Using ePals in L2 classroom

When you first visit ePals website, you can see it, “ePals is the leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning network. With classrooms in 200 countries and territories, ePals makes it easy to connect learners locally, nationally or internationally.” Students who are learning foreign language in their countries might have difficulty in practicing the target language with native speakers, and it is hard to focus on learning slang or idioms in classroom with teachers.

Even though the teacher prepares many activities for language learning, if the students do not have a chance to speak in real field – talking with native speakers or using the TL in the country – they may be less motivated in learning the language.

ePals give chance for students not only use their Target Language with native speakers but also experience its culture directly with people in the world.

In my classroom, I would ask students in different countries work collaboratively as team projects. I can give them various cultural topics such as food, leisure, and manner in each country. So, they can compare and find similarities and differences by themselves. this will definitely be really interesting for students to know new culture and to make friends in different countries.