1. Going Global: Using italki to
Connect with Native Speakers

2. Typical Apps/Tools
• Vocabulary “Games”
• Quizzes
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Blogs
• Tablet Textbooks

3. course / content …
us (the teacher) and …
themselves.TECH
Learner
Content
Class
Teacher
What is missing?

4. How did you fall in love
with and learn your
second language?

7. Why aren’t we more focused on
technology that can replicate
that experience?

9. This was simply not possible
when many of us were in school.

10. TECH
Learner
Content
ClassTeacher

11. *
Garrison & Archer, 2003
Communication Medium: 3 Spheres
• Social Presence: Interaction with Peers
• Cognitive Presence: Interaction with Content
• Teaching Presence: Interaction with Instructors
Which is most important?

12. More and more people are using new technologies for self teaching.
Let’s look at language learning for example. Over 100 million people
all over the world are learning languages online today — and only a
fraction of them would ever have considered using traditional learning
materials or courses to do so. … It would never have occurred to the
nurse in Louisville to buy a textbook or an expensive CD to learn a
language — but now, she’s studying German on her tablet after her
shift.
http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/01/learning-revolution-education/

13. • Focusing on communication
• Encouraging peer interaction
• Taking full advantage of access to native speakers, native
teachers, native tutors, native peer-group
• Generating interest and motivation from real opportunities for
communication
• Pushing cross cultural understanding through international
friendships

14. • Chatroom participants have significantly higher proficiency
than ss in traditional oral classrooms (Payne & Whitney,
2002)
• Known transfer between skill modalities for ss who
participate in SCMC (Lund, 2006)

16. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzN_U79rMpI

17. What it does
• italki connects learners and teachers for 1-on-1 online
language lessons
Online Teachers
• Two types of teachers - professional teachers and community
tutors

18. • Students looking for opportunities to practice speaking
• Pre-/Returning exchange students
• College students preparing for proficiency tests
• Homeschool students
• School districts with limited FL programs
What:
• Get help from native teachers and tutors
• Peer-to-peer learning (language exchange, corrections)
• Complementary to classroom work

19. • Refreshing L2 skills
• Accent reduction or reaching native level
• Teacher-to-teacher dialogues
• International cultural exchanges
• Sharing educational techniques
• Connecting classes (language exchange)
• Broaden network

22. • Learner-Learner
• Learner-Teacher
• Learner-Content
(Moore, 1989)
*

23. • Teachers/Language
Exchange Partners
• Notebook
• Discussion
• Instant Tutoring

25. •Software:
• Skype (most widely-used)
• Dropbox (Blocked Websites & Slow Connections)
• TinyUrl
• YouTube
Textbooks/Classes: What else are learners doing?
Methodology:
• Lesson Plan
• Learner Objectives
• Guide for Learners
• Move away from high-tech, low-pedagogy

26. • “Go online and chat” doesn’t work
• Wait times & turn-taking vary – this is not face-to-face
communication
• Use of photos & videos can decrease pressure for constant
communication
(O’Dowd, 2004)
• Difficult to see non-verbal behavior
• Debrief chats with teacher/partner to check intercultural
mis/understanding
(Schlikau, 2000)