Virtual Language lab

We are designing the next generation language lab and would appreciate
feedback and suggestions for what we should include as essential
components.  To minimise costs and technical support it will be web based or
delivered as a streamed application to make installation as simple as
possible.  It is envisaged that resources will also be shareable and
available by subscription with authors being able share income.

We envisage that other organisations and companies will be able to create
plug-ins e.g. for assessment, quizzes.  It will be Unicode so that it can be
used for any language to any other language and this next generation will
also enable resources to be edited and localised by teachers and
instructors.

Because such a language lab should be available to all levels of ability and
in all parts of the world it should be modular and be, as far as possible,
open source. Cost should not be a limiting factor so that it can just as
easily be used in an elementary school as in a university or corporate
training environment, be it for widely-taught, less commonly-taught or
endangered languages.

It should also encourage publishers to create compatible versions of their
products to avoid the problems caused by proprietary software.

The technology is now available to create such a language lab that will not
be outdated by new technical developments.  We cannot develop this on our
own and are in the process of submitting a 'KICKSTARTER' project for the
first stage of development.  We will incorporate your valid and viable
suggestions in our development proposition. Your support in this would be
appreciated.

Background:  We are principally developers of language learning resources
harnessing technology as appropriate.  One example of this is our work on
Chinese, www.ulearnchinese.eu,  where I have also been involved in the new
EU benchmarking project for Chinese language, www.ebcl.eu.com.  We also have
significant expertise in our team in the use of technology to aid language
acquisition and accuracy of pronunciation.  The three versions of our
current language lab, www.soundbooth.eu,  the first level of which is free,
and Lesson Builder, which is used to create content,  indicate the approach
and functionality of our initial products.



Regards



<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Kate Hammond

Director of Languages

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www.soundbooth.eu    Tel +44 (0)5603 457145

Soundbooth is a trading name of theswitchboard.eu.

Spinney Holford Bridgwater Somerset TA5 1RZ UK