Language Laboratory "Ing. Gilberto Borja Navarrete"

Language Laboratory
"Ing. Gilberto Borja Navarrete"

            The UNAM - San Antonio recently installed a modern language lab featuring the latest technological advances and pedagogical tools available. The lab is a valid instrument for teaching Spanish and English as a second language. It allows students to carry out activities supplementing what they have learned in the language classroom. By way of varied lab exercises, students are exposed to different accents, patterns of stress and intonation. At the same time, the lab facilitates the practice of simulated real-life communicative activities in which the speaker does not have the help of body language or gestures, such as during telephone conversations.
         Among the most important characteristics of the new system is its ability to store large amounts of information, which, at the same time, is easily accessible to teachers and students. This information can be incorporated into the files of the lab through the Internet.
         Another advantage of the language lab is that it allows great versatility in the exercises that are available to students, leading to a more individualized use of the equipment. The new technology adapts the sound level to the needs of each person. Along the same times, it is possible for students to choose, on an individual basis, which parts of the oral text they wish to forward or rewind, if necessary, sentence by sentence.
         Another advantage of the language lab is its capability to adapt to the learning needs of each individual student, since it makes it possible for each person to practice activities of their choice outside of class and to develop their own individual learning strategies.
         Finally, the lab makes it possible for instructors to evaluate students more objectively by exposing them all to the exact same stimulus, for example, in the case of the Oral Spanish Proficiency Exams and oral achievement tests. This type of evaluation provides instructors with yet another tool for determining their students’ level of achievement since it is possible to compare the progress of each individual student to that of the entire class.