Chapter 28 AUDIO TUTORIAL SYSTEM, LANGUAGE LABORATORY AND TELECONFERENCING

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• AUDIO-TUTORIAL SYSTEM
• LANGUAGE LABORATORY
• TELECONFERENCING

______________________________________________________________________________

                                     
                  Audio-tutorial system The audio-tutorial system owed its origin to the ideas propagated by the Postlethwait in year 1961. Initially he used it for overcoming the learning deficiencies related to the teaching learning of a particular subject but latter on he developed a weakly learning kit in the shape of an audio-tutorial programmer for enabling the students to do the full range of the study for a week without attending any of the formal session for the course.


 Definition

       Audio-tutorial system stands for a system teaching-learning strategy in which well planned instruction carrying appropriate learning experiences and specially assigned activities are provided to the learners on the audio tapes for being followed by them according to their own pace and requirements within a specific duration of time occasional helped by an instructor available on the study center with an eye of achieving maximum teaching-learning output . 



Necessary Ingredients of the audio-tutorial approach

      According to Postlethwait and his associates (1972), the following are the major ingredients for adopting the audio-tutorial approach in a given teaching-learning situation:
 
1. Repetition
2. Concentration 
3. association, in the form of a coherently structured system
 4. the use of units adapting to the individual student needs 
5.provision of appropriate experience relevant to the course objectives
 Study Session
 There are three basic study session usually associated with the teaching-learning carried out in an audio-tutorial system
 1. Independent study session (ISS) In this session, the instructional related to the course units (lying on the audiotapes) are followed by the learners as a part of their independent study in the learning/study centers.
 2 General assembly session (GAS) this session is open for all the students associated with the teaching-learning of the week's work unit of learning course.
 3. Small assembly session (SAS) A group of 7 or 8 student assembled in the study center regularly for interaction with them selves and also with the course instruction is known by the term small assembly session.


 Advantage and merits


 A numbers of researchers have tested the utility and effectiveness of audio-tutorial system as a method of instructions. In the light of the findings of these studies. we may summarize the utility and merits of this system in the following way:

 1. The audio-tutorial system is no less effective than the usual classroom instruction provided through the lecture method. 
2. It can help the learners work independently and proceed on the path of learning on their own pace. 
3. It proves a better means of providing learner-base and individually tailored education through the distance education mode
 4. It suits the ability and needs of all types of learners-low and average students-and may also help the brighter students move more rapidly through the course. 
5. Economically also, this system is more advantageous to both the students and the classroom teaching educational authorities in comparison yo the conventional mode of classroom teaching 

Demerits and limitation
1. The instruction provided through the audio- tutorial system rest on the utilization of only one sense, i.e the sense OD hearing.
 2 The freedom provide to the learners for learning with their own pace through their interaction with the lesson or instruction carried out in the audio-types may prove costly to the children who are less conscious of their responsibilities are not habitual to independent study.
 3. This system needs the service of the properly maintained study centers and capable instruction quite conscious of their role.
 4.The sit-up cost for running the audio-tutorial system, especially at the initial stage are quite high and sometimes many years may take for the proper realization of the cost advantage.

Teleconferencing

What is Teleconferencing

               Teleconferencing stands for the conferencing made possible among the participants even by remaining at a large distance from each other. As we known, face to face (FTF) interaction is the traditional standard for holding conferences (interactive group communication). However holding of such conferences become a tedious task when the people involved with this conferences are located at a long distance. The time, money and energy spent in bringing people together for these conferences create numerous problems. The alternative lies in changing of conferencing can be defined as an interactive group communication or real time interaction between two or more people in two or more locations through an electronic medium. On Account of the use of a sophisticated electronic medium for communication, teleconferencing may bring people together under one roof even though they are separated by thousands of miles for the exchange of information and opinion. Historically speaking teleconferencing was first introduced in the 1960s with American Telephone and Telegraphs picture phone. Today, it vast potentiality on account of the great advances made in the field of communication through modern hardware and software technologies.

Language laboratory

 What is a language laboratory

                 Language laboratory stands for inducing laboratory-like learning and training condition in a specified room (named as Language room or language laboratory) of the school help students to gaining proficiency regarding the learning of a new language.


Why we need a language laboratory

                    Skills, as we know, can only be developed in the children in the proper demonstration, observation , practice and drill work as well as experimentation under the guidance of a person well-versed In that language and capable of providing adequate training. The task of development of skills them can only be carried out in laboratory- like controlled observational and experimental condition.

Types of language laboratories and their functioning Generally

                We can divide the prevalent language laboratory system into the following five types according to their levels of operation: 
Level I: A type, i.e Audio system. 
Level II: AA TYPE I.E. Audio-active system. facilities are provides to the students sitting their booths not only for listening of audio programmers or massage transmitted for being listened by the teachers or recorded in the tape recorder kept in the teachers console.
 Level III: AAC , I.E . Audio-active comparative system. Provide improve technological system in the comparison to the level II AA type system. 
Level IV: AACC , I.E . Audio-active comparative with controls system. Suppresses the level III AAC system on the ground that it provides adequate provision of controlling function on the part of the teacher. 
Level IV: AACI Represent a computer-base interactive language laboratory system. 

How language laboratory system operated 

         The operation of a language system depends upon the type of laboratory system stalled in your situation.
 
 LEVEL II While using this AA language laboratory system, the beginning can be made by loading a cassette tape or audio CD, containing the language lesson material for the day, into the console cassette recorder or the audio CD player.
 LEVEL III this language laboratory system operation is identical to level ii except in the students record/reproduce (the day’s language lesson on the master track and the student responses on the student).

Uses and Applications

In terms of learning or understanding a new language, a language laboratory can play the following roles :

1.     1.)   It can help in the proper acquisition and mastery over the four basics skill of a language, namely listening or hearing, speaking, reading and writing through their phase-to-phase acquisition. In the beginning, it lays total emphasis over spoken language and then proceeds for the development of written expression.

2.       2.) It may help specially in enabling the students to have a mastery over the sound ,the essential art of listening , proper grasping band understanding the meaning of the words, sentences and their conveying or expressing through proper sounds symbols or native speaker of that particular language,

3.     3.) Apart from developing the linguistics abilities for successful communication, the language laboratories may be utilized for carrying out constructive and creative activities helpful in the overall learning of other curricular subjects or enriching the personality development of children. A few of such possible activities are mentioned here :

(i)                  The students may record their own statement or critical analysis of a topic on tape. The topics so dealt must be of free choice or specified by the teacher and should not be a repetition of the previously prepared speech

(ii)                Them may study individually one of a series of similar calendar or magazine pictures (pets, car, landscapes ,etc.)

(iii)               They may build or make may build or make something based on taped instruction ( toy horse , air paper planes, an improvised apparatus , etc.. )

 

Basic Types of Teleconferencing

Today teleconferencing is prevalent in many ways. Its three basic types are:

1. Audio conferencing

2. Video Conferencing

3. Computer Conferencing

Audio Conferencing

 It is nothing but a natural extension of the person-to-person telephone call for enabling communication and conversation among more than two persons at a time.

Video Conferencing

It helps communicate both orally and with face-to-face dialogue by making use of television and audio system. Here, we can listen and view the faces and actions of the people interaction with us in conferencing.

Computer Conferencing

It helps the participants communicate with each other by making use of computer technology. Here we can communicate text and graphics to participants who may access it with the help of own personal computers. We can also view the faces and actions of the people under conversation through web cameras. Computer conferencing has an extra advantage as it permits people to participate  at the different times according to their convenience.