Cognitive Modelling and Interactive Environments in Language Learning

Current learning technology is younger than the students learning with it. It has adopted tools and techniques from many contemporary disciplines: cognition, educations, linguistics, semantics, artificial intelligence, ergonomics, computer science, and software engineering. As the tools and techniques are also recent there is precious little experience so far of actual learning results with the new technology. This book, based on a NATO workshop held in Mierlo, The Netherlands, in November 1990, concentrates on the learner and on shaping the learning environment by elucidating learning behaviour through student modelling and learning monitors. Another main topic is the design of interactive learning environments that promote learning by taking advantage of the individual student's needs and interests. Cognitive modeling and interactive environments are discussed in the framework of language learning. The book is divided into three sections, on cognitive modeling, language learning, and interactive environments, each of which opens with a discussion chapter presenting the topics in a general perspective. The book comes with two diskettes, for Apple and IBM PCs respectively, containing interactive exploratory learning programs.

Within the framework of the NATO Advanced Research Workshops this invitational conference was naturally on learning, but it emphasized a number of factors that are not generally treated in dis­ cussions on learning and specifically in computer-assisted learning.