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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Jan. 14, 1959
UN Comes to Life in Sound Rooms
AN OLD HAND-Helen Adler, Fredonia senior, dons earphones in the language sound rooms.
Miss Adler has taken 23 hours of German and French. She plans to take still more next semester, as well as audit Latin.
She recalled, however, that she has not always been proficient in the use of the equipment.
"I just watched the fellow next to me and did as he was doing the first time I used the equipment," she confided.
"I had a little trouble, though. The reels did not turn the right way. I just pounded on the recorder a little and fixed it," she said. She paused, laughed, and continued: "You know, I'm not sure the reels were supposed to go that way."
There is a suggestion box at the entrance of the Blake Hall Annex foreign language sound room. A sign above the box reads:
"Suggestions—The Sound Lab is here for your convenience. Please offer any suggestions, constructive criticism, etc., you may have on schedule operation, or otherwise."
Atmosphere Is Friendly
This is representative of the friendly, courteous policies of Mary L. Morris, sound room operator, and Howard C. Adams Jr., coordinator. Such attitudes make the use of the language sound rooms enjoyable for the students.
The sound rooms, dedicated November 23. 1957, were the University's answer to Russia's lead in foreign language instruction.
Since then, enrollment in language courses has risen sharply. Figures released by the department of Germanic languages show that 84 students are taking Russian as compared with 35 in the fall of 1987. The enrollment for all German courses is 506. There were 434 enrolled last fall.
530 Take Spanish
The department of Romance languages continues to have the heaviest enrollment of all foreign languages. Enrollment in all French courses is up 40 over last fall. Enrollment in Spanish totals 530. There are 27 students of Italian and 5 of Portuguese.
There are 75 taking languages in the department of Latin and Greek. Seven students are enrolled in Swedish.
The sound rooms, a labyrinth of booths, doors and glass-enclosed closets, are filled with electronic controls and recorders.
There are 75 tape recorders, 20 control-room recorders, 15 wire recorders, and a large recorder used only for professional recordings by departments and instructors.
From the control booth the sound rooms coordinator or a faculty member can operate 20 master recorders to play 20 separate tapes, and relay the sound to any of the 97 individual student recorders.
The student latens to the voice on the tape and repeats the phrases and sentences on his own recorder. He then plays back the tape and hears the expert's voice alternating with his own.
The former sound room was located in Fraser Hall, and had accommodations for 30 students, with 12 channels for record turntables, wire recorders, a voice circuit and a short wave radio.
Rooms are National
The illusion of a nation is given by each room. There is a French room, a Spanish room—and a room which doubles as a German and a Russian room. The senses are stimulated to accept the illusion. Colorful pictures and travel posters decorate the walls.
There are signs—and there are more signs. Come and read the signs:
Peru via Panagra.
Spain—land of dancing girls,
castles, and bull fighting.
Germany — Deutschland — Allemagne—land of Gothic steeples and the Volkswagen.
Wiesbaden — festive Spa and convention city.
Charts Aid Students
A chart shows Spanish vowel chanting patterns.
Discover a nation, the signs command.
The door to the German and Russian room is locked. The East Germans and Russians have lowered the Iron Curtain.
There is ingress through another door—a West Germany.
The control room—the United Nations—is filled with the controls which coordinate language activities of the students who use the sound rooms.
A WOMAN ALONE — Mary L. Morris, assistant instructor of Romance languages and a sound room operator, is the only woman who works in the prism-shaped, glassed-in control room.
"I play the tape, the student listens and responds," she said. "He then plays the tapes back and hears both his own voice and that on the master tape.
"Tapes break, machines fly, and if you punch the wrong button, you erase half a tape. Then, nerves fly," she said.
"But I enjoy the work," she added.
"Since students started preparing for examinations, our business has picked up considerably over here," she said.
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