Abstract:
The Faculty of Science is the only faculty that has a language laboratory (hereinafter
referred to as lab) in University of Ruhuna for its students learning English, with 35
computers and a multimedia projector fixed within it. This language lab can be
identified as a Computer Assisted Language Lab (CALL) and a Web Assisted
Language Lab (WALL). As it has been a couple of months since the lab was
incorporated into language teaching in the faculty, there are significant changes in
students’ attendance and interest in learning English when compared with the
previous semester. More importantly their interest has increased, as it is a different
experience from their usual classroom where they are provided with lengthy
handouts mainly comprising of grammar and reading comprehension passages.
Creating opportunities for the students to learn English through various activities
using computers and a multimedia projector along with the internet seem to have
brought this impact upon the ongoing English programme, which undoubtedly
requires a study on it, given the significance it could bring about further. In this
study it was intended to discuss the difference between teaching English as a second
language in a language lab and a usual classroom in order to make suggestions to
the ongoing English language programme of the Faculty of Science. Furthermore it
enabled me to find better ways to exploit the language lab for the benefit of the
students. Therefore, a questionnaire was given to the students and interviews with
the instructors in English working on the English programme were conducted and
classroom observations were also carried out. Moreover, the student’s attendance
was analysed.
