State-of-the-art Language Lab enhances language learning at Capital
Learning a foreign language is an ongoing process. You build oral comprehension and expression by using the language in different settings. You fine-tune your pronunciation by listening and responding to audio tapes, your classmates and your professor. You develop reading and writing skills through structured activities.
There aren't enough regular classroom hours to do all this and do it well. And that's where Capital's new high-tech language lab comes in.
Our digitalized language lab uses .WAV and MP3 technology to help you:
- Increase your hands-on exposure to the language you are studying
- Improve your overall classroom performance
- Work toward a foreign-language major or minor
- Fulfill the new Arts and Sciences language requirement
- Enrich your language skills before you go abroad
- Learn English as a Second Language (ESL)
This modern facility has brought Capital to a whole new level in language education. For the 2005-2006 academic year, we've been able to:
- Add three new languages - Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Russian - to our existing course offerings of French, German, Latin and Spanish
- Give you an extra weekly session to reinforce the skills you're building in the classroom
- Expand our course content and your familiarity with key concepts
- Increase our language classes from three to four semester hours per week to give you more experience and keep pace with the national average
Learn more about Capital's modern languages department.
235 Battelle Hall: A Rich Resource for Language Learning
The Language Lab is far more than just an alternative language classroom. It's open 50 hours a week, it's a quiet place to study, and it's strictly for the use and benefit of language students.
At the Language Lab you can:
- Access online class materials and audio programs in the language you are studying
- Watch foreign-language films as well as news and other broadcasts
- Do your homework online
- Visit educational foreign-language Web sites
The Language Lab is staffed whenever it's open, so you can always get help when you need it. Your professor will be there during weekly class lab sessions. If you need technical help at any other time, just ask the language professor or trained student assistant on duty.
Cutting-Edge Technology
Sony Virtuoso and Soloist Software
Capital's Language Lab is equipped with Sony Virtuoso™ (instructional control software) and Soloist® (digital comparative recorder software), which allow you, the student, to:
- Record your voice, compare it to that of a native speaker using the same words, and save the recording for playback
- Converse with other language students, both in pairs and in groups
- Hear your professor's comments about your pronunciation imbedded in the recording
- Chat onscreen with other students and share screens, mice and keyboards as you do oral assignments
- Call for help when you need it
Your professor has a master console that connects with and controls all the workstations in the lab. Using this console, the professor can:
- Pair you with other students for oral assignments, either randomly or selectively
- Send you pictures and audio or video files to support the concepts you're learning
- Make comments that only you can hear, that only you and your partner can hear, or that the entire class can hear
- Choose one student as a model and have the rest of the class listen to him or her
- Call you to convey necessary information
- Monitor your screen to make sure you're staying on task
Additional Equipment
Capital's new Language Lab also contains:
- An Elmo document reader that can project objects or written material of all kinds on a large projection screen
- media projector for showing DVDs and videos
- A codeless DVD player that plays videos from other countries as well as those from Region One (the U.S. and Canada)
- A VCR
- Online dictionaries for help with spelling, translation and pronunciation
- Computer-assisted language placement exams (CAPE) for French, German, Russian and Spanish, as well as placement exams for other languages
- Writing assistant software that helps with grammar, vocabulary acquisition and spelling
- A Classroom Performance System (CPS) that allows all students to respond individually, simultaneously and privately to their professor's questions using hand-held devices
Fast Facts about Capital's Language Lab
- Located at 235 Battelle Hall
- Open 50 hours per week
- 25 computer stations with 17-inch flat-screen LCD monitors
- An independent HVAC system to keep equipment from overheating
- Attractive, contemporary furniture in an inviting setting
- A completely renovated and reconfigured space
- Professors' offices adjacent to the lab for easy student access
The language lab was used recently at this East Asian event where students of Chinese competed with students of Japanese.
For more information about Capital's language lab, contact
Dr. Barbara Keller
Chair, Department of Modern Languages
(614) 236-6457
bkeller@capital.edu
Dr. Marie-Madeleine Stey
Lab Director
(614) 236-6556
mstey@capital.edu