This website, maintained by RosettaStone, offers free language exchange for language learners, putting them in contact with native speakers and learners alike. The site is easy and secure and once you have created a profile, you can choose from various language exchange options from e-mail and chat exchanges to video chat. I like that the site is monitored so that the users are really only allowed to share ideas in the target language, as opposed to using the site for help with homework or using it as a personal dating site.
Although most of these resources are best used by students individually, for classroom use, a teacher could assign the students to document one or two hours of chatting per week or even have them present to the class about some topics they discussed in chatting with native speakers and other learners.
Students could also keep audio journals that document their progress. This website offers good advice on recording your voice to make podcasts. They provide a list of free software that can be easily downloaded to record your voice on your computer. Using voice recordings could really be fun in the classroom, as students could make blogs to keep up with over the course of the semester or year in which they can express what they have learned and present their podcasts to share with others. Voice recordings could also be used to involve students more in the classroom. The teacher could have the students create their own listening activities in groups for the rest of the class. If doing this, it’s probably a good idea to work with the students individually during office hours to make sure what they have chosen is appropriate and presented coherently. The possibilities of incorporating this sort of technology in the classroom are limitless.
