The impact of the Language Laboratory on the Ongoing English Language Programme of the Faculty of Science, University of Ruhuna

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.