Using computers in English as a second language instruction

Since computers have been introduced to education, several attempts have been made to computerize several aspects of our educational system. Hundreds of computer programs focusing on a wide range of subjects are now available to the classroom teacher. However, only a few of these programs are especially designed for English as a second language (ESL) students; and their high cost has made them inaccessible to most schools.

This study was designed to provide teachers with a model that can be used for the selection and evaluation of programs that were originally designed to teach English to native speakers. This study was intended also to show that ESL teachers can take advantage of the software that their State Department of Education may provide. In Tennessee, the Department of Education, through a contract with the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation, provides teachers with educational software.

Twelve computer programs were selected from the MECC and were evaluated using a set of criteria that was developed for this project. Through the evaluation of these programs, this project sought to demonstrate also that neither ESL teachers nor their schools need to spend a considerable amount of money purchasing software.

The results indicated that the software that were evaluated could be used with ESL students provided it is written at the students' level of English proficiency. The proficiency scale used in this study was the Foreign Service Institute language proficiency scale.

Finally, this study demonstrated that ESL teachers could evaluate their own computer programs and create or adapt an evaluation system that meets their own needs and those of their students.