On SUnday night I was privileged enough to be asked to join a Skype conference call including various people from the UK and the USA, hosted by Language Lab Unleashed. Its goal was to discuss what role Skype can potentially play in teaching, and in particular that of MFL.
Language teaching is constantly looking for new ways to provide purpose and authentic forms of communication, and Skype seems to immediately offer this. However, I know from experience that talking on the phone is one of the hardest forms of communication for anyone who is learning a language as you are stripped of the reassuring powers of body language and expression. Nonetheless, the chat (texting) option means that pupils can clarify their vocal elements through the written word.
Skype currently comes with a bad reputation, with many LEAs having banned it from networks. If Skype, in my opinion, is to be the huge success which it has the potential to be, then it needs to hit a mass-market, as much as anything else to allow schools to develop links with other schools who are willing to use the tools. Even though sites such as Mixxer appear to offer a matching service, these are still so primitive that at the moment it would still be very much a case of looking to set up a traditional link and then develop a Skype option as part of this- which I have no doubt would be hugely beneficial for all involved.
Fingers crossed for the future, then, but unfortunately we're little further down the road than we were before the call. Lots of hope, lots of promise, but an outcome? Hopefully someday soon we'll all be Skyping our partners in Spain, but I'm not too sure...
