Pedagogical Benefits of the Computer in the Foreign Language Business Course

Abstract

Critical commentary on the role of the computer in foreign language education has concerned itself too narrowly with drill materials. Pusack asserts, Since the computer itself has no capacity of understanding and no internal analogy for the relationships expressed in sentences, a CAI (computer assisted instruction) program must generate drill material as a series of tasks, usually questions and answers or cues and responses. Student-initiated questions and free form answers lie outside the capacity of today's machines and programs, except in highly restricted contexts. A very different kind of potential pedagogical benefit emerges when the computer is used as a much broader based element of foreign language instruction.