Using the Computer in the English Classroom in Fachhochschul-Education

This paper focuses on giving practical examples on how computers can be used to assist the language teacher and help the students to use and improve their foreign language skills. It aims at showing different possibilities of computer use in the classroom depending on the available resources (e.g. Internet access, EDP-Lab with/without Internet access). 1 Computer Use in ELT in General Quite a lot of research has been done on CALL during the past few years. Most researchers, however, did not take into account that many classrooms don't have the facilities to support their language lessons using the computer in class. For teachers of English all around the world the use of computers and the internet to prepare material have become an invaluable resource. Many programmes such as "Exercise Generator " or "Author Plus " both by Clarity give teachers the chance to efficiently prepare classroom material. The internet with Dave Sperling's ESL Café and many other very helpful sites offer teachers the possibility to find authentic material, to do research and to exchange ideas in an inexpensive and quick way. Using the computer in the classroom still seems somewhat awkward and unusual for many language teachers and students alike. Some teachers fear that the equipment might not work or that their students could know better; others just simply don't have a computer in the classroom let alone access to a