Language Lab design

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dot>.com.remove_this_part_2 - 19 May 2004 00:16 GMT

Hello,

My company, Racam Electronics, is currently engaged in designing a new
Language Lab and we are now looking for industry feed back on our
proposed design. We are seeking teachers, and other industry
professionals, who can spare 3 to 5 minutes to complete a short, on line
survey.

The survey can be found at: http://www.racam.com/usa/index.html

The following are examples of the kinds of features we are looking at
incorporating into our design.

1. System portability – the system could be housed in a trolley that
could be easily moved by one person.

2. Cordless - be based on wireless technology.

3. Intercom Logging Receiver - Allow the students conversations to be
recorded.

4. Headset Recording Loop - Incorporate a voice recording loop in each
Headset so students can listen to themselves.

5. Teacher Control Console – for the teacher to control the operation of
the complete system.

6. Retail for less than $10,000 for a 20 position Lab.

If anyone can spare me 3 to 5 minutes of their time I'd appreciate
hearing from you.

Thanks for your time.

Regards
Chris Mayhew
http://www.racam.com

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Django Cat - 19 May 2004 00:45 GMT

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> Chris Mayhew
> http://www.racam.com

Give it up now. We all hate language labs.

DC

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CyberCypher - 19 May 2004 02:02 GMT

Django Cat wrote on 18 May 2004:

>> Hello,
>>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Give it up now. We all hate language labs.

I wish I didn't agree wholeheartedly with you, DC, but they are a
useless pain in the a.s that belong in the audio-lingual age of the
1960s. What needs to be created now is a portable network with a
variety of databased materials that allow students to choose
materials that suit their individual needs, levels, and interests,
and that have an optional soundproof hood for those who want to
practice pronunciation and other forms of speaking.

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Mxsmanic - 19 May 2004 04:34 GMT

> What needs to be created now is a portable network with a
> variety of databased materials that allow students to choose
> materials that suit their individual needs, levels, and interests,
> and that have an optional soundproof hood for those who want to
> practice pronunciation and other forms of speaking.

I'd settle for tape players that can be accurately positioned, or,
better still, CD players to replace the tape players, with individual
listening exercises indexed on the CD so that one need not spend one's
life searching back and forth for exercises on an old-fashioned tape.

Another advantage to a CD player would be that the sound is always of
good quality and never wears out (normal tapes sound like they are
buried in cotton after a few passes, especially on players that are
never cleaned or degaussed).

This would cost a lot less than the price of a single so-called language
lab. I consider schools with elaborate labs to be somewhat suspect, as
I've never heard of any language lab that really did anything for
learning, although a lot of them can rapidly empty operating budgets.

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Enrico C - 19 May 2004 10:24 GMT

> We all hate language labs.

What are they for?

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Owain - 19 May 2004 14:35 GMT

| Django Cat
| > We all hate language labs.
| What are they for?

They are for the children to spend a lesson surreptitiously listening to
whatever popular beat combo won the most recent Pap Idle or BBC Talentless
contest and smoking pot in the booths, whilst giving the teacher half an
hour to get on with some marking.

Of course, if the headsets came with little electrodes that could be
switched on and off from the teacher's console, that might liven up the
children.

Owain

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Irma - 19 May 2004 16:42 GMT

>| Django Cat
>|> We all hate language labs.
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Owain

Education has changed a lot since my days at school ????

Irma.

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CyberCypher - 19 May 2004 17:21 GMT

Irma wrote on 19 May 2004:
[...]

> Education has changed a lot since my days at school ????

Yeah. Now we teach students that a single "?" is sufficient to indicate
a question and that in the sentence above, the only way it can be a
real question is to invert the aux and the subject to make "Has
education changed ...?"

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Irma - 19 May 2004 17:37 GMT

> Irma wrote on 19 May 2004:
> [...]
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> real question is to invert the aux and the subject to make "Has
> education changed ...?"

Actually I was not asking, since I know for sure it has. :-)

My problem is with these smilies that were not taught at school :-( well,
at least, not in my days. I wanted to express with "????" my interrogative
face.

Do you think this way would be better?

Education has changed a lot since my days at school. :-/

I hope now it is right, and expresses what I really want. :-)

Thanks.
Irma.

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CyberCypher - 20 May 2004 01:46 GMT

Irma wrote on 19 May 2004:

>> Irma wrote on 19 May 2004:
>> [...]
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Actually I was not asking, since I know for sure it has. :-)

Then do not use a "?".

> My problem is with these smilies that were not taught at school
> :-( well, at least, not in my days.

I hope they're not teaching "smilies" at school these days.

> I wanted to express with "????" my interrogative face.

Whatever for?

> Do you think this way would be better?
>
> Education has changed a lot since my days at school. :-/
>
> I hope now it is right, and expresses what I really want. :-)

It's difficult to know what you really want to express, even after
your attempted (and, IMHO, failed) explanation. An "interrogative
face" means a "questioning" face, but because you already know that
your statement is true, you should not need to question your own
statement. Maybe you want to express shock or surprise or
disgruntlement, but whatever you want to express, please try to do it
with the appropriate words and forget about the stupid smiley;
smilies are there for the verbally inarticulate or are devices to use
when addressing those who are reading-impaired and will not be able
to understand your tone.

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Mxsmanic - 19 May 2004 20:18 GMT

> What are they for?

Keeping small companies that build language labs in business.

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Mxsmanic - 19 May 2004 04:30 GMT

> 6. Retail for less than $10,000 for a 20 position Lab.

You can buy a lot of things in a language school for $10,000, and a
fancy language lab is probably among the worst possible ways to spend
the money. The money would be better spent on books, simple equipment
like tape recorders and whiteboards, and additional staff. Blowing it
on a gadget seems a bit outdated ... I thought the teaching-machine and
magic-language-lab fads had gone out of fashion decades ago.

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Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / May 2004

Language Lab design