Skype and Language Learning

[Mathias Bullerman]

Thought of this article when you mentioned that, hope it interests you.

http://www.indianweekender.co.nz/Pages/ArticleDetails/7/2413/New-Zealand/Learn-Spoken-Sanskrit-in-4-weeks

-Mathias

Quoting Daniel Hieber <dwhieb at GMAIL.COM>:

> Hi Phil,
>
> We use Skype all the time in our Endangered Language Program at Rosetta
> Stone and find it extremely useful. While we don't use it for language
> learning, per se, we do a lot of elicitation work with it. Unless you're
> doing phonetic analysis of a language, it's actually a really useful tool
> for long-distance elicitation.
>
> That said, I think Skype could be a really useful learning tool. My Navajo
> language experts, for example, have taught me a great deal about their
> language, almost entirely through Skype, and I've become marginally
> conversational. I think part of what helped is that, while we're talking,
> we're constantly looking at the same sets of pictures in Rosetta Stone.
> Having those pictures and lines of text as a reference is extremely helpful.
> My Navajo friends can make up sentences about the pictures, correct me when
> I say something wrong, and use pictures to illustrate subtle differences in
> the language. If we didn't have some common reference to look at, I think
> learning Navajo would have been much more difficult. So if someone is
> thinking about using Skype for language teaching, I say go for it! But try
> to incorporate other stimuli as well.
>
> The biggest problem we have with it is making sure that everyone has their
> headphones plugged in and using the right settings, etc. It can take 20
> minutes of fiddling, typing to each other, etc. before we're ready to go
> some days. And we've occasionally had problems with call quality when
> talking with people in northern Alaska.
>
> best,
>
> Danny
>
> On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 1:12 PM, Dale McCreery <mccreery at uvic.ca> wrote:
>
>> Hi All, I’ve done some learning over Skype and over the phone as well, and
>> while it works, it is definitely slower.  It’s something similar to the
>> effect of trying to footbag under a strobelight as compared to natural
>> lighting. Outside in the sun your reactions are full speed.  with
>> artificial lighting you can’t track moving objects as well, at least until
>> you get used to it.  With Skype I found that my learning was slowed down,
>> and I required far more repetitions to be sure I was hearing things.  Once
>> I became fairly competent it worked okay, but I know it would have taken a
>> lot longer to get to that point using Skype - even video chat with an
>> extremely good connection.
>>
>> dale
>>
>> > Hi, all. Phil, I can't really comment on using Skype to teach any
>> > languages, but I can comment on my own experience with the technology.
>> > At my school, we have a large international population. Sometimes,
>> > students or dissertation readers are unable to be physically present
>> > for meetings, so we use Skype. The delays and interferences can be
>> > troublesome at times, and they prevent us from understanding each
>> > other. One of our IT people said to use a direct link to our LAN, but
>> > that hasn't improved the quality of our communications using Skype.
>> >
>> > I'm perfectly willing to admit we're experiencing operator error here,
>> > though, as I'm the person who knows the most about using Skype ....
>> >
>> > Resa
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:04:53 -0700
>> >   Phillip E Cash Cash <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:
>> >> Greetings ILAT,
>> >>
>> >> How is your summer?  Just to encourage some discussion and interest,
>> >>I
>> >> want to ask if any of you are using Skype as an online medium for
>> >> learning and teaching an indigenous language.  If so please feel
>> >>free
>> >> to share your experience(s) here.  What might be the benefits and
>> >> challenges using this medium (including any online exchange sites
>> >>that
>> >> you might be using)?
>> >>
>> >> If there are any articles/citations/links that are relevant to this
>> >> discussion, please feel free to post these as well.
>> >>
>> >> Much thanks in advance,
>> >>
>> >> Phil Cash Cash
>> >> UofA
>> >
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Omnis habet sua dona dies.
>      ~ Martial
>



?athias ?ullerman
Lead Course Developer
Society to Advance Indigenous Vernaculars of the United States (SAIVUS)
webmaster at saivus.org