A MICROWORLD FOR SECOND-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Abstract

The integration of computers into our language laboratories must involve rethinking the concept of the laboratory as a setting for experimentation to include the fields of experimentation with linguistic concepts, with culture, and with language acquisition.This article describes a German-language microworld for fostering language acquisition—for learning a computer language through a natural language. "INFORMATIK I" is a course on the nature of language, on CAI, and on the programming language, SuperPILOT, a course in which German is the medium for communicating and learning. Following the course description is that of a disk-based tutorial on the instruction  set of SuperPILOT. This tutorial reflects the premise of the course, that experimentation fosters comprehension, and includes a series of laboratory experiments for students to complete—all couched in German.