What is the purpose of taking a four credit hour foreign language class for a language that you probably will never speak again? A simple answer to that question might be because it is a requirement to graduate. Unless you are majoring in some form of Arts or Science, you may not be required to take more then two foreign language classes.
Since I am double majoring in Psychology and Mass Communication, I find myself having to complete two levels of a foreign language for one major requirement and four levels for the other. When I took my first foreign language class I felt that the professor expected us to have some Spanish background, which for some, was not the case. It made it miserable for those students who had little experience with another language, making them feel as if they were always left behind.
Now these problems could be a thing of the past with the new system that the Foreign Language Lab is planning to institute into LSU’s foreign language curriculum.
The Foreign Language Lab Director and Spanish Instructor, Andrew Tabor, and his employees have been diligently working on designing programs to advance LSU as one of the top foreign language departments in universities and colleges around the country.
Not only will this affect the Foreign Language Lab but also students taking a foreign language class and the professors who teach them.
The new system would include two types of testing available on the foreign language website. The first is the “web procreation” program, which allows teachers to create their own program. There are twenty types of exercises that range from audio, video, picture, vocabulary with audio, multiple choice and so on. This type of testing allows the students to actually record their conversation. The web procreation program also allows the student to record and store the information that they put into the computer. This program will not only enhance the oral prospective of the students language but also the grammatical part as well.
The second type is the testing program which allows students to do everything that the web procreation does, which allows teachers to make their own test. It has every feature that a class setting has plus video, questions, and actual conversations, as in the web procreation program. You are able to record and virtually do every testing that is possible. The testing is then recorded, stored and kept for the teacher to grade. The program itself grades questions, such as multiple choice, but the teacher can go through each test and grade everything that the program does not, such as oral or composition. The students have the advantage to be able to take the exam in and out of class. Oral proficiency can be tested more efficiently and accurately.
The benefits for the student can be described as Andrew A. Tabor, FFLAB director and Spanish professor calls a “ effective filter”, which allows students and professors to work better together.
The labs are monitored throughout the test and provides a system that is “cheat proof.” Most importantly a teacher has control over when her student’s take the test. The teacher can have the student’s take the test as a class or individually on their own time.
So, over the next few semesters students should be looking for these changes in their foreign language class.
Now students will have the chance to become better foreign language speakers, regardless as to where they speak it. This is suitable for students who only have to take two semesters of a foreign language and would like to become more fluent speakers.
Hopefully LSU will take full advantage of the programs that are being designed to help students learn a new language and culture. Now students will leave college knowing a lot more then “gracias” and “hola” in a department that will best be described as “like no other.”