Teacher Discussion Forums

Has anyone used Instant Messaging in their language classroom?

While typing might be a slight issue for second language learners (especially if the characters of their native language are not as they are in English), has anyone considered the benefits of spelling improvement as a result of integrating the instant message into their lessons?

Also, the speed at which IM takes place might help our students develop cognitive strategies to deal with faster language intake.

On the same note, what about chat forums?

I'm interested to hear your input....

Abi

Chat rooms?

Have a look at what goes on in the student chat rooms here. I've also used chat rooms to try to improve my Spanish.

Personally, I don't recommend chat rooms to my students. I think most of what goes on isn't helpful and there's a lot of very poor and inappropriate language use. In my opinion, forums are much better because they give students time to think about how they want to express their ideas and structure what they say more carefully.

I don't think EFL students can find a better place to do that than here!

Also, have you ever considered using a wiki (e.g. MediaWiki) for students to work together on a collaborative project? I think if you structure it thoughtfully, it'll take very little input from you and will get the group of students involved to use a lot of specific language areas.

Just my 2 cents...