This study was conducted in order to better understand how, if at all, language centers (LCs) are relevant in current technological and methodological contexts of second language education. Five language centers housed by four different institutions of higher education in the western United States were examined. Two representatives from each of…

Autonomy in language learning is for many language centres in higher education a pedagogical goal. However, although autonomy is a concept that has been associated with language learning for almost 40 years, both the understanding of that concept and its implementation in classroom-settings and in self-access language centres vary considerably. In…

At the start of 2000 a new scenario emerged in Europe thanks to the Council of Europe and the European Commission who, in support of the Bologna Process (1999), laid the foundations for disseminating the value of multilingualism and multiculturalism. The aim was to create a framework of actions to make citizens more aware of respecting diversity…

This report will discuss the process of evaluation for development in a collaborative project that integrated teaching between the Language Centre and the Law School at the University of Eastern Finland. The focus of this report will be on a model the authors devised for the purposes of developing teaching, called "E.A.S.Y,"…

This volume presents a systematic approach to developing advanced English language competence at tertiary level. It includes the reflections of experienced language teachers and teacher-researchers in the English Language Competence programme at the University of Vienna and provides examples of good practice, amalgamating teaching expertise and…

With the advent of web 2.0 and the ease of use of many hand-held devices, access to the internet has never been easier. This has been accompanied by a growing range of sites available for learning an L2. These sites offer lessons, explanations, exercises, corrections and feedback. It now becomes time once again to question whether physical bricks…

In this paper, we explore how language centres can and need to seize the initiative in matters of internationalisation, language policy and supporting a multilingual and multicultural institutional environment. We identify and explore a number of challenges and opportunities, using the situation in the United Kingdom as our example, demonstrating…

Language laboratories, developed in the 1970s under the influence of the Audiolingual Method, were superseded several decades later by computer-assisted language learning (CALL) work stations (Gündüz, 2005). The World Wide Web was developed shortly thereafter. From this introduction and the well-documented and staggering growth of the Internet and…

This article explores the configuration of a university foreign language lab given the dramatic changes in the last decade with regard to digital recording technology and the web as a basis for social networking. Resources and procedures are described for completing class assignments, making content available, carrying out assessment, including…

Self-access and language advising are relatively recent and increasingly common types of language support offered in schools and tertiary institutions around the world. There is a great deal of anecdotal support for the positive contribution of such support to student learning. Self-access and language advising hold strong potential as…

This paper reports on the development of a self-access center (SAC) within a university context, and focuses on the kind of support mechanisms provided to learners to enhance their self-directed learning (SDL) skills. After providing background information on the center and its counseling service, the paper shows how changes in the university…

This article describes an experiment conducted at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Romance Languages with first-year students. It was concluded that the language laboratory could best be employed to improve aural comprehension and to permit a more direct approach to contemporary French civilization. (Text is in French.) (Author/POP)

Describes the "natural language lab" that was responsible for the author's learning English and other languages. States that the lab provided the experience of real and meaningful interactions with native speakers of the language, which is crucially needed for successful second-language acquisition. (PRA)

Shows how the language laboratory can become a primary point of convergence for the foreign language department. Discusses how the language laboratory at one college gained momentum as a support for collaborative learning, curricular reform, and study abroad, resulting in greater visibility for the foreign language department on campus and…

Presents a survey and case studies that demonstrate that cooperation within institutions of higher learning is worth the effort in increased efficiency. Some steps the language media center can take to develop cooperation with other media units on campus include developing an informal network of relationships with other media unit directors and…