An interactive computer assisted language learning system which allows a student to select a model phrase from text displayed on an electronic display; record (in digitized form) his own pronunciation of that phrase; and instantly listen to the digitized vocal version of the selected phrase and his own recorded pronunciation for comparison purposes. An audio CLIP mode permits the student to select any (random) portion of displayed text (e.g., a phrase, a small part of a phrase, a single word, a syllable, or a phoneme) using cursor control or the like and to control the system to play the voice corresponding to that selected portion. A SoundSort text reconstruction exercise based on aural clues automatically randomizes the order of plural phrases, provides digitized utterances of the phrases in the randomized order, and requires the student to reconstruct the original order using a visual display interface. Integration of digitized sound in a high-level authoring system (as distinct from an authoring language) is provided. An easy-to-use "WYSIWYG" ("What you see is what you get") user interface reduces or eliminates user mistakes and associated frustration and does not require the user to have any programming ability. An extremely flexible authoring system allows a teacher to link recorded digitized sound with customized on-screen text (which may but need not match the digitized sound). This allows a wide variety of free-form exercises to be created.