University of Arizona Computer Aided Language Instruction Group

Co-Director and Research Engineer
Scott Brill

Co-Director
Dr. Richard A. Demers
Department of Linguistics

We produce software to help students learn languages. Our specialties are Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs), multimedia, and authoring systems.

Our software runs on MS-Windows and can accommodate text in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Native American, European, and other languages. Our MAX family of software is carefully constructed to be easy to use for both instructors and students and can use the Web for direct delivery of most lesson formats. Now available through the University of Arizona Press, The Critical Languages Series CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs are the latest products created with our software. See our new Flash demonstration videos.

Create your own lessons

MaxAuthor makes authoring language courseware as easy as typing in the lesson text and recording your voice. No programming is needed.

The University of Arizona's National Foreign Language Resource Center:

CERCLL: The Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy. As a part of the Center, we have created MaxAuthor video tutorials.

The Critical Languages Series CDROMs and DVDROMs are good examples of what you can create with our free for non-commercial use MaxAuthor software, see http://clp.arizona.edu/cls.

MaxBrowser3

For those of you who have created lessons with MaxAuthor or who have one of the Critical Languages CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs: try the new version of MaxBrowser which allows you to directly interact with MAX lessons over the Internet.

New materials in production

We have a grant from the US Dept of Education for the creation of Kurdish I, Ukrainian II, and Turkish III materials.

Read about our pedagogy

"The Impact of Self-Instructional Technology on Language Learning: A View of NASILP", A. Dunkel, S. Brill, B. Kohl, In C.A. Spreen (Ed.), New Technologies and Language Learning: Cases in the Less Commonly Taught Languages (Technical Report #25; pp. 97-120). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center, 2002, ISBN: 0824826345. (full text PDF)

Funding provided by: the US Department of Education, the Office of the Dean of the College of Humanities, the Office of the Vice-President for Research (University of Arizona), and the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs (NASILP).