Web-based software was used to deliver and record the effects of programmed instruction that progressively added formal prompts until attempts were successful, programmed instruction with one attempt, and prose tutorials. Error-contingent progressive prompting took significantly longer than programmed instruction and prose. Both forms of programmed instruction substantially increased the appropriate use of behavioral vocabulary during subsequent interpretive essays. These behavioral gains extended to a different setting, suggesting that more was being learned than simply how to answer programmed tutorial frames correctly. (Contains 3 figures.)