English lessons through Skype

Welcome to the Skype Curriculum Design team's page.

English is taught as a foreign langauge in Japan. As such, Japanese learners of English rarely have the opportunity to use English outside of the classroom.  Many students we have talked with have expressed dissatisfaction with learning only "textbook English" at conversation schools.

After listening to many of the students' hopes, desires, and complaints about language learning, we concluded that given the difficulties and expenses of doing an actual exchange or study abroad program, it would be best for our students to use online programs to meet native speakers. After much thought and exploration, we decided that Skype would be the best tool to enable our students to improve their English abilities. 

Skype is a free internet phone service, through which users are able to freely call each other, chat, and/or have video conferencing. We believe that through Skype, Japanese language learners will be able to communicate in English at their convenience, thoroughly and unobtrusively observe native speakers' facial expressions, as well as write down their feelings when they are unable to express themselves verbally.

Any comments or suggestions would be helpful.

Introduction to Skype Video