ABSTRACT
Hypermedia, first conceived by Vannevar Bush in 1945, is a new form of computer technology being popularized and technologically made possible during the recent few years. It refers to an associative, nonlinear information presentation and representation system built around a network of multimedia materials such as text, graphics, sound, and motion. This chapter examines a hypermedia learning environment from a semantic network basis and the application of such an environment to second language learning (learning a language by non-native speakers for the purpose of communication). As a tool for learning and teaching, hypermedia has both advantages and limitations. Consideration of these attributes is a necessary background to discussion of a semantic-network-based hypermedia learning environment. A semantic-network-based hypermedia learning environment, with its emphasis on the interrelationship among ideas, takes full advantage of the nonlinearity, associativity, flexibility, and efficiency characteristics of hypermedia technology and appears to be capable of providing a more coherent and complete mental model.
