The United States is somewhat behind Western Europe in terms of school use of computers. In England, for example, the Department of Education has reported that the country ranks first in the world in integrating computers in education. The report cites that 94% of secondary schools and all primary schools provide hands-on experience in computers. Secondary schools own on average 85 computers each, whereas primary schools have averaged 10 computers each. Thus, at least 10 pupils in secondary schools share one computer, compared to 60 ten years ago (Frost, 1995). Although computers are used primarily for computational skill development, increasingly they teach language and other disciplines, particularly where drill, recognition, and memorization are the primary skills to be acquired.

Nevertheless, the rush to computerize has led to growing criticism that the money spent on co

Methods can be developed only on the basis of learning theory. Individualized CAI must, in addition, possess diagnostic,

Given a "modern" computer (Note that after six months a computer has entered obsolescence!), what counts are the software and its integration in the curriculum. All university campuses and a great many elementary and secondary schools now use some form of CAI--however cautiously or timidly. PLATO and TICCIT may still be experimental, but they and like systems are gaining ground. Microcomputer applications in ESL and foreign language teaching/learning are so "hyped" today that they have given birth to CALI--Computer Assisted Language Instruction, with its own periodical, the CACICO Journal published by the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium. If hard drives and 3(" diskettes are currently the software supports, interactive videodiscs are in the process of taking over. Their memory are voluminous; they offer still and motion pictures and sound; they are on the way to permit writing-to as well as reading-to.

Longley, J., & Shain, M. (1986). Dictionary of Information Technology, 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.

Coffey, P. (1991). Accent Reduction Using Digitized Speed on the MacIntosh Computer. Master thesis. Los Angeles, CA: University of California.

Prator, C., & Robinett, B. (1986). Manual of American English Pronunciation, 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: Holt Rinehart Winston.

Using the computer, Coffey provided a set of practice exercises tailored to the needs of each student--a feat no textbook could ever offer. Unfortunately, no appropriate software was available. Moreover, the digitization of speech required a large amount of memory (A 3(" diskette holds about 30 seconds of digitized speech!). Also, ten weeks was too short a time to recondition language behaviors. As a result, the experiment was abandoned and a