Digital English Language Laboratory: Roles, Challenges and Scopes for the Future Development in India

Abstract

Digital English Language Laboratory has evolved in the last few decades across the world as an essential tool to learn English. The learners are facilitated to master the fundamental English communication skills with the help of multimedia-infused visual, aural, audio-visual, and verbal communication devices. All the language learning tools are supposed to be developed to cater to the language learners of varying learning styles. Besides, research has shown that brain-wiring varies across cultures, socioeconomic conditions, and genders; the learning styles of individuals vary accordingly. This paper concerns to problematize the digital pedagogy of digital language laboratory to learn English and aims to ask the following questions: (1) Is the digital English language laboratory effective to facilitate language learners with varying and complex learning style and pace? (2) Is the self-directed, learner-autonomy-based digital language laboratory advantageous to the non-native English language learners of India? (3) What are the scopes for the future development of the digital English language laboratory in India? This paper intends to adopt the exploratory qualitative research method. The collected data will be thoroughly analysed and prospective recommendations will be provided at the end.