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In the end of the 20th century computers are indispensible in every field of life. For a long time they were considered as parts of only mathematics, physics, medical and other sciences. Nevertheless in the past ten years the usage of computers has increased deliberately, so that nowadays they have their own major role in teaching processes as well. The more the computers are used in schools, the more the students are required to hand in their essays typed in a computer the more the teachers have to face the fact that computer phobia exists and that some students have problems overcoming it.

Compared to other European countries (more precisely to Finland) the usage of computers is not so widespread in Hungary. My own experiences show that computers are not only natural demand in teaching and learning processes but they are there in the libraries as well as in the information centres of the universities. Students do not have to go to different offices to get information or to get their problems solved but they go up to the computers and have their answers from it. In case of those students who do not have enough practice in operating the computers the problem rises that they are going to be even more afraid of the machines and will not be able to use these different fascilities.

Catherine Davidson and Alice Tomic deal with computer phobia in their article Removing Computer Phobia From The Writing Classroom, published in ELT Journal Volume 48/3 July 1994. However this article is more interested in the writing process itself and the phobia they are writing about is merely the problem of the teachers not the students. Although it is very important to remove the teacher as an instructor`s phobia in this essay I would rather focus on the problem of the students.

In the past few years the practice shows that computers are mainly used at university level and it`s the word processing that is most commonly used. In my opinion computer usage should be introduced in elementary schools first because (just like in language learning) the younger the students start to learn how to deal with the machine the sooner it becomes part of their everyday life, their learning processes. In some schools even in Hungary this is made true and compared to university students children in secondary schools nowadays seem to be experts in operating the computer.

As it is mentioned in different places teaching (and learning, too) can be made much more interesting with computers because the machine turns the otherwise boring parts of the class into fun. In language teaching that means that the practice of different kinds of grammatical problems can be replaced by practicing them on a computer. Simulations, different drills and other programs such as storyboard or close-up can take the student`s attention and he/she will focus on the given task more efficiently than he/she would even think about doing it. These different programs help the student to learn the target language (both grammar and vocabulary as well as how to behave in different situations) quicker and easier and after a certain time of practice they also make the student feel more comfortable towards the computer.

As elementary and secondary schools in Hungary cannot usually afford computer labs the best way to introduce the students to computers is to make them work in groups. That way they have a chance to get more familiar with the machine and in a case of a fairly small group it also gives everyone an opportunity to use it. Group activities can on the other hand increase computer phobia. Students who have background knowledge in operating the computer tend to use the computer more often than those who have no practice at all. The teacher should be aware of that and try to avoid this kind of situations as effectively as possible. Good solutions might be to check every time that in the groups the student operating the keyboard should change, and the tasks - especially the first ones - should be easy enough for an unexperienced student as well. That way the students will not feel that the computer is a `monster' they have to overcome, but a friend which helps a lot in their work. Davidson and Tomic give a rather detailed solution to the problem of killing computer phobia in writing. As their experiences show the phobia among the students could be decreased using this method. The main purpose of it is that it goes step by step from the very beginnings of essay writing to the more sophisticated stages of it. The students go from answering simple questions about their topics to the ways the computer helps them make their works even more `academic'. This process could be very useful, especially in case of students who don`t write in their native language but in a target one as the computer can show them how the text would look like in the target language. The computer can also help in minor but still important matters such as spelling but the authors emphasize strongly that the computer cannot and should not replace the dictionary.

Davidson and Tomic`s suggestion of removing computer phobia in writing is rather useful also in teaching writing to those who are going to write in their native language because of the above mentioned reasons. With enough time of practice even a very unexperienced student will get familiar with the machine and with the ways it works. A main stress should be put on the question how much time does an individual student need to become a fairly good computer user. This is a matter of the individual and cannot really be controlled although if the given institution or the instructor helping the students pays some attention to it the problem could be more or less solved. The availability of computers is very important so that the students could practice whenever they feel like it. My own experiences show that in case of a university student using the computer is required in given times of the academic year. The students get used to the computers in these periods but as they don`t have (or if they have it isn`t enough) opportunities to practice in other times they cannot keep their knowledge `alive'. As in the next exam period the students cannot remember even the very basics of computer usege they are going to feel very uncomfortable and will rather avoid the machines. This only increases computer phobia and to overcome it one of the best ideas would be to have enough available computers at the given university. It is very important for the teachers to have their own computers but if the institution cannot afford otherwise the computer labs should be equally available for the students as well. An instructor somewhere in the background should be there, too, whenever the students need him/her. As the word instructor suggests this teacher (or even another student) should not do the the work instead of the student who needs help but show (and let the student do) him/her the right ways of doing the problematic parts. According to the article (and this was mentioned before) the teacher should use the help of the so called SCE who is a student expert in operating computers. That can also make the students feel more comfortable as they don`t see an authority in a fellow student. They can also help the teacher who is not very good at computer usage either but wants to have the computer as a helping tool in his/her teaching. The teachers do not have to be ashamed of this help of the students as it is only this and the previous decade when the computers became widespread and a lot of teachers started to learn the basics along with their students.

Computer phobia among teachers and students is an issue that should be taken very seriously because the more the teachers demand their students to hand in their essays on computer or any other ways to work on a computer the more can a student who is afraid of the machine show decline in his/her studies. That is why the teacher should pay attention to these computer phobic students if he/she wants really to grade the subject knowledge and not the computer operating knowledge of the students. There can be several good methods and solutions to avoid or remove computer phobia but the best is what the teacher has tried and which has proved to be efficient.