The Use of Skype as a Synchronous Communication Tool Between Foreign Language College Students and Native Speakers

Main Article Content

Mario Guerrero

Abstract

The rapid growth and interest of college students in Computer Mediated Communication and social media have impacted the second language learning and teaching process. This article reports on a pilot project that attempts to analyze the use of Skype as a synchronous communication tool in regard to the attitudes of students in learning a foreign language when interacting with native speakers and engaging in conversation. The participants are Spanish foreign language students at Fordham University in New York City and English foreign language speakers at a Jesuit university in Bogotá, Colombia. Students were paired up and required to set up online conversation meetings. The results of the pedagogical experience of this pilot project suggest that students felt more interested in engaging in conversation with native speakers and exchanging personal and academic information as well as other aspects of their culture using the target language rather than completing language laboratory activities or writing compositions.

Article Details

How to Cite
Guerrero, M. (2012). The Use of Skype as a Synchronous Communication Tool Between Foreign Language College Students and Native Speakers. HOW, 19(1), 33–47. Retrieved from https://www.howjournalcolombia.org/index.php/how/article/view/36
Section
Research Reports
Author Biography

Mario Guerrero, Fordham University

Mario Guerrero holds a B.A. in Language Teaching from the University of Nariño in Pasto, Colombia, and a Masters of Science in Education from Fordham University in New York City. He has wide experience working with immigrants and refugees at the Mayor’s Office of Adult Education in the City of New York serving as the Senior Administrative Intern of an English Program. Additionally, he has taught several English as a Second Language courses at the New Americans Initiative Department at the YMCA of Greater New York and English as Foreign Language in Colombia. At a college level, he has performed as a Spanish Instructor in different American universities where he has started different technology-based projects with his students. His research interests include technology-based learning processes, acculturation, and diversity.

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