The Language Arts building has a new addition to its classrooms. Located on the second floor, room 225, a new state-of-the-art Multi-media Language Lab is now open to BC students.
Although the actual room remains locked at all times, students who are accompanied by their language arts professors have access to the lab. The lab is used for ESL, ASL and foreign language classes including Spanish, Japanese and French. Computers complete with software and headphones as well as a teacher’s console can be found in the new lab. “The software is set up for a multitude of languages,” said BC ESL professor Jeannie Parent.
There are many activities for listening and pronunciation that can be done using the computers and the students. For example, one exercise is where they are paired together with someone from across the room, and they have to describe an object using just their voices. Students can also listen to something and then record their voices and even put them on jump drives. “For the students, learning this way is fun. They love it,” said Spanish professor, Maritza Salgueiro-Carlisle.
Both Carlisle and Parent were instrumental in getting this lab to open. A one-time grant had been requested two years ago, and this year they got it. “The classroom has always been a language lab, but it became so old and outdated that it was turned into an ASL classroom,” said Carlisle of what the lab was before it was redone. “This lab allows us to be more technologically updated and gives the students more individual help,” said Parent. It also gives students chances to work at their own pace.
During the summer, ASL will be getting web cams to videotape their sign language in the lab. Printers are also the next things on the list to be added. Because of recent items in the LA building being stolen, professors have to be diligent about locking the door at all times and making sure no one removes any equipment from the room. Due to the insufficient funds, the language lab is not able to hire someone to watch the room all day For now Carlisle and Parent are relying on students to obey all the rules of the lab, including no food or drinks, no being in the room without a professor present and no social networking sites when using the Internet.