In this paper we consider how corpora may be of use in the teaching of grammar of the pre-tertiary level. Corpora are becoming well established in teaching in Universities. Corpora also have a role to play in secondary education, in that they can help decide how and what to teach, as well as changing the way in which puplis learn and providing the possibility of open-ended machine-aided tuition. Corpora also seem to provide what UK goverment sponsored reports on teaching grammar have called for – a data-driven approach to the subject.

This database, containing information about articles in the Madrid daily El Independiente, fills a major vacuum in Spanish information sources. It started off as a personal tool to help the author update information on specific topics and prepare teaching materials. It is now used both by staff and students of Spanish at Newcastle Polytechnic for a variety of purposes. The purpose of this contribution is to offer Spanish colleagues a brief insight into the system and its possible use.

In this paper I will argue that learner variation in second language acquisition poses a potentially serious problem for the successful design and application of CALL and ICALL software'. Whereas a teacher is able to use direct and immediate feedback from students to adapt to different learning styles, rates of progress and acquisition paths, the possibilities of computer software are much more limited.

This paper presents the development and application of a software tool for modeling knowledge to be used in knowledge-based systems or the Semantic Web. The inferential modeling technique, which is a technique for modeling the static and dynamic knowledge elements of a problem domain, provided the basis for the tool. A survey of existing knowledge modeling tools revealed they typically failed to provide support in four main areas: support for an ontological engineering methodology or technique, support for dynamic knowledge modeling, support for dynamic knowledge testing, and support for ontology management. Dyna, a Protégé plug-in, has been developed, which supports the Inferential Modeling Technique, dynamic knowledge modeling, and dynamic knowledge testing. Protégé and Dyna are applied for constructing an ontological model in the domain of selecting a remediation technology for petroleum contaminated sites. Dynamic knowledge testing in Dyna enabled creation of a more complete knowledge model.

In this paper, it will be argued that the complexity of the language learning phenomenon has been overshadowed by the technical and organisational issues raised by the increase of physical distance between learners and teachers.

Whereas improvements in CALL design are dependent on theories of language learning and acquisition, limitations to the former have arisen from widespread disagreements over the latter. This paper attempts to point towards a way forward using an evolutionary epistemological understanding of language learning, and some implications of such an approach for CALL. An evolutionary approach, involving trial and error elimination, requires a multi-dimensional learner-centred model that takes into account advancements in psychology, education and linguistics, areas that have often been ignored by CALL researchers and practitioners.

In any language-teaching institution the teaching staff can legitimately be seen as consumers of the various teaching aids which are commercially available, ranging from the staple diet of books, set texts, secondary reading, to video material, slides, computer software, etc. Another way of interpreting the principle of consumership is that the students are the ultimate beneficiaries of the materials we use in our teaching. The extent to which our students benefit from our teaching is largely dependent on the materials that we have at our disposal. ‘Bad materials = bad teaching’ is a rather simplistic way of looking at this issue, but one which has a lot to commend itself in my view. Would we change our teaching methods if our students made constructive criticism? In a recent temporary teaching post I held as Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky, I was struck by the importance given across the board in the USA to official student surveys carried out by the college administration based on the professors' performance, the results of which can be crucial in the securement of tenure. The attitude in the UK (at least in the universities) is totally at odds with this particular sense of consumership, and one can imagine the degree of resistance that a plan to introduce a similar system of student assessment of lecturers might meet in this country, most obviously because students are not consumers in this country in quite the same sense that they are in the USA. Although the student assessment system itself clearly has its pitfalls there are some positive things to be gained from surveys of this kind, in that they can be very informative about student response to courses, teaching methods, etc., and can lead the way to improved teacher-student relations.

Final-year translation teaching in the Italian department at the University of Hull involves modules using a computer-based methodology from Italian into English. These modules are taught using Translt-TIGER and TransLit-TIGER, in the forms in which they are commercially available. The aim of our courses is to use technology in order to enhance the quality of training in translation. The modules are conceived of as a move beyond traditional practice towards a type of teaching model which may be more relevant to best practices in the translation profession. Indeed it may well hasten more students beyond the noise of interlanguage to the quiddities of idiom.