SALC coordinator Jan Lefebvre helps students select appropriate software and video materials.

May I come in?" It is not quite time for the center to open when the first student arrives. The room quickly fills, with some people sitting together in front of computer screens and others alone. On one side of the room, a student looks through the shelves of videocassettes before making her selection. On the other, a teacher recommends software to one inquiring student while another asks to use the tape recorder to make a recording for class. From three locations, TV screens display closed captioned movies or CNN news.

Within five minutes of opening, two names already appear on the waiting list, and the Self Access Learning Center (SALC) has become a hub of communication and learning.

What used to be just a reading lab--a classroom with nothing more than a few magazines, some graded reading materials and books on cassette, and an occasional timed-reading text--in recent months has become this "great extension of the ESL classroom" filled with the latest technology.

There are, in fact, eight Pentium multimedia computers for students to use. Another similar PC is kept open for the instructor's use. From there, the instructor can control the student computers if desired. Much can be accessed from these PCs--word processing software, the Internet, e-mail accounts and other sources of information. These are among the most popular uses of the SALC.

In addition, the center is stocked with software on diskette and CD-ROM which is designed to develop a variety of language skills--listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, reading and grammar--at multiple levels. Increasingly, ELI faculty are sending their students to the SALC with software recommendations to target specific skills.

"I feel very comfortable at this center," said intermediate level student Rikako Tanaka, shyly. "The teacher is so friendly. I could not use the computer well, but the instructor showed me so kindly."

Lead instructor Jan Lefebvre estimates that 50 students spend an average of an hour daily at the center, which is open every weekday afternoon. She is assisted by tutor Suzanne Stadnicki.

Jose Apostolico, an advanced business ESL student, recently frequented the SALC for two or more hours daily, using word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software to do his homework. "The greatest advantage of this center," he said, "is a teacher is always available to answer any questions--about computers, about word processing and especially about English."

ELI students take their studies into cyberspace in the Self-Access Learning Center.