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Best Practice for Language Exchanges | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 1 of 17 20 May 2014 at 11:07am | IP Logged | ||
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I wanted to get opinions on the best way to do a language exchange with someone on Skype or other online exchange. Here is what I'm currently doing with my partners but I'm interested in other methods.
- We do one 1 hour each week. For 25 Minutes in we speak only in one TL and 25 Minutes in other TL. 10 minutes to ask questions and announce next weeks topic. - One of us selects the topic of discussion each week, we alternate each week. So one week I pick, the next week they pick. - Whoever picked the topic is also the moderator and has to keep track of the time. - The purpose is to communicate and practice not to teach, so I wouldn't expect them to teach me grammar, but if I make a mistake, they just say the correct sentence back to me. - I prefer to record the session if they agree, this way I can listen to it later and try to see my mistakes, and review where I was corrected. Anyone have a better or more efficient method? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3954 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 2 of 17 20 May 2014 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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This sounds very efficient and I'm sure it works very well!
My language exchanges are much more casual than that, as are my tutoring sessions. I prefer just to talk about whatever happens to come up, the same way I would if I were meeting a friend for coffee. The first few sessions tend to be more structured just by virtue of being a brand new exchange: introductions, talking about language learning, talking about where we live. After the first 3 sessions, we either click and have lots to talk about, or else we don't and the exchange fizzles out. At the beginning, when my level was low, I also relied on pictures a lot: I showed a picture and described a family member, then answered my partner's questions. My half of the exchange was more structured, because my language level was lower. The second half of the conversation was more casual and interesting. The first session sets the tone for all sessions, so I make sure that it's a 50/50 exchange from the start. I generally prefer to start in my L2, that way I can watch the time and switch at 30 minutes, even if we're in the middle of a conversation. I do think that language exchanges are best when both people are able to talk about a variety of simple topics. At the very beginning of language learning (for example, where I'm currently at in Tagalog), I prefer to have a paid tutor, since I'm way too limited to hold up my side of a conversation. I need to be able to have the same conversations over and over, and it's hard to ask that of a language exchange partner. Besides, if there's a huge imbalance (I barely speak my L2 and my partner is nearly fluent in hers), there's a risk that we'll spend more time in English or French, simply because the conversation is more interesting. I think that your way - selecting weekly topics, moderating, tracking time - would work well if both people prefer structured conversations. But I don't think that it would work for me. That's why it's so important to find the right partner - what I prefer and what you prefer might be two completely different things! Edited by Stelle on 20 May 2014 at 11:30am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 3 of 17 20 May 2014 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | ||
Well I have to admit, after the first 4-5 exchanges, we do tend to drift into some conversations which are completely unrelated to the topic for the week, and it turns into just a good old chat. But you do have to be ruthless about the 30 minutes switch between languages. For me selecting a topic is more so that my partner and I aren't floundering around searching for something to talk about. If we stay on topic great, if we don't and talk about something else that is even better. If you have comments about your partners language usage, so you save it to the end? Or do you jump right in and correct them? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5185 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 4 of 17 20 May 2014 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree almost entirely with Stelle's post. I have done a lot of language exchanges on Skype and the best ones are where you generally just "click" with the person and can have nice talks. I don't mind starting in English. I find it makes the other person feel like their learning is just as important as mine and later on I am not shy about switching languages. With my good language partners we just have a good understanding and respect for each other so we do not need to count time or things like that. With one of my partners I'd have long drives on the highway and we would talk for hours in English while I was driving. Some other time we'd talk for an hour or two only in Spanish when my partner was tired and did not feel like speaking in English. If you find a good partner and you respect their learning needs it will work out well.
One other thing: I had a couple partners who were much more interested in my quirky specialty knowledge than the fact that I spoke English. We worked out an understanding that we would speak entirely in Spanish (for me) provided that I would "teach" things that were quite basic for me (economics, US Government, etc). If you can find someone like that (who would like you to teach them in their target language) you will have a great thing because you can use your target language all the time. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3817 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 17 20 May 2014 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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For my conversation exchanges, I also go with the unstructured approach. Each of the sessions is a total of
60 minutes with 30 minutes in each target language. Whoever is speaking in their practice language chooses what they want to talk about. In some cases, we prepare individual topics, in other cases we just talk, and in some cases, we just switch languages at the 30 min mark and continue on with the original subject. By doing this, I have discussed a whole range of topics that I never could have imagined with my partners. As far as suggestions for my partners, I prefer to give (and receive) the feedback sooner particularly, if it is pronunciation, use of an idiom, or assistance with a better (or more natural) word choice so I try to find a natural pause to jump in. Edited by Mohave on 20 May 2014 at 10:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| diffuse Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3677 days ago 12 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 17 20 May 2014 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | ||
With one of my conversation partners, we have an agreement that we'll email each other corrections later -- we both take notes during the Skype chat, but unless we're really floundering, for example if one of us doesn't know a word to complete a phrase, we mostly just let the conversation flow & save the corrections for the email. Or at least the end of our conversation. The best language exchanges I've had so far (I haven't been doing them for very long, about a month or so) have resulted from having an agreement to speak one language for x amount of time & then switching to the other for the same period. The length of time varies, depending on how advanced we are -- I mean, I do 45 minutes each with one partner but 30 minutes or even 15 with another, not that one exchange itself might feature lopsided amounts of time! This guideline is especially important when, as someone else mentioned, the other person speaks English much better than I speak their language! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4657 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 7 of 17 21 May 2014 at 4:18am | IP Logged | ||
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On a side, but related, note... I'm a bit confused about how one finds language exchange partners on Skype. Do you just log in and click some random person on Skype and hope that they want to do language exchange? (That sounds like it could spawn some interesting stories, at least!) Or is there a way to find a prospective language exchange partner, like a Skype language-exchange category or something? NOTE: I've never used Skype myself, although I do have an account... somewhere... let me look in the closet...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5072 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 8 of 17 21 May 2014 at 4:38am | IP Logged | ||
Interpals is a good place to look. Dig that skype account (and microphone/headphones) up out of the closet, kuji :) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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