To learn a foreign language can be a time consuming commitment involving years of classes. But not everyone interested in learning a new language has the time or resources to dedicate themselves to such an arduous task.
LiveMocha, an online language program, takes the meaning of the word classroom to a whole new level.
Created in September 2007, LiveMocha.com is a free Web site which provides users with the flexibility to learn a language based on their own schedules.
Bryan Hurren, the director of product marketing for LiveMocha, said students have the option of completing more than 160 hours of lesson plans covering topics like conversational language and vocabulary. The site also provides exercises in reading, listening, writing and speaking. Users can take beginning or intermediate classes in six languages - French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi and English.
Hurren said users also have the ability to converse with native speakers.
"The best way to learn a language is through native interaction and conversation," he said.
Through social networking, users from around the world teach and learn from other LiveMocha members, Hurren said. With the addition of a webcam or a microphone, users can also practice real-time audio, video or text conversations or submit writing or audio samples to their tutors for grading.
Paul Aoki, director of the language learning center at the University of Washington Seattle, said the LiveMocha program is available for students to utilize and modify.
"It's kind of along the lines as a Wikipedia, as people tend to be self-regulating," Aoki said.
He said users also have free rein to correct other members' assignments and to add their own tips in vocabulary and grammar to the LiveMocha site.
Aoki said he believes there is no screening on the site to determine credible material.
Curtis Bonk, a professor of education at Indiana University and a specialist in integrating online technologies into teaching, said social networking can be beneficial because it provides users with an audience outside of a traditional classroom setting and increases learning material.
"Socializing used to be considered distinct from learning," Bonk said. "Now it's a prime example of being able to learn something within a community."
Thomas McCone, director of the foreign languages and literatures department at the University of Delaware, stated in an e-mail message that the easy accessibility of the Internet, combined with audio and video interaction with native speakers is useful in learning a new language.
"Online programs such as LiveMocha hold out great promise for the future of language instruction because they allow students to work at their own pace whenever and wherever they want," McCone said. "The addition of using native speaker speech segments is a highly effective form of self-study which prepares students well for authentic linguistic encounters with speakers of the target language."
Aoki said LiveMocha is more productive for users who already have a basic foundation in foreign language.
"LiveMocha is more useful for students after they have achieved a certain foundation in a language," he said. "It may not be useful if a user has no basic level in a language or who has never had any experience taking a language before."
For users without any previous language experience, Aoki said he recommends using a tutor from an actual university before seeking out the help of a native speaker from another country.
McCone said LiveMocha can be used as a supplement to language classes conducted in a traditional classroom setting.
"Sites like LiveMocha are best used in conjunction with classroom learning instead of as substitutes for it because in the foreign language communicative classroom, student progress is carefully monitored by experienced instructors who intervene as student development requires it," he said.
Megan Spilatro, a sophomore Spanish minor at the university, said the ability to speak more than one language in today's society is becoming more valuable.
"Knowing different languages is probably one of the best things you can do," Spilatro said. "The world is becoming extremely global and almost all businesses have something to do with another country, so if you know another language that provides you with so many more opportunities."
Hurren says there are currently approximately 250,000 LiveMocha users in more than 200 countries. As LiveMocha continues to gain popularity and develop, it plans on expanding its Web site in the future to include Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Italian languages.
Bonk said he believes the site will become more popular within the next few years.
"LiveMocha could easily become the next Google of languages," he said.
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