One of the greatest challenges in foreign language teaching is finding native speakers for students to practice with outside of class. Arranging study abroad, language tables, and visiting local ethnic neighborhoods are some of the ways instructors currently attempt to broaden the cultural and linguistic experiences of their students. However, the costs associated with these activities often present a burden to students and their parents, and it is often difficult to find local speakers or communities using the target language.
Social networking sites (like MySpace and Facebook) and metaverses (like Second Life) now offer students additional opportunities to find international friends and practice their language proficiency Online. In addition to finding international pen pals to correspond with through Web chat or text messaging, the integration of VoIP technologies into these environments enables students to practice their oral/aural skills and to better understand the regional differences in language usage, accents, cadence, and other linguistic variants.
A MySpace page dedicated to Romance Language speakers.
Scenario 1: A Facebook page is created by a French language teacher in the U.S. for his/her class and linked to a similar page created by an English teacher in France. Through a series of moderated activities or even through informal chat sessions, the two student groups take turns practicing the two languages.
Scenario 2: A German language teacher purchases a plot of land in Second Life and creates a virtual classroom, inviting any Deutch-speaking avatars to meet and practice their language skills. Instructors, Teaching Fellows or other native speakers could volunteer to monitor the space and help correct grammar or pronunciation errors.
These technologies could generate new forms of peer instruction for language learners, innovative pedagogical approaches for foreign language study, and enrich the study abroad experiences of students (who could look forward to visiting their “virtual classmates” while exploring a new culture).
