| Language Lab Brings the World to Hempfield
Students connect with peers in other countries
Reprinted with permission, Intelligencer Journal, Published: Feb 18, 2008, Landisville, PA
By MADELYN PENNINO, Staff
Hempfield High School foreign language students don't have to leave their seats to feel what it's like to live in another country.
Students are spending one class a week in the high school's updated language lab, which features 30 new computers equipped with a state-of-the-art foreign-language learning system.
The Internet-based system allows students to watch foreign news broadcasts and movies and to instant message students in other countries. It also records voices and has online exercises for students to practice their verbal skills.
Cindy Minnich, foreign language department supervisor, said the lab is changing the way students study a foreign language.
"It does everything the old lab did, plus a whole lot more," Minnich said. "It really goes along with the high school's move to differential instruction. Students who are interested in foreign music and art can study those things online. It's opened up all kinds of endless possibilities."
Before the updated language lab, students recorded their voices on a cassette tape and handed it in for review. Teachers then listened to each tape.
Through the new computer technology, however, students can send their digitally recorded voice files to the teacher's computer.
Funding for the Sony computers came through a $77,750 grant sponsored by the district's Educational Improvement Tax Credit program and the Hempfield Education Foundation.
Chelsea Lechane, a ninth-grade Spanish I student, said she likes working in the language lab because it's interactive.
"It's taking another culture and bringing it directly to us," she said. "We can ask questions live and see exactly what's happening. It helps me keep my focus."
Megan Harley, also a ninth-grade Spanish I student, said she enjoys working in the lab with a partner.
"It's fun to talk one on one," she said. "You and your partner get down to business and do what you're learning about."
Students in Lauren Klein's German II class have just started using the lab.
Tenth-grader Ben Bauer, a German II student, said he enjoys conversing with his classmates through headphones and a microphone because it's easier to correct each other's mispronounced words.
"If you're talking with a partner and you make a mistake, they can correct you," he said. "It's different than being in a classroom."
Faith Egenrieder, also a 10th-grade German II student, said she's excited to talk with other students her age who live in Germany.
"I look forward to talking to real German-speaking people," she said. "I think they will really help me in my developing my language skills."
Teachers monitor students' work, review their progress and engage in individualized or classroom discussions through a computer mainframe, through which teachers can access the students' video and audio files.
Joanne Jones, who provides technical support for the language lab and the school's distance-learning lab, said the online language system has a multitude of capabilities that allow teachers to be creative.
"They are able to integrate different exercises and combine them into one recording," Jones said.
It's also extremely efficient for students, Jones said, because students can download assignments on to an iPod, for example.
"It's technology seven days a week, 24 hours a day," Jones said.
Klein said she is excited for students to explore all the opportunities the language lab has to offer.
"It's so important for these students to understand that these countries and languages really exist," Klein said. "It gives them a purpose to their learning."
Klein also said advanced technology is crucial in foreign-language education.
"These students are the computer generation," Klein said. "Not only is it important these days to be bilingual or trilingual; it's it important to be 'computer lingual.' Computer literacy and becoming fluent in another language go hand in hand."
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