The language laboratory has emerged as an extremely effective and popular aid to modern language teaching. It facilitates the "immersion" method of language learning which has long been acknowledged as the shortest route to proficiency in a foreign language. This helps them improve listening comprehension and pronunciation.
Students are able to listen, practice and learn at their own pace and get individual attention from the teacher who monitors each one's progress. Sessions in the language lab are particularly useful to those students who go on to take standardized English tests like IELTS and TOEFL.
Language Lab for soft skills enhancement in BMCE provides excellent language and soft skill training courses which offers training to the students. The students have the luxury to attend and complete the training and enrich their skills at their own choice, which is a hallmark of BMCE's training programs. Introduction of technology In Language teaching/learning
Candidates for admission to the B Tech degree course shall be required to have passed the Higher Secondary Examination, Kerala or 12th Standard V.H.S.E., C.B.S.E., I.S.C. or any examination accepted by the university as equivalent thereto obtaining not less than 50% in Mathematics and 50% in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry
Emerging technologies make it practical to approach learning in ways that have been advocated by scientists, theorists, and educational psychologists for years. Advanced information technologies such as virtual reality, visualization, digital modeling, digitization, simulation, games, virtual worlds and intelligent one-on-one tutoring systems dramatically enhance teaching and learning of elusive concepts by translating abstractions into real-world contexts and providing customized instruction and individualized assessments. To realize the full potential of this technology and to ensure its pervasiveness in all institutions of learning and training, we must undertake a long-term, large-scale effort to research, develop, test and disseminate tools for building advanced learning systems.
TThese are guided exercises. Their objective is to highlight specific functional components within a language:
Reflection on the organization of sentence components.(Word Order).
The use of vocabulary and grammar in fill-in-the-blanks exercises, which require students to analyze a sentence in its entirety in order to place the correct word(The Right Word,Fill-in-the-Blanks).
Vocabulary practice with association exercises, which consist of matching a word with its synonym, antonym or a related image (Word Association, Picture / Word Association).
Reflection on vocabulary or grammar using texts or lexical groups, in which students must identify words belonging to a specific grammatical or lexical group(Words and Functions, Words and Topics).
The objective of these types of exercises is to put the acquired knowledge into practice through written expression. The exercises consist of: Guided expression, consisting of the transformation of context (Text Transformation). Semi-guided expression, in which it is necessary to write texts based on an image or video, or to write a summary of a longer text (Written Expression).
Learner can respond at ease for communicative mode of teaching. Communicative method for learning languages combines extensive, high-quality content with flexible and interactive multimedia technology. This comprehensive language-learning method can act as a total solution for self-teaching, as well as a teaching support to formal courses.
Through a wide range of activities, a variety of skills are aimed to develop in a learner. A learner needs to communicate: oral and written comprehension, as well as oral and written expression. It also addresses the concepts of grammar, lexicon, phonetics and conjugation. In order to achieve this objective, there are three possible Learning Modes:
Language Lab can be used for teaching/learning through teacher's Console and Language Learning Software. It acts as a platform for learning, practicing and producing language skills through interactive lessons and communicative mode of teaching. Learners can act and respond in a variety of ways at their own pace. Language lab may have the following objectives, purposes, functions to work upon.
- To maintain good linguistic competence- through accuracy in grammar, Pronunciation & Vocabulary.
- To develop pragmatic competence, to understand the grammatical form & function & scale of formality.
- To enrich the discourse competence.
- To prepare the learner to be able to produce contextualize written text and speech.
- To acquire strategic competence to use both spoken & written language to use in a wide range of communication strategies.
- Stay in control- Monitoring the students from the teacher's PC when they are on self learning.
- Reinforce learning.
- Facilitating broadcast and sharing files from Teacher's PC to the other student workstations through audio, video, text and image.
- Teaching with software that is approachable Pairing and grouping the students to facilitate group discussions.
- Content authoring to create course material, and tests.
- To ensure the best learning results.
Among the four macro skills of language learning, listening and reading are receptive skills whereas speaking and writing are the productive skills. These skills can be improved effectively, when the learner learns at his own pace. With the help of the functional tool- Language Lab with Teacher's Console, language skills can be learnt, practiced and evaluated through the techniques followed.
I) Techniques to Improve Listening
The primary form of linguistic communication is speech and so listening is the most important receptive (and learning) skill for foreign language students. An ability to listen and interpret many shades of meaning from what is heard, is a fundamental communicative ability. Teaching listening involves training in some 'enabling skills' - perception of sounds, stress, intonation patterns, accents, attitudes and so on, as well as 'practice' in various styles of listening comprehension.
II) Techniques to improve speaking
Students' speech evaluation is possible through the digital recorder modules in language learning software. Students' audio recordings can be scored or saved for later evaluation. The Teachers can Record their own voice notes that students can hear later as they review their work. Group Discussions & Role Plays: The students on different workstations can be grouped and put into random pairs or groups to participate in role plays and group discussions. Teachers can listen directly or intervene as when required to control, monitor and evaluate the process. It can also be recorded and saved for later evaluation.
III) Digital Recorder:
This software module allows students to experience interactive multimedia programs while simultaneously recording their own voices for practice. Using this, students feel like they are interacting with a live native speaker and they can increase their comprehension, vocabulary and speaking skills. By adding subtitles, reading skills are also increased. Quizzes and tests can be prepared by using text, graphics, video and audio materials. These quizzes are graded automatically.
IV) Voice Recognition Technology:
This technology is integrated into the Pronunciation module of the software. Using the built in microphone on your computer, the learner will be able to repeat words after they hear from a native speaker through computer speakers. The software will analyze their pronunciation and compare a waveform representation of the native speaker's pronunciation with a waveform of their pronunciation. An accuracy scale on the screen with display their voice match to the native speaker on a scale of "Bad", "Acceptable", and "Good"s.
V) Techniques to improve Reading & Writing
The key to learning a language is the frequent exposure and use of vocabulary and grammar. The average person must be exposed to a word or phrase 100s of times before integrating it into fluent conversation. The major thresholds of gaining language fluency are the learner's ability to learn a base vocabulary of approximately 2000 words for day-to-day use Learn the rules of grammar Vocabulary Lessons Grammar Exercises Interactive Stories/situations.