Two minipresentations by second-language teachers describe their classroom efforts to instruct their students. The first article focuses on using computers to help students improve their writing skills. The second zeroes in on incorporating speaking activities into the daily life of the classroom. (CK)

Before undertaking a computer-assisted composition class, several factors should be considered. First, there will be demands on the instructor to replan the entire course to include the effective use of computers; to teach fundamental word-processing skills in addition to writing skills; to develop enough knowledge of hardware and software to…

Discusses issues related to the integration of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) into an intensive English program (IEP), drawing from the experiences of a program involved in change from a skill-separated to a skill-integrated curricular model. Emphasizes that student use of software should be monitored and that programs should have…

Discusses the positive transfer of computer-related skills to new computer tasks and reviews transfer-related literature to provide recommendations to facilitate better transfer of students' skills from introductory computer classes to future needs. Topics addressed include course goals, user interfaces, problem solving, and software. (Contains 60…

Outlines elements of instruction--knowledge, information, action--and describes each in the context of writing instruction, reviews writing research, and uses these components of instruction to explore possibilities for automated writing instruction. The Writer's Workbench language analysis programs are used to illustrate major points. Program…

The early computer-assisted-language-learning (CALL) programs were silent and mostly limited to screen or printer supported written text as the prevailing communication resource. The advent of powerful graphics, sound and video combined with AI-based parsers and sound recognition devices gradually turned the computer into a rather anthropomorphic…