Janet Ross

The Language Laboratory in A Small TESOL Program

The value of a language laboratory in teaching modem languages in our high schools and colleges has been well established, and the language laboratory for classes in French, German, or Spanish has become part of the equipment of the up-to-date school. However, although audiovisual courses for English as a foreign language have been developed and language laboratories are used in large-scale English-teaching programs in this country, perhaps less use of the language laboratory has been made in a small TESOL program than in other modern language teaching in our schools. One reason for this may be that fewer students are usually involved in a TESOL program than in the foreign language classes for native students, except perhaps in areas with a large foreign born population. A more important one may be that the opportunity that the laboratory provides to hear native pronunciation is not felt to be so critical for the student who is living in an environment where the language he is learning is being spoken all around him by native speakers. In many small schools a language laboratory provided for the larger number of American students of foreign languages may already be used to nearly full capacity, leaving little time or room for students in the