Students on the University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus have reason to be muy feliz and/or tout heureux.
That's Spanish and French for mightly pleased, and the reason is that on Friday afternoon, UVI will officially inaugurate its new foreign language computer laboratory, located in the Classroom-Administration Building on the airport side of the campus.
The facility, located within a new consolidated computer lab that opened last spring on the first floor of the building, can accommodate 20 students at a time. Formally known at the Foreign Language Interactive Fluency Lab, it's a state-of-the-art learning environment for students of Spanish and French, the language courses offered on the campus.
Foreign language study is a part of the general education requirements at the university, which means that all students must accumulate a specified number of credits in Spanish or French, no matter what their major. These students will be required to spend at least one hour a week in the lab with their instructor. In many instances, this will be Violeta Donovan, the modern language area coordinator within the Humanities Division.
Using the computers and interactive audio systems in the facility, "students will be able to improve their Spanish and/or French at their own pace," a UVI release states. The software allows students to listen to various native speakers and then compare their own pronunciation with that of the speakers.
The new lab was funded by federal Title III education money. The ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday is set for 4:30 p.m. in CA Building Room 101.
