March
26 ,
2004
Russian
Language Students Have Video Pen Pals in Tver
Mount Holyoke students studying
Russian have found a new way to hone their speaking skills that
does not involve putting on headphones in the language lab. These
students have taken up videoconferencing with students in Russia
who are learning English. Videoconferencing is a sort of face-to-face
chat room—students gather in the videoconference room at
Williston Library and converse with their Russian peers via a
video link on large television screens. “It’s like
having video pen pals,” said Susan Scotto, senior lecturer
in Russian, who organized the program. “They all really
enjoy it.”
Scotto explained that the video communication started last spring when a teacher
from the Visa English Institute in Tver, a city on the Volga River northwest
of Moscow, contacted her about setting up a videoconference for students. “What
makes it really great is that when we went to Moscow last fall, we visited these
people, so we know some of them,” Scotto said.
The students have videoconferenced three times so far. The first encounter helped
the students get acquainted. Since then they have chosen discussion topics ahead
of time that allow them to practice their language while exploring one another’s
cultures. So far they have tackled food, movies, and housing. “Most Russians
live in small apartments,” Scotto said, “so the discussion about
housing involved lots of talk about numbers of rooms and square meters. It was
interesting.”
“It’s kind of a cliché, but students on both sides fin
d it
really exciting not only to practice their language with real natives, but also
to get a sense of what other young people are interested in and how they live,” said
Scotto. Kaitlyn Wild ’06, one of the videoconference participants, agrees
that the sessions offer far more than language lessons. “I think that both
sides of the discussion have preconceived notions about the other’s culture
and it’s interesting to learn the facts,” Wild said. Wild will be
traveling to Moscow next fall to study and hopes to visit Tver and meet some
of the students she’s gotten to know via teleconferencing.
Scotto is pleased that students at all levels of proficiency participate in the
sessions. Wild said there are lively moments when people make amusing mistakes,
such as saying something is good when they mean just the opposite. “Everyone
is a little nervous so we are all prone to giggling,” she said.
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