Teacher-Led Inquiry and the Interactive Multimedia Foreign Language Lab

An Illustrative Example

Abstract

This paper aims at sharing with different constituencies involved
with the use of the multimedia language lab the experiences of a foreign
language instructor who found this setting to have significant
applications well beyond her expectations. In addition to its many
benefits often cited in the literature, she found the lab an effective
means for investigating the learning of her own students. Based on
the practical example of a study on the learning of the Italian subjunctive
mood conducted by the author in an Intermediate-! level
class, the paper stresses how multimedia labs can also be an effective
means for teacher-led inquiry and self-reflection, two areas which
have become increasingly important in foreign language teaching,
yet are insufficiently researched in our field.