Language Lab review

                                               

What is Language lab?

A room Equipped with audio and visual equipment to aid people learning a foreign language. Language lab majorly favors the Audio – lingual method, it stressed listening and speaking more than readin and writing skills. The original language labs are now very outdated. They were using tapes based system using reel or cassette.

History of Language Lab:

Ralf Waltz is usually credited with cong the term language laboratory .The History of the American Language laboratory can be divided into five periods,

(1) The beginning period, before World War 2

(2) The Establishing period, until 1958 when the national defense education Act(NDEA), which supplied large amounts of money for education, was passed

(3) The developing period, until the end of the 1960’s

(4) The diminishing period, until the end of the 1970’s and,

(5) The revival period, until today.

Language laboratories have become practical use since around 1950. Edison’s tin foil phonograph, invented in 1877, is the origin of our deluxe language laboratories with all their complex equipment. Edison’s phonograph was used in a foreign language class for the first time at college of Milwaukee n 1891.

Rafael Diez de la Cortina thought the method of teaching a foreign language using a phonograph for the first time. (Kitao) Unquestionably the 1960s were the golden years of language laboratory. According to Hocking by 1962 there were approximately 5000 installation in secondary schools another 1000 secondary school had labs by 1964.

Advantages of Language Lab:

· It is self assisted learning; student is in the center of the learning process.

· Possible to listen to many speakers

· Not to hear other student’s bad pronunciation

· To listen to the records many times and practice

· To listen the teacher’s drills

· To prepare for the class enjoyably

· Able to test listening and speaking



· Can learn same lesson repeatedly



· Teachers gets tired but not machine



Disadvantages of Language Lab:

· Student needed to study reading most

· Student can not repeat correctly by themselves

· Repetition of same instruction leads to boredom

· It can improve only listening and speaking

· One can’t learn all LSRW skills with Language lab software

· It requires electricity; software can’t work without it

· Somewhere we feel need of teacher for proper instruction, teacher can give more explanation and examples for better understanding we can’t expect this from language lab.

Language lab Past Present and future:

As we have already discussed past of the language lab, what is the present situation of language lab? We are living in digital era. PCs have replaced the old language labs, every student have tablet or android phones they can watch learning videos or can record their inputs and upload it. In future there will be no need of big room equipped with language lab software. One can carry lab in his/her pocket.

Works Cited

BARRUTIA, RICHARD. THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF LANGUAGE LABORATORIES. n.d. 21 February 2018. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/338842 .>.

Khampusaen, Dararat. "Past, Present and Future: From Traditional Language Laboratories to Digital Language Laboratories and Multimedia ICT Suites." n.d. 21 February 2018. <http://www.ijcim.th.org/SpecialEditions/v21nSP2/02_08_14E_Dararat.pdf>.

Kitao, Kenji. The History of Language Laboratories Origin and establishment. n.d. 21 February 2018. <https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED381020>.

Roby, Warren B. TECHNOLOGY IN THE SERVICE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING: THE CASE OF THE LANGUAGE LABORATORY. n.d. 21 February 2018. <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ebc8/687dde1b89deaf01cc53de2084de54ebc2db.pdf>.

Sense of and Ending By Julian Barnes

                                               

Sense of an Ending is a very short novel by Julian Barnes. ‘Ending’- Actually there is no Ending but to a certain extent there will be always a beginning in the Ending (I believe so). like other novels this novel has a story, a story which is based on someone’s memory, story of entangled relations, story about growing characters, a story about human psychology, how human being fabricate their own memory to console themselves. The story seems very easy but it is difficult to understand. There are many references about history and literature and one has to have knowledge about it or else he/she will close the book after reading about it.

There are some debatable questions after reading this novel, let us discuss:

What is the meaning of phrase ‘Blood Money’ in Veronica’s reply email?

Sarah Ford (Mother of veronica) left 500 dollars to Tony Webster (narrator and Protagonist) after her death. Veronica sent a mail to Tony Webster in which she has written only one word ‘Blood Money’.

There is a chain of cause and effect. Every action has reaction, Tony and veronica were in Romantic relation but after their break up veronica came in relation with Tony’s friend Adrian Finn. Adrian told about this in his letter to Tony and asked about Veronica. Tony was offended somewhere with this and portrayed veronica in wrong way and asked him to meet her mother Sarah Ford, this meeting between Adrian Finn and Sarah Ford leads them to fell in love with each other. Adrian Commits Suicide after Sarah Ford Got Pregnant. Sarah Ford believes that it is Tony because of whom Adrian came in her life,, she was happy with this relation and that is why she gave this money to him, but Veronica believes that somewhere Tony is responsible for all this, and this is the reason she wrote ‘Blood Money’.

How do you decipher the equation: b = s – v x/+ a1 or a2 + v + a1 X s = b?

Adrian Finn Wrote this equation is his Suicide note, we are not told the meaning, it is up to us that how we interpret this, As story says this could be solved like this:

a1 or a2 + v + a1 X s = b

A1= Adrian Finn

A2=Tony Webster

V= Veronica

S= Sarah Ford

B= Baby (J. Adrian)

Adrian’s diary is willed to Tony by Sarah Ford. Why did Sarah Ford own it? Why was it in the possession of Veronica?

Sarah owned the dairy of Adrian Finn because they were in relation and Veronica got this dairy because she was living with her and that could be reason that the dairy was in possession of her.

Was the mentally retarded middle aged ‘Adrian’, Tony’s friend who did not commit suicide and was suffering from trauma and thus gone mad, and was living with hidden identity?

Mentally retarded middle aged ‘Adrian’ is in actual sense son of Adrian Finn and Sarah Ford and Brother of Veronica. If he was alive then Sarah would know it, but there is no such statement by Sarah. There is no such possibility because he committed suicide in his very consciousness which can be proved through his suicide note.

How was Veronica related to Adrian, the one suffering in care-in-the-community?

There are two different shades of veronica we see within one novel. First is shown by Tony, but the real side of veronica we come to know in the end. She got nothing in the end, she did the real sacrifice. Her boyfriend turn toward her mother and now she is raising her brother; the son by her boyfriend and mother. For the sake of humanity she is taking care of her brother, J.Adrain got guardian but Veronica had no one left behind her to see her condition.

Do you see any missing block – some dot which is not getting connected with the whole or dot missing to get full sense of the novel - in the plot of this psychological thriller?

Yes there are many missing blocks which lefts the reader in ambiguity. Why Adrian did suicide? There is no such specific reason. Why Adrian would have took permission of Tony to ask for Veronica because there is no such need to do that. Why Sarah Ford is Veronica had no Good relations. Why Sarah Ford was so selfish that she ruined her daughter’s life.

Do you see any possible reason in the suicide of Adrian Finn?

Well if we see the story, Adrian’s suicide seems very Intellectual one. Which he confessed in his suicide note. He said that he was happy in his last days. He was bright student, who have seen his life in philosophical way. But some where he was escapist because he was the father of J. Adrian and he could have raised him as his son but he escaped from his responsibility by committing suicide, May be he was guilty for having relation with Sarah Ford , we don’t find any specific reason.

In the light of new revelations, how do you read character of Veronica? Instinctive, manipulative, calculating, stubborn, haughty, sacrificial, trustworthy, good Samaritan?

If we study each and every Character of the novel then veronica seems more practical and clever. In starting of the novel she was portrayed manipulative, stubborn instinctive but afterward we come to know that she has sacrificed her life behind someone else’s deed. She was time and again blamed by Tony and betrayed by her own mother and Boyfriend. She is raising her mentally retarded brother, who is the son of her boyfriend and mother, how pitiful! She doesn’t deserve this but then also she is taking burden of other’s wrong deed.

What do you mean by Unreliable Narrator? Is Tony Webster classifiable as Unreliable Narrator?

Tony is unreliable Narrator, within the text he breaks down; letter which he wrote to Adrian and Veronica is evidence of it, which reveal what actually was written in letter. When veronica returns that Letter back in the End. 

Thank you 

OD2017-18: Contemporary Debates and Mario Vargos Llosa

Contemporary Debates and Mario Vargos  Llosa

Liberalism simply means ‘freedom’. As Mario Vargos points in his talk concerning liberalism that “Liberalism defends some basic Ideas: Freedom, individualism, the rejection of collectivism and Nationalism- in other words, all the ideologies or doctrines that limit or annihilate freedom within Society”.
                                                        

LAUREN BACALL , the famous Hollywood star observed that “being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you are liberal. You do not have a small mind…I’m total, total, and total liberal and proud of it”. But today while liberalism thriving in Hollywood, lights are going out in Bollywood. Shahrukh khan, the once out spoken bearer of liberal discourse, has vowed to keep his opinion to himself and not comment on especially on political and religious issues, after blundering into too many controversies. “Unfortunately, because of the reaction I get when I answer something political or religious, I don’t think I will answer this question”, he told reporters when asked to comment on cancelation of Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai recently. Ditto Aamir khan, he too has gone uncharacteristically quiet after his last controversy coast him a lucrative advertising concert. (Suroor- Click here to read full article)

I do agree with his(Mario Vargos) second point as he mentioned that, “Nationalism involves a kind of Racism and Racism inevitably leads to Violence and the Suppression of Freedom”. By promoting one country or religion, you deliberately present yourself superior over other- “The not belonging group”. In between he makes a good point about literature that is, “literature and morality don’t get along. They are enemies and you have to respect literature if you believe in Freedom”.

We are living in digital era and because of social media sometimes (well, very often) reality of News gets violated. Very often we find news on social media like ‘so and so actor died’, we come to know that he/she is alive when they tweets. Same happened to me when I heard about Shree Devi’s death, I could not believe because many time I’ve came across these kinds of news about death of some stars which afterwards was proved wrong, though it was right in the case of Shree Devi. Fake news spreads very fast. We really can’t rely on one source and we have to go through some other sources to make sure whether the new is true or fake. 

Works Cited

Suroor, Hasan. "Death of Liberalism in Bollywood, The Tribune." February 10 2016. Tribune.com. Ed. Harish Khare. Indian english Daily.