordance theory in the IS discipline: A review and synthesis of the literature. Retrieved from [URL]
Schulze, M., & Heift, T
(2013) Intelligent CALL. InM. Thomas, H. Reinders, & M. Warschauer(Eds.), Contemporary computer assisted language learning (Kindle edition, pp. 249–266). London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Star, S.L
(1989) The structure of ill-structured solutions: Boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving. InL. Gasser & M. Huhns(Eds.), Distributed artificial intelligence (Vol. 2, pp. 37–54). San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Star, S.L
(2010) This is not a boundary object: Reflections on the origin of a concept. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35(5), 601–617.
Thomas, M., & Reinders, H
(Eds.) (2010) Task-based language learning and teaching with technology (Kindle). London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Türk, E., & Erçetin, G
(2014) Effects of interactive versus simultaneous display of multimedia glosses on L2 reading comprehension and incidental vocabulary learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27(1), 1–25.
Turner, P
(2005) Affordance as context. Interacting with Computers, 17(6), 787–800.
Turner, P
(2013) How we cope with digital technology. San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool.
Turner, P., & Turner, S
(2002) An affordance-based framework for CVE evaluation. InX. Faulkner, J. Finlay, & F. Detienne(Eds.), People and computers XVI – Memorable yet invisible (pp. 89–103). New York, NY: Springer.
van Lier, L
(2000) From input to affordance: Social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. InJ.P. Lantolf(Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 245–259). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
van Lier, L
(2004) The ecology and semiotics of language learning. Boston, MA: Kluwer.
van Lier, L
(2008) Ecological-semiotic perspectives on educational linguistics. InB. Spolsky & F.M. Hult(Eds.), The handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 596–604). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Vyas, D., Chisalita, C.M., & Dix, A
(2008) Dynamics of affordances and implications for design (Report). The University of Twente, Netherlands. Retrieved from [URL]
Vyas, D., Chisalita, C.M., & Van Der Veer, G.C
(2006) Affordance in interaction. Proceedings of the 13th Eurpoean conference on cognitive ergonomics: Trust and control in complex socio-technical systems (pp.92–99). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery.
Vygotsky, L.S
(1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L.S
(1986) Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Wenger, E
(1998) Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zheng, D
(2012) Caring in the dynamics of design and languaging: Exploring second language learning in 3D virtual spaces. Language Sciences, 34(5), 543–558.
Zheng, D., & Newgarden, K
(2012) Rethinking language learning: Virtual worlds as a catalyst for change. International Journal of Learning and Media, 3(2), 13–36.
Cited by
Cited by 12 other publications
Boultif, Amal & Béatrice Crettenand Pecorini
2021. un état des lieux des usages de la littératie médiatique multimodale en contexte numérique (LMM). Revue de recherches en littératie médiatique multimodale 14
Börekci, Rabia & Selami Aydin
2020. Foreign language teachers’ interactions with their students on Facebook. Computer Assisted Language Learning 33:3 ► pp. 217 ff.
Cohen, Cathy & Ciara R. Wigham
2019. A comparative study of lexical word search in an audioconferencing and a videoconferencing condition. Computer Assisted Language Learning 32:4 ► pp. 448 ff.
Colpaert, Jozef
2020. Editorial position paper: how virtual is your research?. Computer Assisted Language Learning 33:7 ► pp. 653 ff.
Dey-Plissonneau, Aparajita & Françoise Blin
2016. Emerging affordances in telecollaborative multimodal interactions. In New directions in telecollaborative research and practice: selected papers from the second conference on telecollaboration in higher education, ► pp. 297 ff.
Dey-Plissonneau, Aparajita
2017. Emerging affordances in videoconferencing for language learning and teaching. In CALL in a climate of change: adapting to turbulent global conditions – short papers from EUROCALL 2017, ► pp. 92 ff.
Dey-Plissonneau, Aparajita
2021. CHAT framework to study affordances in CALL environments. The EuroCALL Review 29:2 ► pp. 11 ff.
Hamel, Marie-Josée
2019. Bilingues, francophiles et citoyens du web ! / Bilinguals, Francophiles and Web Citizens!. CALICO Journal 36:3 ► pp. 162 ff.
Marcão, Ricardo Pateiro, Gabriel Pestana & Maria José Sousa
2019. Performing Enterprise Architectures Through Gamified Business Models. In Handbook of Research on Business Models in Modern Competitive Scenarios [Advances in Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage, ], ► pp. 232 ff.
McGuire, Erin, Anne M. Rietveld, Amanda Crump & Cees Leeuwis
2022. Anticipating gender impacts in scaling innovations for agriculture: Insights from the literature. World Development Perspectives 25 ► pp. 100386 ff.
Meihami, Hussein
2022. Investigating CALL researchers’ strategies to conduct genuine CALL research: a community of practice perspective. Computer Assisted Language Learning► pp. 1 ff.
Ploos van Amstel, Dirk, Lenneke Kuijer, Remko van der Lugt & Berry Eggen
2022. A Psychological Ownership Based Design Tool to Close the Resource Loop in Product Service Systems: A Bike Sharing Case. Sustainability 14:10 ► pp. 6207 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.