About us
The computer-based Foreign Language Media Services (FLMS) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham enables Foreign Language students, Foreign Language (FL) faculty and community users outside UAB to access and utilize foreign target languages and cultures in a digital environment in order to provide multi-dimensional learning and research opportunities. Therefore, FLMS plays an integral role in the activities and services of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at UAB and also serves as a support center for the whole university.
Given the emerging trends in and beyond the foreign language and culture discipline, foreign language learning will no longer occur in isolated classrooms; rather, it will be part of a greater network of access to the world outside the traditional educational environment. As a result of this, at the century's end, our instructional and research shift will be from relative independence to interdependence.
FLMS functions as a clearing house for translation services and other language-related correspondence often required by the medical community, elicited from business, and utilized in the humanities. FLMS staff serves as a liaison between faculty in individual languages at UAB, and helps facilitate the interdisciplinary global connectivity of the humanities, the sciences and business.
FLMS enables the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at UAB to respond to the information and telecommunication revolution, the demand for additional, less commonly taught languages, the requirements for a wider range of tasks being performed in the languages, more and varied language learners.
In detail, FLMS performs the following functions as a fully integrated digital Media Lab Environment by:
• Facilitating the infrastructure for the diverse needs of students, faculty and staff as well as other users at UAB. FLMS gives easy access to the technological means for effective learning, teaching, research and community service through a variety of (digital) media
• Providing user-friendly and student-centered learning resources, including audio tapes, videos, satellite television, networked software, Internet, electronic infotainment and portable classroom tools
• Functioning as a digital resource, reference and research center for teachers, students and student teachers in particular
• Developing and coordinating the use of technology in Foreign Language Learning (FLL) and serving as an interface between the Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literatures and other UAB departments and institutions in order to implement, expand and manage the use of various media in FLL
• Streamlining, advising, assessing, proficiency testing and technology training
• Providing computational services for the virtual presence of the Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literatures and serving as a liaison between the FL faculty and other computing facilities at UAB
• Assessing the effectiveness of new hard- and software for faculty use in all areas of traditional as well as digital Foreign Language Learning
• Developing and coordinating the modernization of existing equipment in the Department
• Training and instructing faculty, staff and students in the use of lab equipment and assisting the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at UAB in its use of existing (local area) networks
• Producing manuals and support material for FLMS users in research and teaching
• Supporting the community involvement in UAB through technological resources, and, last but not least,
providing expert technological management in both daily operations and maintenance.
