TGIF: Monty Python in a Language Lab October 2, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.trackback
When I was studying languages in college we had to spend lots of time in the language lab, which facilitated the learning of languages using headphones and cassette tapes. After listening to the tapes we were supposed to repeat what was said. This was apparently supposed to help eliminate accents when speaking in the foreign language. Things could get a little crazy in the language lab, since so many different languages were spoken at the same time. You really needed those headphones to concentrate. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to work as a language lab assistant. My head hurts just thinking about it. I’m sure things have changed since then (kids probably download MP3s to their MP3 players), but I thought some of you might appreciate this little throw-back to the days of styrofoam walls and bulky headphones – and who doesn’t love Monty Python?
Musings from an overworked translator 
Brilliant Jill, as an ESL teacher I can tell you that fluency as opposed to accuracy is certainly more emphasised these days. But I do wish we did something more for accent correction. It’s really hard to unless you go back to drilling, this, or other unpopular and ‘outdated’ methods..
Great vid!
Nic at CrossLingo
.___.
As a translation student… there are some phones in the labs. Just a few teachers use them, but when we worked with them (phonetics) I had a great time 😉
now the old-style phones just spend their days in the labs being part of the decoration .___.
and I know my english is bad… (bat it cood b wost)
Have a good time! ^^