The new building for Language Education Center will be opened on Oct. 30th. The 5-story building, with one underground floor, is located right behind the Information Computing Institute and cost about 3.4 billion won (approximately US$ 2.9 million) to construct. Construction began in May 2002. The new building is a state-of-the-art language education center accommodating seminar rooms, fifteen classrooms, two CBT (Computer-Based TOEFL) test rooms, a video room, an audio lab, the PhonePass room as well as a library. Its auditorium can accommodate more than a hundred people. The new facility adds 3,872 square meters of floor space to the Center, which has offered specialized foreign language programs for the CNU students and the people in the community from elementary school students to adults. The Language Education Center provides a wide variety of language services to the University and local community. These include foreign language courses, language proficiency assessments, academic seminars, and research journal publications such as the LEC Language Journal and other books related to the field of language studies. Foreign language programs have four different language courses; English, Japanese, Chinese, and French. The Center also provides Korean classes for the foreigners in the community. The LEC
s outstanding programs and qualified instructors have attracted more people. The new facility is critically needed due to its outworn equipments and limited areas, compared to the marked increase in student volume at the Center in recent years. Upon completion, the classes for college students and adults will be given at the new building and the existing building will be used for elementary English programs. The LEC plans to expand its educational programs to meet the needs of learners and continue to develop various language programs through research activities.