HUMANISING MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Modern language-lab management software provides an increasingly sophisticated range of functions that appear to have been designed to change or supposedly improve certain aspects of traditional classroom language teaching. However, using management software in a way that regularly puts a computer between the teacher and student may create an unnatural or unnecessary ‘electronic go-between’ in the dynamics of traditional teacher-student interaction. Human communication contains many rich visual cues that have always been an important part of the learning experience, and it is this age-old ‘human to human’ learning experience that should remain vitally important in the language lab.