Hot Potatoes: The Merits and Demerits

Abstract

The present study was firstly meant to review and study the main functions and applications of the Hot Potatoes program and further to identify its main features in terms of the development of various types of language tests and exercises. Secondly the study identified a number of deficiencies both in connection with the applications and the modality of the exercises it produces. The analysis revealed that although the program offers facility in creating different types of exercises together with teacher's feedback that can be posted online for the ease of access, it is limited in some important areas such as providing interactive activities and synchronous feedback for the learners. Moreover, it was found that the efficiency and usefulness of this program to a great extent depends on the creativity and skills of the teacher who uses the program to create tests. Similarly, the language contents that the teacher uses can have a great influence on the effectiveness of the exercises developed by Hot Potatoes. Therefore, the program by itself gives no advantage in helping learners with their language learning practice and exposure, but only acts as a learning tool.