tandem learning

I remember many years ago my then boss (and also my teacher of Greek) talking about something called tandem learning. The basic idea was that students learning each other's language could team up, taking turns to speak in their own language, then swop to the langauge they were learning. So, for example a Greek student would spend the first half of the lesson chatting or working with a German learning Greek and then in the second half of the lesson they would swop roles.

Now with the advent of Sype this is much more feasible proposition. All you have to do, as a teacher is set up a Skypecast with a school whose students want to learn your language and then divide the classes into pairs, based perhaps, on age, gender, mutual interests etc.

Here are some useful sites;

http://www.shef.ac.uk/mirrors/tandem/etandem/etindex-en.html

http://www.shef.ac.uk/mirrors/tandem/