International definition of language lab

Answer 1

I have seached it from the en.wikipedia.org, and I think the international definition may be this: the language laboratory is an audio or audio-visual installation used as an aid in modern language teaching. They can be found, amongst other places, in schools, universities and academies. Perhaps the first lab was at the University of Grenoble. In the 1950s up until the 1990s, they were tape based systems using reel to reel or (latterly) cassette. Current installations are generally multimedia PCs. The demise of the traditional language laboratory came in the 1980s, with the falling out of favour of the audio-lingual method commonly in place in 1960s teaching methodology, and the expensive repairs needed to the open reel tape machines resulting from student misuse, neglect, wear and tear etc. Many schools transformed their old language labs into computer suites. However, the advent of affordable multimedia capable PCs in the late 1990s led to a resurgence and transformation of the language laboratory with software and hard drives in place of reels of analogue tape. However, it would appear that these are not immune from problems; emulating the connection style of the traditional tape lab by networking PCs caused problems, due to the way audio was handled in full audio active comparative usage.