English teaching goes high-tech

August 30, 2004, 21st Century -- More than 150 college English teachers from 21 provinces gathered in Beijing last week to discuss how best to apply information technology to English education. At the first International Seminar on Foreign Language Teaching with the Assistance of the Internet, teachers shared their experiences in computer assisted language teaching. Experts from other countries also described their own experiences in designing and developing foreign language teaching software.

Jared Bernstein, president of Ordinate Corporation in the US and professor of linguistics at Stanford University , introduced PhonePass , a computerized testing system for Spoken English. In PhonePass , test takers listen and answer questions on the phone, and then get computer-processed feedback on their performance in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and fluency. Bernstein said if speaking were an important part of a test that students have to pass, they would pay more attention to improving their speaking and listening skills. 21st