NATAL is a high-level programming language designed to meet the requirements of the course author in the preparation of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) materials. The basis for its design is found in the functional specification published by the National Research Council's Associate Committee on Instructional Technology; developers of the language also relied heavily on the 1969 EDUCOM report by Zinn, using his "aspects" for comparing programming languages as the basis for the definition of language requirements. The NATAL-74 project is outlined as follows: design goals, characteristics, implementations (course preparation system, file system, and run-time system), and preliminary evaluation. Education 491, a course on computers in secondary education, is taught to final-year education majors at the University of British Columbia. Six students from this course were permitted to do the NATAL-74 assignment, consisting of the construction of drill and practice programs in basic mathematics, rather than using a more limited CMI system. Results from this trial and other sources suggest that NATAL-74 meets the programming language requirements for CAL applications and can be an effective vehicle for the transfer of courseware between installations. (VT)