Language Laboratory
Language laboratories are study rooms equipped with electronic sound-reproduction devices, enabling students to hear model pronunciations of foreign languages and to record and hear their own voices as they engage in pattern drills. Most laboratories provide a master control board that permits a teacher to listen to and correct any student...
Language lab
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Russian language class in a East German language laboratory (1975)
The language laboratory is an audio or audio-visual installation used as an aid in modern language teaching. They can be found, amongst other places, in schools, universities and academies. Perhaps the first lab was at the University of Grenoble[1][2]. In the 1950s up until the 1990s, they were tape based systems using reel to reel or (latterly) cassette. Current installations are generally multimedia PCs.
Appearance and configuration
The 'traditional' system generally comprises a master console (teacher position) which is electrically connected to a number of rows of student booths (US: carrels), typically containing a student tape recorder and headset with a boom arm microphone. The teacher console is usually fitted with master playback source equipment (tape recorder), some means of monitoring of each booth in the class via the teacher headset and an intercom facility offering 2-way communication between teacher and student.
All but the most simple or first generation laboratories allow the teacher to remotely control the tape transport controls of the student booths (record, stop, rewind etc) from the master desk. This allows for easy distribution of the master programme material, which is often copied at high speed onto the student positions for later use by the students at their own pace.
Better tape laboratories housed the tape machine behind a protective plate (leaving only a control panel accessible to the students) or locked the cassette door. This kept
Language lab
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Russian language class in a East German language laboratory (1975)
The language laboratory is an audio or audio-visual installation used as an aid in modern language teaching. They can be found, amongst other places, in schools, universities and academies. Perhaps the first lab was at the University of Grenoble[1][2]. In the 1950s up until the 1990s, they were tape based systems using reel to reel or (latterly) cassette. Current installations are generally multimedia PCs.
Appearance and configuration
The 'traditional' system generally comprises a master console (teacher position) which is electrically connected to a number of rows of student booths (US: carrels), typically containing a student tape recorder and headset with a boom arm microphone. The teacher console is usually fitted with master playback source equipment (tape recorder), some means of monitoring of each booth in the class via the teacher headset and an intercom facility offering 2-way communication between teacher and student.
All but the most simple or first generation laboratories allow the teacher to remotely control the tape transport controls of the student booths (record, stop, rewind etc) from the master desk. This allows for easy distribution of the master programme material, which is often copied at high speed onto the student positions for later use by the students at their own pace.
Better tape laboratories housed the tape machine behind a protective plate (leaving only a control panel accessible to the students) or locked the cassette door. This kept