Concepts of Language Laboratory

B. Language Laboratory

1. Concepts of Language Laboratory

Learning English as a foreign language in Indonesia is to master the skills, one of the important skills is listening. Listening as its first pace has certain difficulties to apply in the teaching learning process. To minimize the barriers of listening process, it is needed a facility such media like language laboratory to improve the students‘ listening skill. Here are lists of some of the language laboratory definitions: A. G. Sciarone states that ―Language laboratory is a room containing such equipment as audio tape recorders, video recorders, and sometimes computers, to help students learn a foreign language with or without a teacher‖. 25 Language laboratory is mainly a room which design to facilitate language learning. According to Haryanto, language laboratory is a set of audio and video electronic equipment consists of instructor console as the main engine, equipped with a repeater language learning machine, tape recorder, DVD player, video monitors, headsets, and students booth installed in a sound proof room. 26 According to E.M. Stack the language laboratory is a special room designed and use primarily for foreign language learning with the aid of electronic equipment. 27 Julian Dakin also states that the laboratory offers certain facilities that cannot be reproduced in the classroom. 28 While the components of a language laboratory usually include earphones, microphones, preamplifiers, tape recorders, booths, central console, monitoring system, control switches, tape duplication 25 A. G. Sciarone, ―Language Laboratory‖, in Bernard Spolsky, Concise Encyclopedia of Educational Linguistics, Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 363. 26 Haryanto, Laboratorium Bahasa Multimedia dan fungsinya dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Asing. 2005, tt.p. 27 Edward M. Stack, The Language Laboratory and Modern Language Teaching, Revised Edition New York: Oxford University Press, 1966, p. 48. 28 Julia Dakin, The Language Laboratory and Language Learning London: Longman Group Ltd, 1973, p. 32. facilities, recording studio, tape library and supply, and sound conditioning. 29 Harmer states as quoted in Nida Husna that language laboratory has three special characteristics, thus are: 1. Double Track. Equipped with tracks, one of the original materials for the students to listen, the other is to record student‘s responses. They can listen again to their own recording voice or to the original tracks available 2. Teacher access. Teacher‘s master console is the teacher booth that he can access to whoever students and whenever the teacher wants to listen and talk with. The teacher can join booths so that students can work in pairs or in groups; just as the teacher creates pairs and groups in the classroom. The teacher can read and correct the student‘s writing assignment, for instance through a computer. S tudent‘s work is easy to check and correct by teacher 3. Different modes. There are two to four master tape decks in teacher console. This is equipped to enables the teacher to play two to four different programs for two to four groups of students. Through this program, teacher can give students work on their own capability whether the speed or the time even with different material to work with. 30 As multimedia technology, language laboratory is now becomes more accessible to teachers and learners to learn languages. It is in harmony with what Nida Husna says that in Indonesia, audio language laboratory is now quite trendy. 31 Many schools and some affluent private schools have already been equipped with the audio language laboratory. Through language laboratory the learner can hear variety of voices and accent apart from the teacher. 32 29 Robert Lado, Language Teaching: A Scientific Approach, New York: McGraw Hill, 1964, p. 187. 30 NidaHusna, CALL and Language Lab, vol.1, Jakarta: ELTI Journal, 2010, p. 34. 31 Ibid. 32 Julia Dakin, The Language Laboratory and Language Learning London: Longman Group Ltd, 1973, p. 34. Based on the discussion above, the writer implies that language laboratory is a special room with booth and computer which is designed to learn language. In order to improve student‘s capability in listening, language laboratory has a very important role in helping learners acquiring the language. Furthermore, language laboratory provides textual, aural, and visual for students. It is fine learning medium for learner, especially if the learners are visual type learners.

2. Models of Language Laboratory