Using Skype to Practice a Second Language

I've continued to play with the Skype software and I've run across a phenomenon that I hadn't really thought about, but which looks very promising.

I was looking at a couple of Skype groups on Orkut, and along-side the usual general group (which seems to be dominated entirely by Portuguese-speaking Brazilians on the message board) there is also a Skype Language Practice group. The idea is that you post your name and your Skype ID, and your native language and if you are looking to learn a language, the language you wish to practice.

It seems to work out that you have simple voice conversations with someone and you can help them practice speaking and back-and-forth of language. Something you don't get to do much of in the usual language courses, where you are speaking with classmates or a teacher who is dividing his / her time over the whole class. Talking to other classmates is not often desirable, either, because of the temptation to drop back into your native language instead of doing the useful exercise of trying to describe the word you are looking for to the other person.

I'm working on language instruction software, so I'm becoming interested in the way people learn to speak a language. The usual routine of studying, assignments and tests is even poorer for teaching language than it is for teaching other subjects. (No one learned to be a good programmer while attending university lectures.)

By connecting people together Orkut has finally become useful as a social networking tool, and the users get to act simultaneously as students and teachers, since everyone has a native language that someone else might be trying to learn. So the give-and-take between users helps keep the system going, and isn't relying on a couple of generous people with a lot of time and patience the way something like a tech support forum or Linux users' group does.

This use was also not one that the Skype people thought of, as they look to get into the voice-over-IP business and to grab a chunk of the IM market.

Things that grow up by themselves, and aren't just another cash grab, and is for the purpose of spreading knowledge is always very inspiring, and reminds me why the internet is different from every other communication medium.