Why do we still need language labs?

Those entities, formerly known as “language labs” but now more commonly known as Language Learning Centers, Language Resource Centers, and in my personal case, Language Acquisition and Resource Centers (the term acquisition as opposed to learning is a Krashen-centered debate for another day), are under increasing pressure to justify their existence. As technology turns to digital recording and as students routinely carry more technology in their pockets than some language labs maintain, how do we answer this question as language professionals?

The answer is to change our perspective. The language center was once a facility for housing equipment, providing access to equipment, and facilitating high-stakes assessments. As such, it was a center for technology. In order, not only to justify our existence, but to truly find our value in the language learning curriculum is to shift our focus away from being a center for technology, and towards being a center for learner support.

And the time is ripe for this change, as the administrative discussions in academia circulate around credit hour generation, student retention, graduation rates, and student engagement. By looking up from our technology, and out at the students, we realize that the language center is uniquely designed to offer an answer to these questions.

Take a look at this article on the 7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. By offering multimedia materials, open access to resources, and by the very nature of our diversity as language learners, language centers are already on the forefront of this initiative. With only minor adjustments, we can extend our focus to providing space and opportunities for collaborative learning, and increase contact hours in the target language through the pricipals of educating while entertaining.

What remains for language centers is to articulate our existing efforts in these areas, and our aims to expand these services, to those in administration who place a high value, both monetarily and philosophically, on student retention and engagement.

For further information on undergraduate student engagement, see this post by Dr Phil Wood.

The Tyranny of the Urgent

As usual, the beginning of the fall semester came in like a whirlwind of confusion and exited like a shudder of resignation. ;- ) Actually, it wasn’t that bad, just harried. The greatest challenge of the beginning of the semester is presented by the combination of new faculty and new LARC assistants: the new faculty all have requests and questions, and the new LARC staff have neither skills nor answers! As a result, for about three weeks I have to juggle being all things to all people (trainer, media production specialist, manager, technical support, etc) and yet maintain forward momentum on current projects and initiatives. This is the classic case of the tyranny of the urgent overtaking the important.

I’ve created the little pyramid diagram below to describe the distribution of tasks during the first week or so of the semester. Much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs diagram, the tasks at the top of the pyramid cannot be attempted until the demands at the bottom have been satisfied. What is critical to understand in this diagram is that it is the top portion of the pyramid that most excites me about my work as the LARC coordinator and most piques my academic interests. Just like any student, I arrive at the beginning of the fall motivated to start new projects, do new things, and experiment with new applications of technology in the language curriculum, and yet, as soon as I set foot on campus the first day, I must put all of that excitement and enthusiasm on hold while I revisit the most fundamental functions of the LARC with my new student workers. Sometime around the fourth week I try to regain that enthusiasm and pick up where I left off.

I think that this is one of the reasons that it is so difficult to get initiatives and innovations off the ground: just when the creative processes begin to flow together in order to plan for the implementation (two steps forward), the daily maintenance tasks of the lab siphon away the momentum (one step backward).

Someday, I hope to find a better way of balancing the ebb and flow of the beginning of the semester; for now, I should content myself with successfully treading water.

Currently reading: Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.