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About Worldchat

We believe in authentic learning experiences that support deep, meaningful learning. This is what Worldchat does, as it offers second language learners the opportunity to communicate verbally through the video platform after teachers have paired them.

Meet our team!

Anne-Marie Lafortune, M. Ed.

Founder of Worldchat, Anne-Marie is an ESL professor, certified yoga teacher as well as green committee, zen space and intercultural center coordinator at the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles in Canada.

She has taught in South Korea, in France as well as in Australia, and she did professional development in New York and Helsinki. Her research focuses primarily on active learning, distance education and the Community of Inquiry framework.

In 2018, she received from Université de Sherbrooke the Award for the Quality of Production and Pedagogical Intervention in College Teaching and, in 2019, the Canadian Association for Teacher Education Award.

Her pedagogical articles have been published in various academic journals, including:

  • S’inspirer de la Finlande pour améliorer ses stratégies pédagogiques (Pédagogie collégiale)
  • Worldchat.live: let your students do the talking! (Profweb)
  • Learning ESL in an active learning classroom at the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des îles (Profweb)
  • Differences in students’ perceptions of the Community of Inquiry in a blended synchronous delivery mode (Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology)
  • Optimiser son temps de correction tout en rendant sa rétroaction efficace (Profweb)
  • Pour des exposés oraux plus authentiques et une rétroaction significative (Profweb)

Eric Waldman, B.Eng.

Eric Waldman is a Canadian open source programmer and web developer.

His company, Waldman Web Development, specializes in pushing the limits of modern web development. He uses state-of-the-art open source technologies and programming languages in order to create software that captivates users.

Worldchat is his first foray into the delightful world of realtime video communication. It was an excellent opportunity to explore recent trends in web development including the TypeScript Programming Language, as well at the Janus WebRTC server.

What students are saying

It was so cool to speak with someone from across the world! I actually experienced a virtual culture shock! Julien, Reunion island

  • I like that our teacher matched us based on our skills and personality traits. Ahn and I were a good match, and I got to learn so much about the Vietnamese culture while practicing English!* Laurie, Canada

I really had to give my 100% to understand and make myself understood, which was sometimes funny. I mean, I don't speak Arabic and my English was not so good, but it improved drastically in this authentic setting! David, Burundi

J'ai beaucoup aimé l'expérience et ma partenaire et moi sommes devenues amies. Le fait de résumer chaque séance en notant les nouveaux mots et les nouvelles expressions, ça m'a beaucoup aidée à m'améliorer. Marylou, Canada

Our philosophy

Authentic learning activities and material in second language learning environments help maintain a high level of motivation (Edge, 1996; Krashen, 1982; Willis, 1996) while supporting deep and long-term learning objectives (Fink, 2003; Chastain, 1998).

Worldchat is a pedagogical tool to foster such meaningful learning experiences. As students from around the globe verbally communicate on various topics of interest in their second language, they benefit from:

  • Authentic manipulation of their second/foreign language
  • Exposure to various international accents
  • Authentic opportunities to practice

Moreover, they get to:

  • Negotiate meaning as they use the skills learned in class
  • Enrich their vocabulary and expressions as they communicate in real-time
  • Learn about various cultures around the world
  • Improve their flow, pronunciation as well as overall communication skills.

Worldchat offers several tools to support:

Teacher experience

  • Match with colleagues from around the world
  • Unique classroom identification code
  • Chat and video communication with fellow teachers
  • Access to student video recordings (for evaluation purposes for instance)

Student experience & Consolidation of the learning experience

  • Chat and live video conversation with paired student
  • Unique, authentic speaking opportunities
  • Cross-cultural logs
  • Access to own video recordings for self-reflection purposes

A safe learning environment

  • Verified teachers and authentication process
  • Terms of service and privacy policy
  • A zero tolerance policy for inappropriate content and behavior
  • The possibility to report users
  • The recording of all video conversations on the platform (participants need to agree prior to the beginning of the recording)
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