CALL software design: moving from the notional to the concrete

Research articles on CALL frequently proceed from the general to the specific. The general can take the form of a survey of the literature, a theory or theories of language teaching, learning or acquisition, or a summarised appraisal of a number of pieces of software; the specific is usually a collection of examples from a variety of sources to illustrate a principle. The merits of such an approach are widely recognised and are in no way disputed by the present writer. It is easy, however, for lack of attention to detail to leave the reader with many unanswered questions: Wouldn't it be alright to include/omit a given feature if… or if…? How did they come up with that technique? Why did/didn't they present the information this way? Exactly who was this designed for? How and when was it intended to be used? What constraints were they working under? In this article we have chosen to proceed in the opposite direction and trace the processes involved in developing one piece of software.