Professional Developement - Webinar

Speaker: Florencia G. Henshaw

Location: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Date: October 18. 2018

Title: Video chatting with native speakers: why, what, and how

Link to webinar: https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_kzfn096m/90905681

The general layout for this webinar was the speaker discussing first the “how” of video-chatting with native speakers, specifically focusing on the SAMR model. This model, standing for Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition, addresses how technology can be added and what changes occur when the addition of technology enters into the classroom. The “R” portion of the model was the primary focus of this webinar, and the question posed was “does technology allow for creation of a task previously inconceivable?” The three primary benefits addresses were the language development, global competence, and affective factors in students. Previous research was briefly covered.

The speaker then shifted to the “what/why” for video-chatting with native speakers and provided a variety of ideas on how to scaffold tasks for students so they have a clear direction for why speaking to a native-speaker is important and so they have a basis for conversation with the native-speaker. Florencia then gives a list of platforms where students can interface with native speakers as well as the pros and cons of each platform.

The final part of the webinar was time for Q and A between Florencia and people who were watching/listening in to the talk. This gave Florencia more time and opportunity to address the “why” aspect of the topic as well as which platforms work well with certain levels of Spanish speakers (ex: which platforms work well for higher-level speakers and that less direction than compared to lower-level speakers.)

This webinar was particularly interesting and pertinent to me because my students in SPAN 1022 use an online platform (linguameeting.com) and I personally have been a part of courses that use online platforms (talkabroad.com) to facilitate native-speaker conversations. Although having to pay for time with a native-speaker was not ideal for me nor is it ideal for my students, I know that the quality of conversation is higher, and students are more motivated to participate because there is a financial investment involved. Missing a meeting means wasting money. I also have found that the native-speakers on platforms that require payment tend to be trained and have had experiences with non-native speakers, so they have a higher level of English and can understand English-speakers more readily. This is crucial for my low-level Spanish students because they look up words frequently and default to English rather than describing what they don’t know (an ability I know will develop over time.)

In addition, I liked this webinar because the free platforms are sites that I can recommend to my students to maintain their Spanish during breaks in the school year, and even platforms I could use to maintain my Spanish during the summer months when I may not be using Spanish as often as I would like. One thing Florencia mentioned is that using platforms to dialogue with native speakers tend to motivate students to study abroad, continue learning the target language, and do their own investigations on culture. I am hopeful for my students that by using linguameeting.com, they continue to learn Spanish and don’t see it as a class to fulfill the CLA language requirement.

Professionally, this was a great webinar to help add more ideas and accessible websites to my toolkit so I can better teach my students beyond the classroom!