EXTENDING THE USES OF THE LANGUAGE LABORATORY

By Fitri Johansyah

A Paper Presented at54th TEFLIN

International Conference5-7 December 2006

VENUESatya Wacana Christian University

Jl. Diponegoro 52-60Salatiga – Central Java

INDONESIA

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INTRODUCTION

The language laboratory, since it was first used over fifty years ago, has been growing enormously as one of the instrumental facilities needed for the success of learning languages in schools. The modernization of the language lab over the last decade has also increased its reliability and functionality to a higher level. The lab, which was mainly and traditionally used for listening activity, can now be utilized for more varied activities. The variety of activities that the lab offers are very useful for teachers in delivering their lessons successfully and for students in mastering the target language more quickly. Furthermore, by using the technology in the lab teachers can make their lessons more interesting and fun for students, creating a conducive learning atmosphere that leads to successful language teaching and learning.

This presentation aims to show a variety of activities that teachers and students can do in the lab to give the participants some ideas and insight into the potential of the language lab in helping to achieve the objectives of learning languages.

ADVANTAGES OF THE LANGUAGE LAB

There are many advantages when using the lab in the process of teaching and learning languages. Some of them are briefly described below:

1. Developing listening skillsListening is the main activity practiced in the lab and is an important aspect in becoming linguistically fluent. The lab helps students develop good listening skills. Students can hear the correct language utterances through their headsets, instead of mimicking other students who may be pronouncing incorrectly.

2. Variety of native speaker modelsThe lab provides students with a variety of model voices from native speakers, rather than just the voice of their teacher. Students can also practice saying the correct utterances after the models, and can even record them to assess their progress.

3. Speaking, as well as listeningUsing Pair/Group Discussion and Phone Conversation activities, students can practice their speaking skills in conversation. The random selection of student partners makes this activity even more interesting for students as they will be curious as to who their partners will be.

4. Acoustic advantageThe lab gives all students, regardless where they sit in the room, equal opportunity to hear and to be heard by the teacher. It also reduces

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misunderstandings due to the clear sound transmission to students via their individual headsets.

5. Private and individualThe headset and microphone unit provides students with a psychological privacy that promotes their speaking ability. It reduces the inhibitions usually felt in normal classroom situations and therefore encourages the shy students to speak up. The teacher can talk to individual student in privacy without disturbing the rest of the class. Students may also work through the lesson materials at a level set by themselves for their own comfort, hereby allowing them to develop at their own pace.

6. Increasing attentionAs students listen to the lesson materials individually, their attention is focused on the program material being studied, ultimately increasing their attention span.

7. Effective and efficientThe teacher can monitor and talk to individual students much more efficiently. Usually in a regular classroom all other students stop speaking when the teacher talks to an individual student. This will not happen in the lab. The technology enables the teacher to interact with many more students since he/she merely presses a mouse key or buttons, making the most efficient use of time, improving the teacher/student time ratio in a given lesson.

8. Excitement and funThe lab provides variety from regular classroom situations and therefore excites students when using it. The students’ attention is heightened and the boredom of repetitive learning is lifted. The teacher’s role is changed and the students are more active for longer periods of time. The teacher can even make quizzes for fun!

LESSON ACTIVITIES IN THE LANGUAGE LAB

There are plenty activities that can be done in the lab. Some activities are best done in the lab, for it has the necessary media to facilitate them in achieving the maximum effect and goal. These activities are described below:

1. Listening Listening is the most common activity done in the lab. In fact, early language labs were built to facilitate and enhance this activity. Advanced technology in the lab has enabled teachers and students to do this activity beyond methods usually done in regular classrooms with conventional tape players. The technology offers some features which help teachers and students to do listening activities more effectively and efficiently. These features are explained below:

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a. Jigsaw listeningA class can be divided into groups listening to different lesson materials from variety of different sources at the same time. It is very effective as students listen only to the material addressed to them, without interfering with other groups, thus heightening their concentration on the given material. It is highly efficient for the students do these activities simultaneously, saving time to do other activities to follow up the listening.

b. BookmarkingThis feature helps students to set marks on the listening passages so that they can refer back to the desired spot in no time at all. It is extremely useful for long listening passages. Students will not have to rewind the track to get to the right point, predicting where it might be and luckily get to it in the first effort. Bookmark can also help students to answer a set of pre-listening questions about the passage by setting the marks to the tentative answers for the questions on the track.

c. Free listeningThe teacher can free up students’ panels to give students freedom to study the lesson materials at their own pace for their own comfort. This is very useful for students in practicing their listening skills and in comprehending the listening passages better.

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2. Model ImitationModel Imitation activity is an efficient way to practice pronunciation and rhythm of a foreign language. This feature allows students to listen to the model and repeat after. Students can be freed to practice individually and to repeat the activity as many times they need to. The technology also enables students to record the models and their own utterances for independent study and to evaluate their progress.

3. Recorded ResponseTechnically similar to Model Imitation, Recorded Response provides students opportunities to practice both listening and speaking. In this activity, students listen to a set of recorded spoken questions and, within the given time allocation, answer each of the questions afterwards. Students can take home the recorded questions and answers to study them independently. Teachers may use this for oral tests in which they do not have to interview many students with the same set of questions. Instead, teachers would just need to record their spoken questions and have all students in the lab answer them, and assess them later. The advanced recording system that the lab has enables teachers to digitally record the students’ answers and save them onto CD or Flash Disc to take home, rather than carrying around cassettes, tape player and papers, thus, saving time and energy.

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4. Pair or Group DiscussionPair or Group Discussion activity enhances students’ communicative abilities, which include both listening and speaking skills, since they have to make themselves comprehensible to their discussion partners. In the discussion, the students can repeat the message to check for understanding, and express themselves by using their own words instead of fixed structures. The discussion itself can be recorded for students to listen back to what they have said and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in the oral exchange. The teacher can choose a method of pairing or grouping from fixed to random pairing or grouping. The teacher can even pair or group the students manually as he/she wants, as well as determining the size of the groups.

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5. Phone ConversationAs the name suggests, Phone Conversation allows students to dial any other student’s audio panel number, considering the person they want to talk to is not engaged with another student, to have a conversation. Teachers can use this feature to drill, and for students to practice, certain language structures. This is a very motivating activity for students because they are free to choose who they want to talk to without too much worry of other students who might hear what they say. This reduces the inhibitions students usually feel in normal classroom situations and encourages the shy students to speak up.

6. Reading PracticeA reading activity can also be done in the lab. Reading aloud is a useful way of practicing intonation, rhythm and pronunciation. This exercise is ideal for students to practice their reading skill. The students read a text onto the student track which is recorded and listen back to their reading. Students can do this individually at their own pace to evaluate their reading skill and to improve the output.

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7. QuizThe quiz is a quick and easy way to see how well students answer the questions the teacher asks. Unlike other quizzes done in normal classroom situations which are often stressful for students, the quiz in the language lab can be very fun. The students use buttons to input answers to the given questions. The teacher just selects the answer type (true or false, or multiple choice) plays or reads out a question, and starts the answering time. Students’ answers appear on the teacher’s screen and the teacher can immediately let the students know whether they answered correctly or not. All students’ answers are also recorded in a written form so that the teacher can announce the best student in the quiz, or for the students to know how many correct or wrong answers they made.

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CLOSING

The language laboratory has undoubtedly offered many things for teachers and students to help achieve the goals of teaching and learning languages. Yet, the lab itself cannot function to its maximum effect if teachers and students do not explore and use the advanced technology in it. No matter how advanced and sophisticated the lab is, it is the teachers and the students who can make the most of its potential for the success of teaching and learning languages.

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