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If anyone suggested ten years ago that computers could play an important part in the teaching of productive oral skills or pronunciation, most listeners would have reacted with amusement or disbelief. Computers were business machines capable of processing text and data efficiently and no more than that. As a result of recent technological developments computers are now capable of much more; technologically the manipulation of sound and data is no longer a problem. Unfortunately the development of software and courseware has not kept pace with the technological innovation. Nevertheless the use of computers for the training of oral skills and pronunciation (through automatic feedback on the student's utterances) lies already within the reach of 'ordinary' students and teachers.