Two instructors started an exchange between Anglophone students of German in Queen’s University, Canada and Germanophone students of English at Martin-Luther-Universität, Germany. Teachers of Japanese at Queen’s and of English at Fukuoka Jo Gakuin University, Japan in were doing the same. These pilot projects were so effective that we are working to make peer-to-peer tandems available to every student.
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LinguaeLive is an educational endeavour that is free. Queen’s University provided seed money. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada has followed up with grants. Please donate and spread the word to keep LinguaeLive going and growing.
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LinguaeLive offers oversight. Instructors can track the language exchange sessions. If their students wish, instructors can even participate in the conversations; otherwise, only the time units (minutes) are tracked.
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Regular communication works best. Therefore, compatible schedules are the most important criteria for matching. Similar interests both enrich and limit. Knowing less about a partner is a great incentive to talk more.
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Not really, because partners trade unit of time in one language for unit of time in another language. Whoever is speaking their target language will generally set the parameters such as topic, speed and level. And each partner takes a turn at being expert!
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We decided not to develop this capacity for LinguaeLive. We believe that more privacy furthers communication and better respects learners. There are recording programs available on the web if needed.
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That depends on the aims of your course. Generally, structured preparation is helpful for beginners. They might develop questions to ask and look up vocabulary. More advanced students might read a text that they can discuss. Registered instructors can see our Tips section for more ideas.
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For a course, one day. For student availability, one time slot. The instructor or the student can then decide with their potential partners whether they want to link.
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The information that you share with us will not be shared except to further the educational exchange that you desire.
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Currently, instructors initiate student collaborations in LinguaeLive. There projects in which learners find each other directly, such as the Tandem-Büro at the Universität Leipzig's Sprachenzentrum and eTandem Europa at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
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