Text based web chat
The Irish language learning pilot project also incorporated a text-based web chat for students to communicate in Irish with their fellow classmates. It was hoped this portion of the project would promote students' competency in Irish by using familiar tools.
Students took part in a text-chat lesson once a week on laptops. Once students had logged-in they would be randomly assigned a partner to chat with. Chat partners were kept anonymous to alleviate the negative aspects of peer pressure. The teacher could also be an anonymous chat partner, prompting students to reach their maximum potential.
The text-chats were monitored in real-time by the teacher. The teacher's control in the system meant that he/she could interrupt conversations if students needed to be redirected in content or target the language being used.
The script of the text conversations is also be saved to script for later analysis. As with the mobile assessments, copies of the text conversations can be marked with each student receiving critical feedback. Students can also access their saved scripts for self-assessment, and to be used as a portfolio of language learning.
Allowing students to converse with each other in a supervised and moderated fashion, using a text-based chat application, can efficiently mimics the one-on-one interview type language assessment which is not practical for large volumes of students. This alternative form of communication has the potential to facilitate assessment and learning of students with hearing and/or speech impairments.