New Technologies help teach foreign language
Tiffany Atwood
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: News
SSU professor Julia Coll and some of her intermediate Spanish students presented a new way of learning foreign language in the classroom Thursday April 9, during The Celebration of Scholarship.
The presentation was based on a program called Skype which has been around for some time, but is just now being used in the foreign language department at SSU.
"Skype is a universal tool," Intermediate Spanish student Christine Moore said. "It isn't just basic chat. You can video chat, microphone chat, or just basic chat."
The students, along with Coll, showed how the program works by conversing with people from other countries by using the technology.
The program itself is similar to programs such as MSN or Yahoo Messenger.
The program is free, unless you decide to make a call through it, which then includes a nominal cost.
"The program was inexpensive," Coll said. "The only thing that really cost was the webcams."
The program has many features to it.
Coll explained that the program even lets the user run his or her own troubleshoot.
Coll had proposed the idea to the dean and the dean loved how enthusiastic she was about the concept.
"You can talk to real native speakers around the world," student Audra Smith said.
The program can be downloaded onto any computer and anyone who wanted to learn a foreign language would be able to get onto the computer and practice the language by talking to native speakers.
"It shows the flag and the time of the place where the person you are conversing with is," Moore said.
Moore showed the audience that in the United States the time was 2 p.m. but it was 8 p.m. in Spain, where the students were conversing with others using the program.
The program will be used in Coll's class to help students practice their verbal skill, including interacting with native-speaking participants rather than in a conventional classroom setting.
The presentation was based on a program called Skype which has been around for some time, but is just now being used in the foreign language department at SSU.
"Skype is a universal tool," Intermediate Spanish student Christine Moore said. "It isn't just basic chat. You can video chat, microphone chat, or just basic chat."
The students, along with Coll, showed how the program works by conversing with people from other countries by using the technology.
The program itself is similar to programs such as MSN or Yahoo Messenger.
The program is free, unless you decide to make a call through it, which then includes a nominal cost.
"The program was inexpensive," Coll said. "The only thing that really cost was the webcams."
The program has many features to it.
Coll explained that the program even lets the user run his or her own troubleshoot.
Coll had proposed the idea to the dean and the dean loved how enthusiastic she was about the concept.
"You can talk to real native speakers around the world," student Audra Smith said.
The program can be downloaded onto any computer and anyone who wanted to learn a foreign language would be able to get onto the computer and practice the language by talking to native speakers.
"It shows the flag and the time of the place where the person you are conversing with is," Moore said.
Moore showed the audience that in the United States the time was 2 p.m. but it was 8 p.m. in Spain, where the students were conversing with others using the program.
The program will be used in Coll's class to help students practice their verbal skill, including interacting with native-speaking participants rather than in a conventional classroom setting.
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