This week I
read an interesting article entitled, “Language in a Lab” by Ravnil Narayan,
printed in the Fiji Times Online. Mr. Narayan is passionate about promoting the
stopping the “deteriorating status of the English language in Fiji”. He states
that the “English language is considered a supreme mode of communication” for
any student who desires to have a career.
Within the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking, Mr.
Narayan believes that the importance of listening is paramount for
communication in the work place.
Because of
this great importance to foster listening capabilities, he claims that Fiji has
a “dire need to invest in language labs in Fijan ESL classrooms”, because “its
high time to look into modern and western ways”. Mr. Narayan also states that
if “Fiji is the hub of the Pacific” then it needs to be compatible with neighboring
countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
There are
four kinds of language labs mentioned:
#1 –
Conventional – This would look like a
very primitive set up with nothing more than a tape recorder and tapes in the
target language.
#2 – Lingua Phone
– Learners have headphones in order to block out distractions while listening to
the target language.
#3 –
Computer-Assisted Language (CALL) – These labs would have computers available
for teaching. Teachers would have to be
invested in adapting their English lessons to be taught using computer
resources.
#4 –
Multimedia High-Tech – In this lab, an investment of software would have
to be made in order to aid students at
all levels of learning. Again, this
would take great cooperation with ESL teachers.
As a teacher
in the United States, it is interesting to me to see the process that is
happening in the middle of the Pacific.
I believe that we may take many
of our resources for granted. Mr.
Narayan is trying to get people to see the value of having resources besides
textbooks in the pursuit of teaching a second language.
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