Learning from tray: Teachers’ perceptions of possible uses for a text disclosure program1

Abstract

Abstract. After briefly outlining some of the kinds of computer assisted learning programs that might be of use to teachers of language, this article describes TRAY, an open‐ended text disclosure program that can be used for a variety of purposes in language learning. The results of a small‐scale study are then described, in which a number of experienced language teachers were asked to identify the uses they could see for TRAY in their own classrooms. Analysis of these responses indicated that a wide range of uses were envisaged by the teachers as a whole. However, individual teachers tended to identify only a small proportion of these possible uses. It is argued that this suggests that we need to find out much more about how in‐service work can help teachers to get a fuller picture of the potential of the program, and that this may be a general need when introducing open‐ended programs for use in language learning.