Why a new language lab?

All of us want our children to experience a world with no boundaries and to succeed in an expanding global marketplace. The best tool to make it happen is fluency in a foreign language and an appreciation of world cultures. Learning world languages opens doors—and opens minds.

At Lab, language study begins in the third grade and continues throughout a student's education and, we hope, throughout his or her life. While our enthusiasm for language and linguistics stands at the forefront of the national trends, our technology for teaching it is dated at best. Changes in language learning pedagogies, plus the emergence of digital learning technologies make it necessary for Lab to update its analog system and allow our school and our children to be competitive in today's world.

The new digital language lab will:

• Provide dedicated space for students and faculty to explore the latest instructional technologies for language teaching and learning.
• Increase students' contact time with the target language.
• Give individualized feedback on pronunciation and comprehension.
• Design a space where students can create, speak, socialize, and even sing in their target language without being disruptive to or distracted by others.
• Be a teaching space as well as a drop-in resource center for teachers and students.

Through a wired network, Lab students will have access to:

• Authentic language from native speakers,
• Desktop videoconferencing tools (iChat DV, Skype),
• Student audio and video recordings,
• Media-intensive collaborative projects (iMovies, Powerpoint with audio/video, Podcasts, etc.).

The proceeds from Connections 2006 are critical for the completion of the new digital language lab. With every parent's support, we can keep our school at the forefront of education, and our children will continue to be among the best educated in the nation.