This semester, students in two upper-level Spanish courses at Holy Cross used Internet video conferencing software to chat with students at Jesuit universities in Latin America.
During weekly sessions over a five week period, the students practiced communicating in Spanish with native speakers, learned about new cultures, and helped their counterparts improve English language skills. For 20 minutes, each student, donning headset microphones in front of a webcam, communicated in Spanish to a native speaker before swapping roles and working in English for another 20 minutes.
Mary Morrisard-Larkin, director of Educational Technology, and Elizabeth O’Connell-Inman, director of the Directed Independent Spanish Curriculum, launched the pilot project in March after beginning work on the program in December. The video conferencing is part of the Virtual Dual Immersion Project, which is housed in the U.S. consortium Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and its sister program in Latin America.
Marquette University, Creighton University, Boston College, Gonzaga University, and Fairfield University are also participating, and according to Morrisard-Larkin, more than 2,000 total students in the United States and in Latin America took part in the program this semester.
Holy Cross students were paired with students attending la Universidad Rafael Landívar (Guatemala) and la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Columbia).
O’Connell-Inman says she hopes to continue to utilize the video conferencing technology with her future classes.
“The students have responded very positively,” she said. “I think that [the video conferencing] gives their language learning more authenticity. They are not speaking Spanish in a vacuum or in an artificial setting. They are having real conversations about a daily life, music, food, traditions, politics, literature, and art.”
Steve Chalifoux ’13, who takes Spanish Debate and Advanced Oral Expression, thinks the video conferencing helped improve his Spanish in a new and interesting way.
“The video conferencing allows you to have a normal day-to-day conversation instead of class lectures,” he said. “While it was a little awkward at first, it was fun and rewarding in the end.”
O’Connell-Inman says the students’ language and communication skills have benefitted from the authentic environment. “Their listening and speaking skills have improved,” she said. “They certainly feel more comfortable speaking and their motivation has increased.”
The program’s launch coincides with an important current topic in Jesuit discussion. Rev. General Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., the leader of the Society of Jesus, has placed an emphasis on both the importance of networking in the international community and utilizing technology in deeply meaningful ways, as outlined in his speech to Jesuit educators in Mexico City last year [PDF].The video conferencing initiative aims to harmonize both objectives in an academically enriching way.
Though the sessions have concluded for the spring, the conversation will continue for the students who participated. Many of the students have exchanged email addresses with their conversation partners and have “friended” each other on Facebook. A few of the pairs realized they will be studying at the same study abroad site in Spain next year and have made plans to meet in the fall.
Photography by John Buckingham
