The School of Language Studies

 

The school of Language Studies at Ealing is one of the largest specialist language centres in Britain. The School has 50 full-time lecturers supported by 12 foreign language assistants (4 each for French, Spanish and German) and a large number of well-established part-time lecturers. In addition, a further 12 language lecturers are based in other schools of the College.

The College was the first public sector institution in the country to install a language laboratory and since then language teaching facilities have expanded to keep pace with the growth of language teaching at Ealing and with the requirements of rapidly evolving teaching methodology. Today the School has six modern language laboratories, arecording studio equipped to professional standards (most lecturers make their own teaching materials) and has access to the College's television studio and video recording and playback facilities. Direct television broadcast by satellite are received via the dish aerial located at Grove House, the School's modern premises near Ealing Broadway Centre. In 1985 the School was designated a National Centre for Computer Assisted Language Learning and was given a grant of 75,000 pounds to establish a software library and to develop software for use in language teaching and learning. The School has a 20 position microcomputer room with all necessary back-up facilities including the services of a programmer.

 

5. At the "Tech"

 

The young people who become students at colleges of technology (called "techs") come from an amazing variety of secondary schools at different ages between 15 and 17 years. Some of them are the adventurous ones who left school early and prefer to study in the freer atmosphere of a "tech," others are those who feel they do not fit into the school world any longer and want to get away, or those who have been sent away by the school authorities as nuisances. A few of them, a little older in years, are returning to full-time education after a time in industry, because they are hoping to gain a place in a university or in some other professional course of study.

In the last year or so there have been more and more students who are able to study to take an "external" degree (BA or BSc) or a university diploma in a series of subjects.

"External" means that you take a university degree without actually attending a university. Higher education in all its forms has been expanding rapidly in England and nowhere more suddenly than in the colleges of technology. These now have the widest possible range of subjects for study and immense resources of staff and equipment.

The lectures are each an hour long, starting at 9.15 in the morning and ending at 4.45 in the afternoon. There are also evening classes, and in between the students all mix to discuss their own special interests and to exchange ideas. In the canteen, for instance, we can hear the Arts students discussing the basic design of part of the building science, so that there is really no separation of the students into "the Arts" and "the Sciences."

 

Oxford

 

Oxford is like London: it is international, it is very old and it has great charm. It is also a town that grew up near the river Thames.

Oxford is international because people from many parts of the world come to study at its university. They come to study at one of the twenty-seven men's colleges or at one of the five women's colleges that are the university: they join the university "family" that has more than 9,000 members.

Oxford is old and historical. It has existed since 912. The university was established in 1249. The oldest of the twenty-seven men's colleges is University College.

You can see the charm of Oxford in the green fields and parks which surround the city and you can see it in the lawns and gardens which surround the colleges. You can see the charm of Oxford in the river Thames and its streams which pass near the city. Do you know that the name Oxford means the part of the river Thames where the oxen (cattle) forded (crossed)?