Higgins, J. (1988). Language, Learners, and Computers: Human Intelligence and Artificial Unintelligence. New York: Longman.

This book offers an account of two roles that the computer can be given: the instructor, or magister, on the one hand and the obedient slave, or pedagogue, on the other. Higgens uses this metaphor to examine the nature of the language skill, the attitudes of learners, the training of teachers, the use of books, the way we give and take tests, and the way we use machines. The central message is that computers themselves are unimportant; what matters is that we should provide a rich and varied language-learning environment that allows learners to benefit both from organized instruction and from experimenting with language.