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A Natural Virtual Language Lab (ANVILL), created by the University of Oregon’s (UO) Yamada Language Center, has been making social media and other forms of online communication for cultural exchange more accessible since 2004.

For 5 years now, UO French instructor Melanie Williams and Stéphanie Meunier, an English professor at Université Lumière Lyon 2, have been collaborating so that their students can meet virtually with each other using ANVILL. Students from both universities record a message in English and in French to communicate. In this way, each student is both an expert speaker and a language learner, with the UO students as expert speakers in English while learning French, and the Lyon students as expert speakers in French while learning English. Often the topics of conversation are left up to the students to decide.

ANVILL is available to language educators across the globe, and free to qualified language educators. Interested in learning more? Visit the Yamada Language Center and ANVILL.