In order to teach anything, two fundamental questions must be asked and answered continually: What should be taught, and how should it be taught? The answer to the second question is highly dependent on the answer to the first, but the present answer to the first question is inadequate and inappropriate to today's communication tools. Language must first be viewed as an interactive process in which content must be placed in context. Teachers alone cannot teach content without the appropriate context, but educational technology, particularly new interactive video systems, can do so. Unfortunately, the common approach to using such technological innovations is to adapt them to old methods rather than developing their unique characteristics and exploiting their potential for advancement. Possible new techniques include use of visually obvious segments from broadcast television, cable broadcasts into which quizzes and immediate feedback are integrated, and interactive videodisks containing games, entertaining feature films, and creative movie-making. (MSE)