This paper deals with the analysis of a communicative activity involving English learners of French, its advantages and drawbacks as well as the outcome that teachers can expect of such an activity. The first part examines some reasons, both theoretical and practical for using communication technology, particularly electronic mail, for promoting language acquisition and developing learner autonomy. The second pan of the paper deals with the theoretical framework within which the activity was carried out, that Is, Stephen Krashen's language acquisition theory which establishes a distinction between language acquisition and language learning. Email interaction offers the possibility of addressing both processes.

This discussion paper outlines some of the decisions and issues involved in creating and using authoring tools for language learning through the World Wide Web. In it, we outline the development of Hot Potatoes, our suite of authoring tools, and attempt to draw conclusions from our experience that will be valuable not only to other developers but also to evaluators and users of authoring software. Areas addressed include exercise design, ability to customise and control the output, support for different browser versions, user-interface design, ancillary technology and technical support.

English listening ability has become increasingly important. Traditionally, the training of listening skills is mainly provided via tape-based language laboratories. However, the tape-based laboratory cannot cope with the rapid development of digital learning media. In addition, it fails to provide students with convenient access because of its limited space and opening hours. The faculty at National Taiwan Ocean University takes advantage of new Web technologies such as RealMedia and JavaScript to create a virtual language lab in the hope of helping students develop listening skills. This paper will discuss various problems and solutions in setting up a virtual language lab. It is expected that our experience will be useful for other language professionals.

Distance learning courses have been developed at City University over the last eight years. Language Plus, a semi-distance scheme was designed around the MBA programmes, which have little timetable space to spare (Connell & Pollard 1993). At the request of the Institute of Linguists, special syllabuses and examinations were devised for the Background Studies module of the Instite of Linguists, special syllabuses and examinations were devised for the Background Studies module of the Institute's ELIC Diploma in 1991. It was also a means of satisfying demand from students located elsewhere in Britain or abroad wishing to prepare for this particular module, but for whom no local course was available.

This paper takes the form of a proposal for a computer mediated language course delivered at a distance and administered jointly by two different institutions, the universities of British Columbia (UBC) and Auckland (UA). It examines the possible institutional context(s), the target group, gives a course description with a list of learning objectives, curriculum topics, a description of the course's epistemology, design, development plan, delivery methods and student support, and offers a justification for the development of the course. In conclusion, the paper looks into the possible strengths of such a course as well as the challenges of implementation.

To respond to students' need for more speaking practice, the Open University's Centre for Modern Languages is currently investigating the benefits of using an Internet-based, real-time audio application in distance learning/teaching. During a four-month trial period, French and German students met at weekly intervals to use the target language and participated in role-plays or other pre-arranged learning tasks requiring collaborative interaction. This paper describes the FLUENT (Framework for Language Use in Environments Embedded in New Technology) project from the tutors' point of view, focusing on how learner autonomy and the tutor role were affected by the new learning environment.

The Open University (OU) is UK's largest modern foreign language learning provider with a current enrolment of approximetely 8000 students, all of whom study individually at home, at a distance from each other and their tutors. However, while most OU students work with trditional course material such as books, video- and audio-cassettes and face-to-face tutorials, research at the centre for Modern Languages (CML) has also investigated alternative methods in order to account for those learners who might be unable to attend face-to-face tutorials. The study described in this paper outlines work in progress that is part of a larger, long-term project seeking to establish a framework for the use of networking technologies in distance language learning with a particular emphasis onl the ldevelopment of scenarios – that is task design and learning environments – which will enable participants to improve their spoken and communication skills in the target language.

This paper stems out of the author's work developed thanks to her secondment as the representative for Languages to the Task Force for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at Coventry University. The aim of the secondment is to disseminate a recognised model of good CALL practice, the FREE - Fluid Role-Exchange Environment (Orsini-Jones and Jones 1996, Orsini-Jones 1999), to other areas of Italian Studies, to languages other than Italian and to the rest of the university. This paper will show how the model was disseminated to the teaching of EFL and Italian translation studies via the use of the Web. The paper will finally consider a few issues relating to the impact of the implementation of C&IT change in Languages.

Much has been published on the subject of the role of concordancing in foreign language teaching, most of itin the field of EFL. Of crucial importance is the corpus on which concordances are based. This article describes how a pedagogic corpus can be downloaded from the Web as well as its experimental exploitation with first and second year undergraduates.