French professor uses technology to get ahead

This semester, Dorothée Mertz-Weigel, AASU's only French professor, introduced a new component to language learning at Armstrong. Webcams in the Language Lab allow students to develop their communication skills in a "virtual exchange" program designed to link language learners with their counterparts on the other side of the world. Mertz-Weigel got the idea from a colleague at another university. She applied for a grant to fund the program last October. Armstrong approved the grant and Mertz-Weigel worked quickly to order and install the cameras in the lab. Students had their first session on Jan. 31. "I thought it was a great idea and an opportunity to open the classroom to the world. I teach in full immersion so they get the French all the time. In the virtual exchange they can hear other people's accents," Mertz-Weigel said. Kelly Arno, a senior majoring in English with teacher certification, finds the virtual exchange program an undeniable asset to language learning. "Instead of listening to a professor say, 'This is what the French say when they're excited about this or really irritated at that,'" Arno said, "you get to hear those colloquialisms and other little details first hand." Students already use headphones in the lab, the new webcams and the popular program Skype to communicate. Skype allows users to make free telephone calls via the net to other Skype users. Finding "francophones" - French-speaking people - to participate in the exchange was a lengthy process. Mertz-Weigel contacted over 150 people in order to find 15 who could participate. Once she located participants for the exchange, Mertz-Weigel matched partners by common interests. "There was this one student who was mostly nervous about having a cute French girl on the screen, and he did get a cute French girl, so that made him very nervous." Using web cams may be a little nerve-wracking at first, but it is an essential part of the virtual exchange. "Body language is very important, seeing the lip movement of the person you are talking to is very important," Mertz-Weigel said. "Dr. Mertz's Skype program has turned the French program here around compared to last year," said Lamar Kirkman, a senior political science major. Mertz-Weigel knows the benefits of communicating a foreign language outside of the classroom and the challenges that come trying to learn through lectures only. A native of France, English is her second foreign language - German is her first. She also speaks Spanish; her undergraduate degree is in English literature and Spanish. "I knew classroom English before I came to the States, but I didn't get to practice that much," she said. "When I was in high school, language classes were mostly lectures from the teacher. It wasn't a communicative approach where students are made to produce the language." This semester was the prototype for the virtual exchange program, with students engaging in conversation five times throughout the semester. AASU students practice French for the first half of the session, and their foreign partners practice English the second half. Starting in the fall, Mertz-Weigel will expand the program to all of her classes. She hopes other foreign language professors will do the same. No other professors have started to use the program yet.