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[ouyang]

One of language labs at my university in china has a networked computer for the teacher and one monitor for each pair of students to view. There are no keyboards or computers for the students. I teach oral english in the language lab below.

The hardware and software are produced by http://www.gzlange.com. The website like the instruction manual is written only in chinese, however, an english user interface to the software appeared after the IT people upgraded the classroom computer's OS to Windows XP.

There's a large database of learning materials and exams on the computer created by GZLANGE using british speakers. My experience with it is limited to using two of the listening exams and creating my own little multiple choice quiz about a popular pop song.

Each student has a keypad that itself has a smal lcd screen which displays questions and lets students to select up to 10 different choices. I've also had them use their keypads to vote on which song they wanted to "study".

I've never had a discussion with anyone here about the contents of the learning materials. Chinese teachers don't discuss things like that. Finding someone to tell me how to group students in closed and open pairs took almost a month. I eventually called a company representative on my cell phone and had one of my students talk to him. It took another month for the IT staff to correctly reconfigure the keypad display after I pointed out to them that the wrong drivers had been installed, making it useless.

I actually taught in a similar facility last year. I like using powerpoint for introducing vocabulary with images. I sometimes use online resources. The shared computer screen also eliminates the need for handouts, which we teachers must pay for ourselves here. But the best thing about the facility is that each student has headphones and a microphone, which makes teaching a large class feasible for me.

I really don't know how other teachers are able to physically monitor the speech of their students in the back of classrooms that are packed with over 50 students. I would have to slide over the top of their desks or exit the room and re-enter in the rear entrance, if I wanted to hear students in the back of typical classrooms here. I also teach writing classes in these standard classrooms.

Most of my girl students never raise their voices above a whisper. Asking them to speak louder rarely results in an increase in volume. Interesting and funny images along with mp3s are the only things that keep many of the male students awake. Turning on their microphones for everyone to hear and asking them questions is my prefered method to wake up the ones that do go to sleep.

[Nauczyciel]

A useful thread indeed!

[moonraven]

And who contributed to it?

The Usual Suspects. Not you!