Teaching Spanish while either restricting classroom use of the textbook or ignoring application of the computer is a losing proposition. Withdrawn from the typographic-video world that engages them daily, students are deprived of their most comfortable means of knowledge acquisition. Typography and visual images can be an immeasurable aid in language teaching provided they are subordinated to the student tasks of both understanding and producing oral standard utterances. The best way to instill correct models of such utterances seems to involve memorization of written texts whose structures will be expanded through written and oral drills. The materials memorized should be both tolerable and relevant to the students' peer groups, but without obsolescent or biased content. Once guided conversation begins, the somatic component should be encouraged, with students being prodded to use gesture and facial expression and permitted some movement in the classroom. Using print and computer-assisted instruction as a bridge to oral performance is not a short-cut, but a path to better achievement for more students, representing the best chance for success within the print biases and time constraints in the current academic world. (MSE)