Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

For several decades the computer appeared to hold great promise for language teaching. In particular, a spurt in the 1980s followed the availability of the microcomputer, during which much investment of time and money took place. Since then the field has lost some of its impetus, becoming more of a specialist developmental area with its own concerns rather than part of the mainstream of language teaching. General surveys can be found in Jones and Fortescue (1987) , Leech and Candlin (1986) and Hardisty and Windeatt (1989) . The earliest phase reflected the fact that computers were large mainframe machines kept in research institutions. Large-scale schemes were developed for teaching, such as the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) at the University of Illinois. The teaching methodology was often in the conventional traditions either of grammatical explanation, in which the learner saw a screen display explaining a point and then had practice material on it, or of audiolingualism in which language points were drilled over and over (though only in written form); the mode was normally self-instruction with one student per computer, sometimes gathered together into a computer laboratory parallel to a language laboratory. Programs were stored on large mainframe computers and could only be accessed from terminals on certain university sites; they were mostly ... log in or subscribe to read full text