TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE & COMPUTERS

It is estimated that in the last ten years or so over two billion U.S. dollars have been spent to purchase, maintain, and supply with software, some two million computers in American schools. "While we bemoan the decline of literacy, computers discount words in favor of pictures and pictures in favor of video. While we fret about the decreasing cogency of public debate, computers dismiss linear argument and promote fast, shallow romps across the information landscape" (Gelernter, 1994, p. 15). Many educators and parents deplore the replacement of mental skill development by pocket calculators and computers. The image takes over as spelling deteriorates. The printed page has become boring in the face of the multimedia. As Gelernter (1994) remarks: "To misspell is human; to have no idea of correct spelling is to be semiliterate" (p. 16).

Yet, the question may be asked: Is the computer to blame or, rather, should the people who program it be blamed? Are programmers the only culprits, or are also the teachers and parents who shift the responsibility for their children's education to a machine and its technicians? Will the computer go the way of Programmed Instruction (P.I.) of yore and the Learning Laboratory, i.e. expensive experiments no one has had the patience to really fathom--with the resulting overall failure of machines and programmers?

One way to find out whether Computer Assisted Instructio

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980), R. Kadasch (1981), R. Krashen (1981), T. Terrell (1983), W.E. Lambert (1972), G. Lozanov (1978), T.W. Malone (1981), M.D. Merrill (1980), F. Otto (1980), R. Pinsleur (1966), R. Politzer (1982, W.M. Rivers (1986), G.L. Robinson (1985), J. Rubin (1982), J. Soper (1982), E. Stevick (1976), J.H. Underwood (1984), D. Walker (1984), and D.D. Williams (1976). It is to be noted that most research was carried out in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in the United States, England, and the Soviet Union. During this period, concepts, such as Krashen's learning vs acquiring, were at the height of fashion. So was the attempt at replacing, or at least supplementing, teachers who, by and large, were ill-educated in applied linguistics as well as in instructional technology and learning theory. Since then, although research continues and the computer has exploded into a popular educational medium, there has been either a return to traditional classroom methods or the selection of an eclectic approach which tries to exploit the contributions of the behavioral, cognitive, and communicative arts and sciences and those of technology. B. What questions arise from the previous research? 1. A great many questions and contradictions have arisen;
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Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)