Language laboratories: A place for students to shut up and listen

Listening and reading are private isolated skills. Speaking on the other hand is a public interactive skill. Psychologically speaking, the language laboratory which isolates students is compatible with the teaching of listening and reading, but it is incompatible with the teaching of speaking. Speaking in an isolated language laboratory booth is similar to "talking to oneself"--a psychologically uncomfortable state for most people. Listening, on the other hand, is private and often done in isolation in non-language learning situations such as listening to the radio, television, or even the movies. It is argued that if we want to consider the language laboratory our tool rather than our master, we should imaginatively search for ways to teach the receptive skills of listening and reading in the laboratory, and reduce if not eliminate the emphasis and focus on speaking. AA