April Post, a lecturer in Spanish, and David Neville, an assistant professor of German, led a round table discussion on the use of webcams and video conferencing in second language acquisition at the recent American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages convention held Nov. 19-21 in Boston.
During the presentation, Post and Neville described the unique affordances that the technology provides second language instructors, situated their presentation within the framework of current sociocultural theories of second language acquisition, and articulated best classroom practices and learning activities that make use of the technology.
In addition, Post described her use of webcams as a means of supporter her work with the Amigos Club, a joint venture between Spanish conversation students at Elon University and Hispanic students in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses in Alamance Burlington School Systems. The round table session was attended by second language instructors from around the country.