While artificial intelligence is far from producing a computer program that can understand English, there are computer applications for teaching composition that go beyond the electronic flashcard and other limited applications. A number of programs designed for use in college freshman English as a second language classes based on the artificial intelligence concept of limited domain include software for diagnostic proofreading, a modified cloze exercise correlating grammar with student ability to proofread and make decisions about grammar based on clarity of meaning, a controlled composition exercise on verb tense, composition requiring different past tense forms, and free composition emphasizing topic and commenting on content as well as grammar. These programs meet some of the criteria for an artificially intelligent tutoring system in that they (1) are not limited by the need to input a single correct answer, but respond meaningfully to a wide variety of correct and incorrect answers; (2) gain and use information from users by either asking questions or making their own analysis of input; (3) in some cases respond to input in terms of global paragraph meaning, as a human being would; and (4) can help the student evaluate his own writing in a simulated human fashion. (MSE)