Exploring Language Learning with the Computer

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A clear understanding of how people learn second languages has always been important. Now, with computers standing at the door of the secondlanguage class (or at least lurking at the end of the hall), such understanding is even more important. If we are convinced that drill is necessary for second-language learning, computers will indeed drill. But we delude ourselves if we think our students will like computer drill much more than they do the standard classroom variety. If rule-learning, analysis, extension, and variation teach a second language, the computer will do these, too-eternally and patiently. Preliminary results of surveys of second-language teachers suggest that teachers want computers to do the drudgery that they personally find dull, but are certain their students need.' Perhaps these teachers believe that giving students more control over required drill activities will make practice more palatable. I find this argument less than convincing; self-flagellation may be preferable to a whipping, but no matter who controls the whip, it still hurts. The drudgery of traditional drill in the classroom will remain drudgery on computers. If analysis of forms only helps some of our students in the classroom, it will do no better on the computer. What will happen if we introduce computers into the second-language classroom to perform tasks which are extensions of unpopular or marginally effective classroom practice? The answer is obvious: computers will not work. After the initial fun of button-pushing, students will resist. And foreign language teachers, having seen the demise of other technologies, will consign computers to the same dusty dump. Second-language teachers need to take a close look at what we think should be happening to second-language learners. Computers can help us do exactly that. During the past year I took myApple II + computer with me to a private language school where adults and children studied a second language. It was a valuable opportunity for me to check my own understanding about what contributes most effectively to the process of secondlanguage acquisition. Observing students at the computer also told me a lot about children and about many kinds of learning and learners.