I blogged about this a little over on our site, but I thought I’d leave a comment here to say you’re right. That would be a really cool feature. Our chat rooms are really popular, but I bet people would get a lot out of chat rooms with live, real-time, Skype-style conversation.

Jason Daniel
English, baby!

I couldn’t agree with your more. I’d actually say a similar critique holds true for most of the most websites I highlight because I don’t think anything beats genuine one-to-one or small group interaction.

Larry

While I think all these sites are great — they do show that there is a BIG missing feature which would make me hesitate in saying they help “develop conversation skills”.

Why do I say this? Well, a conversation is not a typical “learning” situation and it also entails “real” compulsive output by both people. Typically termed “engagement”. What happens at these sites is isolated learning where the response is passive at best.

Some of them, Live Mocha or Ebaby seek to be “conversational” but really they just have become sites for the lonely hearted and there is no pedagogical/learning focus. A lot of Pizzaz. In the case of Live Mocha, from the times I’ve been there I also believe they “stage people” to promote interaction. Somewhat insincere in my opinion. Nor is there VOICE — the big pink elephant that isn’t in the room (to use a metaphor). Two way communication is crucial — in real time and with voice/audio. The net offers that, someone just has to set it up for educational purposes.

I’m looking into a fully educational and simple audio chat room system where users anywhere in the world can simply click and join a classroom and talk. This would be really developing conversation skills - imo.

Thanks again for letting so many know about these sites. I’m not saying they aren’t “good” or even “excellent” — just that they have major shortcomings when it comes to the conversational part.

David
http://eflclassroom.ning.com