Utilizing Innovative Video Chat Technology to Meet National Standards: A Case Study on a STARTALK Hindi Language Program

Responding to the need for foreign language fluency in ever-globalizing business and cultural spheres, the federal government and foreign language institutions in an eleven-member task force collaboratively published a set of nationally recognized, foundational standards for foreign language teaching. Rather than rely on teacher-centered classrooms where rote memorization is the rule, standards-based curricula are student-centered and emphasize meaningful communication in contexts that build cultural understanding. The new standards emphasize performance-based assessment, offer students opportunities to communicate in a variety of communicative modes and experience authentic cultural materials. In order to investigate the applicable strategic use of videochat technology in standards-based foreign language teaching, instructors from the Hindi STARTALK program at the University of Pennsylvania conducted a small case study to assess student responses to this modern technology-based interactive module. This paper focuses on a pedagogical intervention in which the Hindi instructors for the summer programs in 2010 and 2011 aimed to discover how communications technology, specifically Skype technology, could be used to effectively implement the National Standards.