University of Arizona Computer Aided Language Instruction Group

About Us

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, DVD-ROMs, and Web-based courseware 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:

Critical Languages Series 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://cls.arizona.edu.

MaxBrowser

For those of you who have created lessons with MaxAuthor or who have one of the Critical Languages CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs: download the latest version of MaxBrowser.

New Materials Available

The University of Arizona Critical Languages Series announces Beginning Kurmanji Kurdish, Intermediate Ukrainian, and Advanced Turkish.

Recent Publications

"MaxAuthor - a free multimedia authoring system for language instruction", S. Brill, NCLRC Newsletter, 2007.
"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)