Language Laboratory

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# Definition of Language Laboratory: 

1) “A room designed for learning foreign languages, having audio equipment that allows students to listen and respond to recorded lessons and spoken examples while an instructor monitors their progress.”

" 2) "A room equipped with tape recorders for learning foreign language"

(3) “A room with sound reproducing and recording equipment where students practice listening to and speaking a foreign Language.  Also called Language Lab”

# History of Language Laboratory:

History of Language laboratory starts from the invention of phonograph by “Thomas Edison” in 1877. It was used to learn English and Spanish as foreign language. The phonograph was used in regular classes and for self study at home. An American, Frank C. Chalfant installed a “phonetics laboratory” at Washington State College in Pullman during the 1911–1912 academic year. Pictures of this installation in use show students listening via networked earphones. This lab also had a phonograph-recording machine so that students could compare their pronunciation with the native-speaker models. Another researcher named Waltz is usually credited with coining the term language laboratory in 1930 and he wrote several articles for this.

The year 1946 is considered to mark the beginning of the modern language laboratory movement (Hocking, 1967; Koekkoek, 1959). American Army contributed to the development of language laboratory. It was used to give instruction to the soldiers in the same the language in 1945. Which was known as “ Army Special training Program, ASTP” by Modern language journal. By 1958, in the United States there were 64 labs in secondary schools and 240 in colleges and universities (Johnston & Seerley, 1960).

National Defense Education Act(NDEA), was inacted in 1957 in America. which President Eisenhower signed into law on September 2, 1958. The act sought to strengthen the teaching of mathematics, science, and foreign languages in America’s schools. The history of the language laboratory in the first years following the NDEA has been written by Parker (1961), Diekhoff (1965), and Hocking (1967). Unquestionably, the 1960s were the golden years of the language laboratory. There was an explosion in the number of facilities. After that several conferences were organized to think on better quality of language lab. Various professional association and educators took part in the meetings.

The major technical development of note during the decade was the audiocassette (Dodge, 1968). The advantages of cassette were a lower price and that smaller, lighter machines could play it. However, it did have the drawbacks of lower fidelity and greater difficulty of editing by cutting and splicing. Another technical advance was the speech compressor– expander. This device allowed a recording to be sped up (com- pressed) or slowed down. The ability to slow down a tape would seem to be a boon to students struggling with a difficult passage.

Huebener introduced  “Audio-lingual” method for the first time in 1965. The new method “received powerful support from three sides.” He cited the federal government for financial and moral sup- port and pointed to NDEA. He noted the technical support of tape recorders, teaching machines, language laboratories, films, and programmed courses. “There is a veritable embarrass de richesses in the field of audio-visual aids.” The third source of support was theoretical: “the new method was based on the findings of the structural linguists, who developed a psychology and a philosophy of language learning quite different from the traditional”. With so much undergirding it, audio- lingualism became the orthodoxy in the field.

The 1970s and early 1980s were a period of malaise for the language laboratory. Many articles were written about language lab during these years. In the year of 1980 Computer was introduced as “ Machine of the year”.  Then computers were started using for language lab. in the 1980s was the new attention given to reading and writing. The reader will recall that the early labs were devoted solely to the “sound” skills of listening and speaking. Personal computers, which became popular in the 1980s, first made their entrance into the language laboratory because they could handle the “paper” skills of reading and writing. With the domestication of the VCR in the 1980s, the use of video became firmly established in language laboratory sessions. With the explosive rise of the World Wide Web from 1993, companion web sites also became commonplace and many “third party” websites concerning language learning started springing up. That computers were to occupy center stage in the language laboratory is not surprising. After all, computers are omnibus machines that can provide audio, video, text, and interactive written exercises.

v Advantages:

 Language labs are becoming highly valued at colleges and universities because they offer students a structured eLearning environment that is successful and reliable. New technologies are increasingly more present in classrooms as they facilitate the teacher’s role in creating a more attractive learning environment for the student and can offer their students more practice hours and up-to-date exercises than can be found in language books.  Language labs provide practice in an entertaining and interactive way to acquire the 4 main language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Students can do self-learning in language lab. They can learn with their own pace. Language labs allow students to reinforce material learned in class by putting them into practice through interactive activities. Teachers know the progress of each student and receive reports of strengths and weaknesses to better adapt the classroom activities.

Practice leads to language learning success! Language labs’ interactive courses help students learn much faster than in a regular classroom setting. There is a big fear in the education world that technology will replace the role of the teacher and the position will become obsolete entirely. The language lab debunks this myth because it provides supplementary materials that only facilitate the role of the instructor rather than compete with it. Language labs allow students to practice the language with a much wider variety of activities and exercises based on the computer.

Language labs also encourage communication student-teacher as well as student-student with activities and exercises essential to oral communication and the understanding of the language.  In short, language labs are a very comprehensive and cost-effective tool for educational institutions to monetize their language training and also offer students effective language learning via the latest technology and educational content.

v Disadvantages:

Language lab software is sometime costly and not affordable by every school. Teachers are not skilled to handle lab software in effective way. If Students do not have sufficient knowledge of computers than it is useless for them. It is based on drill and practice therefore it does not provide any novelty in learning. Thus, it seems boring sometime.