Productive Language Use with IT'S ENGLISH

Abstract

Based on the results of a study in 1989, a new Computer-Assisted Instruction program for foreign language teaching of English has been developed. Main features of this program are the communicative approach, a 70, 000 word dictionary, sound and a syntactic parser.An evaluation study was carried out to explore the possibilities of this program. Four groups of eight students from two schools using different methods for teaching English used the program for 8 weeks. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the usage of the program, by the students and the learning results. First results indicate that pupils who worked with the more communicative methods for teaching English made greater progress in acquiring vocabulary than those taught more traditionally.