When you were in college, RT, did your uni have a language lab? Mine did. I remember I had to buy a special lab textbook with its own matching tapes when I took a year of German in the early '90s. Twice a week, I was expected to take my lab booklet and tapes to this language lab for my own 'LSRW' practice. It was audio-only, with no visual input save for the text. It worked. It not only worked, but it was also hugely popular.

This would be a great tool to use in TEFL. With video upgrades, CD's and CD-ROMs, hi-res monitors, and interactive, user-friendly computer programs, a modern language lab would absolutely rule in a place like Thailand. If you allowed your students to control their own pace during practice, and also allowed them to practice in private cubes (to eliminate the inferiority complex), you wouldn't have to worry about your students getting in adequate practice. They'd fight over seats in the lab and go back for seconds and even thirds.

It would be flexible, too. You could do all sorts of things with a lab to fit your students' needs. You'd only have to build 'sturdiness' into it to eliminate vandalism, as young Thai kids are notorious at breaking things for fun, especially expensive things.

I have heard that AUA in Bangkok has an entire room filled with old language--lab equipment that's doing nothing but collecting dust. I don't know why places like AUA allowed this to happen, but I say we drag such equipment back out, add the visual component, and crank it up.

My students' lack of practice outside of class aggravates the hell out of me. I try to keep my classes a little 'fun', but I too realize they aren't moving fast enough to fluency in a world getting more competitive by the day. It's good to play Bozo sometimes, but not all the time or even most of the time. Learning English as an L2 means one thing--WORK. Boring or not, ya gotta work at it. Nothing is going to change this fact. A modern language lab would make it a LOT less boring.

So, problem solved.....I bet I'd have my kids eating out of my hand if I built a modern language lab at my school. It's too bad I've already given my notice. I'll try to start up an LL at my next school.

E