Teacher Fit（Approach）

Each level of TMM-C contains about 30 grammar rules.Learners can use right hand button of the mouse to click on the character they would like to know and get the English translation.One good design for the TMM-C is its extensive use of the right-hand mouse clicks.For example，in the Dialogue section，learners can rightclick on a word as short-cut to seven choices：Translation of the Word，Pronunciation of the Word，Pronunciation of the Sentence，Playing Recording of the Sentence，Help，What's this，and Quit.

Unfortunately，in the Dialogue section，such help does not exist.Learners have to recognize all the Chinese characters before they can pronounce the utterances.Consequently，with beginners，this program is best used as a complement to a teacherled class where the Chinese characters have already been introduced.

The program uses an inductive grammatical approach.It gives students examples of the grammatical structure to be learned in the section of Reference Works.Learners are expected to form a generalization about the grammatical principle with which they have been working.Regular grammatical patterns are also listed in this section.

The TMM-C program is intended for self-directed study.The lessons and activities are available without a predefined pedagogical order，similar to a library with books available for check out.The program lists about 60 grammar points in the Reference Works.Although these grammar points are very useful because they cover common problems for learners，they are not organized in a way relative to the lessons.Neither are they referred to in the lessons.It would be more beneficial for learners if the grammar rules were integrated into the lessons.

In order to help students learn the language，TMM-C displays Chinese Pinyin with tone marks under each Chinese character.However，users who have not already learned Chinese Pinyin may have problems using it to pronounce these words.The program employs Pinyin in many other places to help to learn Chinese.For example，its use is required in the Exercise，Crossword Puzzle，and Dictation sections.Although Pinyin is presented on the first CD-ROM，the presentation is incomplete in that it does not contain rules for combining consonants with vowels.

The advantage of using Pinyin is that it is easy for speakers of western European languages to learn the pronunciation of words since they are already familiar with the Roman alphabet.Pinyin，however，is not used by native speakers of Chinese；it is merely a form of phonetic transcription intended as a pedagogical aid and could arguably be replaced by standard IPA nation.

The use of Pinyin is no substitute for Chinese characters and excessive reliance on it as an expedient device is counterproductive because it impedes the real goal of learning to recognize and use Chinese characters.To be of greater benefit to users，TMM-C needs to make greater use of Chinese characters.

A notable shortcoming of TMM-C is its lack of cultural content.The inclusion of background cultural information would benefit learners by allowing them to better understand why an utterance is being used.It is obvious that TMM-C is strictly designed for Chinese Language acquisition.