Good communication skills are indispensiable for an individual’s success. Young people who aspire to advance their careers need to give more impetus on their English Language skills. Being able to communicate well guarantees ones placement, pay package and even promotion in a company or an institution. Language learning is not just confined to writing an examination and getting a degree. It is an elaborate process in which all the four skills need to be mastered: Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking.
A Language Lab is an audio or an audio visual installation used as an aid in language teaching. The concept of a language lab is not a new one. It first came into vogue in 1950’s.Traditionally a language lab began with a master tape recorder for a teacher with headphone and a microphone(teacher console) electrically connected to other tape recorders occupied by students with head phones and microphones (student console). The teacher with his master tape had the advantage of controlling all the audio activities of his students. To a large extent a teacher was successful in correcting his student’s language, particularly pronunciation, accent, stress and all other aspects of phonetics. Each student booth or console was monitored by the teacher through his head set and microphone which was only possible by an intercom facility. However this had a bad reputation of breakdowns. The common problems were on account of the complexity of the reel to reel system of the tape recorder; tapes going off the reels, wear and tear of the rubber parts, bulbs in the control panels demanding replacement and problems with the student tape heads leading to a poor quality of sound production. This old technology was very inconvenient and demanded much maintenance (specially the student tape recorders).
With the advent of the multimedia capable PC’s the old ‘reel system’ of tape recorders were replaced by hard drives and software which almost zeroed the chances of failure. A soft ware system can be installed onto an existing PC making them both multilocation in their access and increasing the number of features. Not only now audio is transmitted but video, flash based games and internet. The speed and variety of the delivery of media from teacher to student, student to teacher is rapid and the entire process of learning becomes an engaging experience. The more sophisticated software has a high level of teacher management and control over the students desktop. Now a teacher can synchronously check the assignments of his students on his PC and not wait for it being recorded and collected back. The digital language labs allows a teacher to monitor, control, group, display, review and collect audio, video and web based multimedia content.
The language lab at DBS College is one of the advanced types. Equipped with a latest soft ware to train 10 students at a time (1 teacher console with 10 student console) the lab can be used for the beginners, intermediate learners and the advanced learners. Areas like ‘Personality Development’, ‘Social Grooming’ and ‘Basic Knowledge of Computer’ are also included in the lab curriculum. The lab is well equipped with an 81cm flat screen monitor, over head projector, a laser printer and a photocopier.