Research was conducted to develop learning environments based on CD-ROM and printed material specifically for vocational secondary students with reading and writing difficulties. Parties to the action research were Austria, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Finland. Finnish partners concentrated on learning environments that would diversify and improve use of existing CD-ROM programs. Eleven Finnish instructors in different fields kept diaries of their work and wrote a report on the performance of each student involved in carrying out the learning tasks. In cooperation with students, instructors developed an evaluation tool emphasizing CD-ROM program suitability for poor readers and identified 35 suitable programs, although none were developed for native language teaching. Because students often failed to take notes while using programs, a pedagogical model was developed with other easily readable material to support the CD-ROM program. Over 60 students participated in final development of learning tasks. The basic structure of the task was that the student would do the following: (1) remember what information he/she possesses about the given topic; (2) become acquainted with the operation of the CD-ROM program; (3) retrieve information from the CD-ROM program assisted by questions; (4) start to plan the essay by means of pre-gathered information, turning it into a mind map; (5) write the essay using the mind map; (6) use the spellcheck function to make corrections; and (7) print it or send it to the instructor by e-mail. (YLB)