I took German in high school. I used a technique to learn large numbers of vocabulary words. I would take a sheet of paper, write the English words down one edge of a piece of paper. I would then take another piece of paper and lay it next to the first and then try to write the German equivalents next to the English words. I would then correct that list, fold the second paper over so I couldn't see the German, and then repeat. This was tedious, but very effective. When I went to college, I continued with German and also took up Spanish. I bought a Macintosh my sophomore year. When HyperCard came out, I developed a program to basically duplicate my paper method on the computer. It was much better, because it didn't involve all that hand-writing (though sometimes I wonder whether that extra physical effort did not help reinforce learning). After college, I got a job with a company called Authorware. They made a development tool (now marketed by Macromedia) that was primarlily used to create on-line instructional material. I was a programmer, not an instructional designer, but I spent the next nine years of my career in the computer-based learning and training industry. My first year on the job, I worked closely with a great guy named Lynn Misselt (references to Lynn's work are buried in this inventory). He had his phd in instructional deisgn. His thesis had been on researching ways to reinforce learning during drill and practice style learning interactions. I learned from him the "Corrective Feedback Paradigm." It's really pretty simple. When the learner gets a question wrong, the program inserts the same question back in the stack a few questions later in the drill. Lately, I have been trying to learn the Dravidian language Telugu. I developed a web-based system to drill the alphabet and vocabulary. I used the corrective feedback techinques I learned from Lynn Misslet. After doing this, I realized, I could easily adapt it for any language. I decided to do just that and to offer it to anyone who wanted to, courtesy of the world wide web.