Enhancing EFL learners’ speaking and listening skills through authentic online conversations with video conferencing tools

ABSTRACT

Research in second language acquisition has consistently provided empirical support for the role of conversational interaction in language development, but this finding is not easily embraced in the practice of language teaching and learning for various reasons such as lack of resources or favorable conditions. This paper presents an innovative practice where conversational interaction is fostered through an online talk project in which EFL learners from Vietnam have weekly conversations with volunteer English speakers from other countries via video-conferencing platforms. The project creates opportunities for EFL learners to participate in authentic conversations and enhance their English speaking and listening skills. Feedback from the participating students and volunteer communicators suggests that the project not only improves the EFL learners’ L2 speaking and listening skills but also motivates them and enhances their confidence in using English. We suggest that teachers from similar EFL contexts where learners often lack opportunities to meet and talk with English-speaking people from other cultures can adopt this practice to address the contextual deficiency and cultural gap in foreign language learning and teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• Online conversation
• speaking and listening skills
• communicative confidence
• EFL learners
• volunteer English speakers

Introduction

It is generally agreed that conversation provides a fertile ground for language learning. Research in both first and second-language acquisition has consistently provided empirical support for the role of conversational interaction in language development (Clark 2018; Long 1996; 2015; Mackey 2012; Loewen and Sato 2018). Through conversations, learners can have access to more comprehensible input (Krashen 1985) to gain opportunities to express their communicative intent in a meaningful way (Swain 1995), and to receive corrective feedback on their language production (Mackey 2012). These conditions are critical for second language acquisition and more importantly, they are combined productively in conversational interaction (Long 1996). Through the process of meaning negotiation to reach mutual understanding, interlocutors often employ favorable communication devices such as clarification requests, comprehension checks, and confirmation checks to carry on conversations with less proficient speakers in both instructional and natural environments. These devices and their benefits are documented in conversations across various contexts including instructed and non-instructed settings, in face-to-face and technology-mediated environments (Ziegler 2016; Ziegler, Parlak, and Phung 2022).

However, conversational interaction is not always present in many language classrooms in Vietnam due to a myriad of factors, particularly the large class size, the heavy influence of conventional teaching approaches (grammar-translation), and the lack of authentic learning environments (Phung, Tran, and Hoang 2021). Peer interaction has been said to bring similar benefits, but interaction between highly proficient or native speakers and learners tends to yield more advantages in many ways (Long 2022). The opportunity to have real conversations with such proficient or native speakers is, yet, hard to achieve in contexts where English is used as a foreign language (EFL) like Vietnam, and not frequently spoken beyond the classroom boundary (Kessler, Solheim, and Zhao 2020).

To date, there have been a plethora of studies using video conferencing tools to support interaction between English learners with speakers of English-speaking countries as well as enhance language learning at different levels. For example, Skype was used to connect EFL students in China with students in Australia (Tian and Wang 2010) and in America (Angelova and Zhao 2016). These studies reported enhanced speaking fluency, language skills, and cross-cultural awareness. In another context, Mustafa (2018) used Skype together with other video conferencing tools to improve Arab students’ speaking skills via conversations with native English speakers. In South America, Skype and other video conferencing tools were used to connect primary students in Uruguay with remote EFL teachers via videoconferencing in a blended learning project (Banegas 2013), and video chat platforms were used to improve intrinsic motivation and oral communication of university EFL students in Ecuador (Sevy-Biloon and Chroman 2019).

It appears that most studies have used video conferencing tools to support language learning in organized collaborations between institutions. The use of this technology to connect EFL learners and English-speaking interlocutors in non-instructional settings outside the classroom still lacks empirical evidence. In addition, practitioners’ perspectives have not been fully discussed and the bridge between research and practice in language learning seems to have been neglected. Indeed, studies on such telecollaboration have been criticized for their lack of implementation guidelines on how to achieve learning outcomes (Gonzalez-Perez et al. 2014; Wang 2011). Apart from the practical implications of technologies for video conferencing, theoretical considerations need to be taken into account regarding different language skills (Milojković 2018).

This paper provides an example of how we bridge the gap between research and practice (Sato and Loewen 2022) through an innovative online conversation project between highly proficient speakers of English and EFL learners in Vietnam. Students volunteered to take part in the project based on their desire for interactional practice and self-enrichment without pressure from teachers or institutions. The project involves various stakeholders who are researchers, EFL practitioners, coordinators, and volunteer interlocutors from Vietnam and English-speaking countries. The project has been successfully implemented for nine years. The initial evaluation of the project has shown positive outcomes in speaking and listening skills and a perceived increase in confidence among participating EFL learners when communicating with speakers from other cultures. Most importantly, this paper provides both pedagogical and practical recommendations so that this innovative practice can be implemented in similar contexts.

Viet-Skype project

Viet-Skype is a project initiated in 2015 by a Canadian teacher of English and a Vietnamese educator (3rd and 4th authors of this article) to create opportunities for Vietnamese learners of English to practice listening and speaking via online conversations with English speakers around the world. The project is free for learners and is run entirely by volunteers. It receives no funding from any government or organization. In this project, a participant from Vietnam is paired with a volunteer tutor whose first language is English or whose English is at a native-like level (L1 English volunteers). A sixteen-week program is scheduled for each pair of participants. Every week, the pair has a one-hour online conversation on a given topic. This virtual exchange project has connected approximately 1,700 participants, including more than 800 EFL learners from Vietnam and an equivalent number of international volunteers from over 30 countries around the world. The project is called Viet-Skype because when it began, participants practiced using the Microsoft app, Skype. Since 2019, participants have been encouraged to use Zoom, but some prefer to use other apps, including Facebook Messenger, Google Meet, WhatsApp, or Instagram.

Participants

EFL learners

EFL learners include Vietnamese individuals who want to improve their communicative competence and confidence through conversations with English speakers from other countries. They are diverse in age, occupation, and English levels. Beginning with a group of twenty bachelor English majors from a university in Northern Vietnam in 2015, the project has expanded to other groups of EFL learners, including high school students, university students, STEM school teachers, and school and university teachers of English across the country. These participants have been recruited by a group of volunteer coordinators based in Vietnam. They range from beginners to advanced-level learners. However, most participating EFL learners have been intermediate English speakers in recent years. The number of participants has grown over the years (Table 1). When the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak and travel restrictions were applied in many parts of the world, the number of EFL learners participating in the project reached 229 in 2020 and it has remained around 200 each year since then.

Table 1. Number of paired participants by year.

Year	Vietnamese EFL learners	L1 English volunteers
2015	30	30
2016	40	40
2017	55	55
2018	47	47
2019	102	102
2020	229	229
2021	190	190
2022	168	168
Total	861	861

Volunteer English tutors

In the early years, most volunteers were recruited through advertisements on the website Dave’s ESL Cafe (https://www.eslcafe.com) based in the United States and used by foreign language schools to recruit English teachers. In the past three years, the project has collaborated with some organizations, including universities, high schools, TEFL/TESL associations, and extracurricular clubs to connect with potential volunteers. These organizations are based in Canada and the United States. The data from the registration forms provided by the participants revealed a variety of channels that L1 English volunteers have learned about the project. Examples of these channels are online advertisement, the Viet-Skype Facebook page (Appendix 1), TESL websites, the International TEFL Academy, word of mouth (from friends, colleagues, and previous volunteers, as well as TESL professors), school websites, extracurricular clubs, and Google search for volunteer opportunities.

The project has attracted the participation of volunteers from more than 30 countries around the world, but mainly from Canada, the United States of America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The registration data of the early years revealed that although most of the volunteers were retired educators, there was a diversity of jobs held by the participating tutors. Since 2019, L1 English speakers have been more homogeneous. Most are high school students, undergraduates and master's candidates enrolled in teacher education, and students taking TEFL certification programs.

Project coordinators

There is a coordinator in Canada who works with volunteer organizers at American and Canadian universities and high schools. The Canadian coordinator recruits L1 English volunteers, connects them with Vietnamese participants, provides orientation sessions and guidelines, and schedules meetings for each pair of conversation practitioners. He also collects feedback from participating L1 English volunteers. The volunteer organizers help to support smaller groups of L1 English participants.

Several Vietnamese coordinators, who are EFL practitioners in Vietnam, work with the Canadian coordinator to connect Vietnamese participants with English volunteers. Most of these coordinators are school English teachers or university English instructors and researchers. Some of the coordinators participated as learners in the project themselves and volunteered to give back to the project. The Vietnamese coordinators recruit in a variety of ways: selecting their students, introducing the project to their colleagues and friends, announcing the program through students’ clubs, and sharing the link to the Viet-Skype Facebook page via social media networks and email. There are coordinators in North, Central, and South Vietnam. They oversee groups of learners in the region where they are located. University English researchers contributed their expertise in second language acquisition and mentored the material development process as well as interactional guidelines.

Matching conversation partners and setting up a conversation practice program

After contacting the project, a new volunteer tutor is interviewed by the Canadian coordinator who explains its history and purpose in further detail and provides some orientation. After their interview, new volunteers are emailed background information about the project including a YouTube video of a meeting where Viet-Skype volunteers discussed their approach to working with a learner, an excerpt from a pronunciation textbook that explains the challenges of English pronunciation for a Vietnamese learner of English, the project's annual report, its website, and a short video about how to pronounce some Vietnamese first names. They are also asked to fill out a form to provide basic biographical information and a photograph. A new Vietnamese EFL learner, when registered to participate in the project, provides such information as why they want to participate, what they want to learn, age, occupation, location, time availability, and English level through a registration form.

Volunteer tutors and EFL learners are matched by their time availability. When a volunteer and learner are available in the same time slot, they are introduced to each other by email. The email includes details about the participants as well as information about the day and time they will practice. A sixteen-week program is scheduled for each pair of EFL learners and volunteer tutors. The day and time are listed for both Vietnam and the volunteer's location in the world. Currently, high school students are matched two times a year, in the fall and in the winter/spring. Teacher education and TEFL volunteers are recruited and matched throughout the year depending on the needs of their programs and the time availability of the participants.

Meeting procedure

Every week, each conversation pair has a one-hour online video call in which they talk with each other about a given topic. The practice itself is simple and straightforward and allows the learner to have unscripted conversation practice with the tutor. Each practice session begins with a series of 10 to 12 IELTS-style speaking questions (Part 1), which is followed by a discussion of that week's topic (Part 2). The discussion is followed by a role play in which participants are given a simulated situation and play a character in that setting (Part 3) (See sample conversation prompts in Appendix 2).

Currently, there are 56 conversation topics available. When a learner completes the first 16 topics (Appendix 3), they can practice a further 16 ones; learners who complete 32 weeks can practice another 16 conversations, and so on. Examples of the 56 conversation topics are food, music, volunteer work, ecotourism, urbanization, film and art, gossip, and gender roles.

Interaction around scheduled meetings

A Facebook page was created to provide a platform for participants to connect. Through this platform, EFL learners, volunteer tutors, and program coordinators can share how they perceive and experience the project. EFL learners post recorded parts of their video calls that they find interesting and useful. They can write weekly diaries and keep a journal about what they gain after each week and throughout the program. Volunteer tutors and coordinators share testimonials, experience in the project, and observations of how well students have progressed. Participants can post their comments every week or at the end of a program.

Project outcomes

Effects of Viet-Skype on the EFL learner’s speaking and listening skills

Data across various resources such as the self-reported survey, testimonials, and feedback from participating stakeholders confirm the positive effect of the Viet-Skype program on Vietnamese EFL participants’ English speaking and listening skills and communicative confidence.

A study was conducted to assess the impact of the project on a group of 38 Vietnamese EFL participants who joined the project in 2015 −2016 (Nguyen 2016). A pre-test and post-test were administered to examine the difference in their listening and speaking skills before and after the 16-week practice program. The results revealed improvement in students’ both listening and speaking skills, with a more significant difference in the former than the latter. Also in this research, findings from a survey with both EFL learners and volunteer tutors, observations of practice sessions, and 208 participants’ diaries posted on the Viet-Skype Facebook, indicated the students’ progress in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammatical accuracy, and response in the dialogue.

We also conducted a survey with the EFL learners at the end of one project cycle in 2020. Forty-two participants (4 males and 38 females) completed the survey. Twenty-five of them were K-12 teachers of different subjects. The rest were medical and education students. Results from this self-reported survey showed that the participants acknowledged a substantive improvement in their conversational ability. Most of the participants endorsed that the Viet-Skype project helped them improve their overall English-speaking ability. They also reported that the project helped them to speak English more fluently, with clearer and more natural speech, and better grammatical accuracy. Table 2 displays the descriptive statistics of the self-reported effect of Viet-Skype on participants’ English-speaking ability.

Table 2. Self-reported effect of viet-skype on english speaking skills (N = 42).

On an agreement scale 1- 5, how much do you agree with the following statements about Viet-Skype?	Mean	SD	Min	Max
It helped me speak English more fluently	4.33	0.65	3	5
It helped me speak English with better intonation	4.29	0.71	3	5
It helped me speak with more accurate stress	4.10	0.66	3	5
It helped me use appropriate vocabulary	4.33	0.61	3	5
It helped me use more accurate grammar	4.02	0.75	2	5
It helped me listen to English easier	4.45	0.67	3	5
Overall, Viet-Skype improved my English-speaking ability	4.55	0.59	3	5

Note: 1= Strongly disagree; 5= Strongly agree.

Development of EFL learners’ confidence

The EFL participants’ growing confidence is another accomplishment of the project. Our analysis of 34 testimonials extracted from the Viet-Skype Facebook page between 2019 and 2022 revealed positive effects on participants’ motivation and confidence. The participants stressed various aspects of EFL learners’ English enhancement through corrective feedback and learning opportunities during online conversational interaction (See a sample conversation in Appendix 4). A Vietnamese student participating in the project posted:

Viet–Skype is such a useful program for me because it brings me many benefits. The organizers gave me a valuable opportunity to help improve my English with volunteers from Canada and USA so that my skills, especially pronunciation, improved considerably day by day. They assisted me meticulously on how to learn vocabulary and how to speak English fluently and instructed me to correct my accent, intonation, and expressing ideas. They are dedicated teachers who made me feel more confident in speaking and listening in English.

Learners’ growing confidence was observed by a volunteer tutor who wrote in his feedback as part of the end-of-cycle evaluation.

The online program is convenient and allows volunteers and conversation partners to make real connections. It’s been a joy to watch my partners’ confidence and skill in English speaking grow so much over the course of our sessions together.

Interestingly, the program was reported to bring about positive transfer to the participants’ workplace. Feedback from a group of Vietnamese school teachers of English revealed that participating in the project motivated them to try more adventurous things in their own classrooms. The project provided their first opportunity to have a full, authentic conversation with an English speaker from another country. The opportunity for these Vietnamese school teachers to practice authentic and unrehearsed English with L1 English speakers over a period had a significant effect on their motivation and confidence. For example, a Vietnamese coordinator highlighted how the participants became more confident in their English speaking and how the positive experience paved the way to further their professional development.

Many in-service teachers joining Viet-Skype said to me that they are grateful to the project because it is a once-in-their-lifetime chance to freely speak English with foreigners without interference or stress. They are now much more confident with using English in their classes and engaged in their English teaching journey. This is great motivation to such a coordinator like me.

EFL learners often face language barriers when expressing their ideas in English. The EFL learners participating in this one-on-one form of practice could overcome such language barriers. In this project, they were able to successfully participate in conversations through their engagement in cultural topics. The volunteers acknowledged that the rich information exchanged at meeting sessions provided a sense of achievement for both L1 English mentors and EFL students. On the one hand, the participants were engaged through topics that are common in every culture such as cuisine, festivals, schooling, fashion, and transport. They found it easy to talk about these things as they have been surrounded by these elements of their own culture since they were born and experience them in daily life. On the other hand, underlying the topics are diverse customs, habits, and styles practiced by people living in cultures different from their own. The exploration of these differences is a powerful motivator for the volunteers and learners to engage in conversations, as information gaps are a crucial factor in communication.

Challenges of the viet-Skype project

Since the project is run on a voluntary basis, its efficacy relies heavily on the commitment of the participants on both sides. Unlike a traditional class or exchange program where there is close supervision from teachers, this program has less continuous maintenance, adjustment, and intervention. Approximately half the participants in the past four years have been high school or university students in Vietnam and North America. They have been matched with a partner who is close in age and school level. However, the other half of the students and volunteers vary in age and occupation and are paired by time availability. In some cases, when a pair does not find something in common to share, they lose interest after the first few meetings. This can jeopardize their participation in the project. We recommend that this issue be tackled by a survey or interview conducted prior to the program to gather and analyze some initial information about the participants such as their hobbies, interests, experiences, and expectations, from which we can match suitable pairs of volunteers and learners.

Beginner EFL learners often find native speakers speak too fast. Our evaluation of the project revealed that while there were pairs who were highly engaged in scheduled meetings and even maintained conversations afterward, some others lost interest after a couple of meetings due to a low level of effective communication. If a volunteer lacks the experience and skills to facilitate an EFL beginner to speak in English, it is likely that the learner will not benefit much from the conversation. To prevent this risk of failure, an L1 English speaker with little experience teaching or talking with non-native English speakers should not be matched with an L2 English speaker at the beginner level; instead, a beginner should be matched with a more experienced volunteer, and vice versa, a less experienced volunteer should be matched with a more advanced student. Another solution is to have the coordinator join practice sessions in the first few weeks until the pair get to know each other and be more comfortable conducting conversations by themselves.

There are issues that arise during a program and require consistent support from coordinators, including technical issues, cultural differences, different time zones, and miscommunications between participants that may inhibit the program from normal progress. To tackle these issues, apart from the key coordinator’s effort, Viet-Skype has involved the assistance of the students who used to or are participating in the project themselves. Teachers who want to adopt this model must understand their students’ needs and ensure they select those who have strong motivation and commitment.

EFL teachers who wish to adopt this model could employ social media networks to access L1 English communicators. We suggest that they should contact TESL, TEFL, and ESL organizations both in their home country and in English-speaking countries, as these organizations often have available students who are taking or have completed language education degrees or certificates, and they are willing to participate in such a mentoring program as part of their required internship. Language schools, high schools, and universities in English-speaking countries are another potential source of volunteers that EFL teachers should access, as data on volunteers participating in Viet-Skype over the past nine years has indicated that approximately half of them have come from these organizations. We also recommend that EFL teachers adopting this model make use of local supporters from their colleagues and available students to maintain its stability and sustainability.

Potential for future development and application to other contexts

Due to the lack of authentic environments to use English outside classrooms, this virtual conversation project has the potential to resolve this contextual deficiency. With the widespread use of the Internet, EFL teachers teaching in different education contexts and with learners of different levels can easily connect their students with people from English-speaking countries. Our nine-year project reveals that there is a potential source of native English speakers who wish to participate in such online talks to help students from non-native English-speaking countries practice English. They show a strong interest in exploring other cultures via online conversations with their counterparts. For such practices to be realized and implemented successfully as well as to minimize the challenges that we outlined, we would like to suggest the following practical and pedagogical recommendations.

Role of coordinators: Our results revealed that coordinators play an important role in making this virtual intercultural exchange model run smoothly. Viet-Skype has developed a system of coordinators who provide support to specific groups of Vietnamese learners, aiding them with technical issues, and providing supervision and timely reminders to ensure their engagement. For those who want to adopt this model, we suggest that the selection of coordinators needs to be carefully considered. Equally important is the role of an English-speaking coordinator who helps troubleshoot issues that arise, especially in the early weeks of a new session when participants are getting to know one another. The English-speaking coordinator also must be thorough in orienting new volunteers to ensure they understand what is expected of them and to explain to new volunteers how to effectively communicate with a learner of English as a second language. Orientation interviews taken in Viet-Skype typically last one hour.

Pedagogical considerations: Clear orientation, a learning outline with a list of topics, meeting schedules, and detailed guidelines for different proficiency levels need to be provided for both volunteer tutors and EFL learners so that they can be well-prepared. Even though this model is applicable to EFL learners of any level, our evaluation results showed that it was less effective for the group of beginners since their limited English prohibited them from active interaction with L1 English speakers. We suggest that teachers who want to adopt this model select EFL participants with English competence at least at the pre-intermediate level. With EFL participants as beginners, the program would be effective when there is careful preparation before each meeting, e.g. listing questions and searching vocabulary related to the topic in advance. They should be paired with volunteers who have experience talking with or teaching EFL learners with basic English.

Research-informed considerations: It is important to involve researchers as one of the stakeholders who can inform the implementation of the project that maximizes the opportunities for both learners and interlocutors. For example, each meeting or conversation revolves around a topic with communicative tasks given to both learners and interlocutors. Research has suggested that two-way exchange tasks elicit more negotiation of meaning, which unfolds a wide range of acquisition-rich elements such as comprehensible input, pushed output, and corrective feedback.

Consistent supervision and evaluation: Regular collection of participants’ feedback on the program, appropriate adjustments, and sharing of experience were overarching issues that affected the success of this virtual intercultural exchange project. As previously mentioned, we have effective coordinators on both sides who supervised the activities of paired volunteers and EFL learners and provided them promptly with guidelines and support. Our coordinators also collected regular feedback from participants via interviews and surveys with them and comments posted on the Viet-Skype Facebook page. The key coordinator also organized online forums with international volunteers through which they shared their experiences, innovative ideas, useful content, and materials they collected and used to help the EFL learners.

Flexibility for adaptation: Viet-Skype is a long-term project. We have involved coordinators across Vietnam, including bachelor English majors and English school teachers who provided support for diverse groups of EFL learners categorized by institutions, occupation, or geographical location. However, the project model can still be adapted by teachers who run a similar online conversation program by themselves on a smaller scale without the support of a complex system of sub-coordinators. They may begin with a specific group of students, try the project for a short period, and gradually expand it to a larger scale after an evaluation of success. In fact, Viet-Skype began as a three-month pilot project with a small number of volunteers and learners. The initial stage was used to discover what worked and what did not. Adjustments afterward were made based on the project’s early experiences.

Conclusion

The current study documents how interaction takes place in a technology-mediated environment. We highlight the benefits of conversational interaction for all participants in terms of both language development and growth in confidence. The benefits of interaction have been long supported by second language acquisition research which sees language development through meaning negotiation, purposeful communication, authentic learning environments, and sociocultural interactions (Ellis 2003; Kramsch 1993; Ziegler 2016). What makes this study stand out is the unique context where interaction takes place in online conversations on a participants’ volunteer basis with some support from the program organizers. With a preliminary guideline, EFL learners and volunteer supporters are given an avenue to design materials and create content that meets their interests and best suits individual EFL learners’ language levels and interests.

That L1 English volunteer participants come from various cultures across continents has also created a dynamic and diverse sociocultural context for Vietnamese EFL students in this project to develop both their communicative competence in using English as a global language and intercultural awareness of different cultures not restricted only to a specific English-speaking country or native English speakers (Wee 2008; Widdowson 1998). This also helps language learners be exposed to varieties of English in EFL contexts that lack authentic learning environments and real-life use of English.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nhi Tran

Nhi Tran has been working in higher education for more than 20 years. She has experience in teaching, research, and administration at Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam and the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests include quality assurance in education, education policies, and foreign language learning and teaching.

Diem Thi Ngoc Hoang

Diem Thi Ngoc Hoang is a lecturer at Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam. She completed her master's degree at Lehigh University (USA) with a Fulbright Scholarship, and her PhD at Edith Cowan University (Australia). Her research areas include technology-enhanced learning and teaching, language learning beyond classroom, and teacher training.

Roger Gillespie

Roger Gillespie is a retired Canadian journalist who has worked for newspapers, websites, and the CBC, Canada's national broadcaster. He has two Teaching English as a Second Language certificates, one in 2014 and another in 2017. He co-founded Viet-Skype in 2015. The project matches Vietnamese learners with English speakers for weekly one-on-one online conversation practice. The all-volunteer, non-profit project has matched hundreds of Vietnamese high school and university students as well as English and science teachers with native or fluent English speakers from countries around the world.

Tran Thi Hai Yen

Tran Thi Hai Yen has been an English teacher for 7 years. She is currently a product manager of Education Solutions Cooperation. She was an English lecturer in Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam for 5 years before her current position. She is interested in English oral skills and project-based courses.

Huy Phung

Huy Phung is an experienced language educator proficient in teaching English and Vietnamese as foreign or heritage languages. His areas of expertise encompass task-based interaction, technology-mediated communication, motivation in language learning, and language assessment.

Appendix 1:

Links to Viet-Skype resources

1. Viet-Skype website https://vietskype2019.wixsite.com/vietskype/our-team

2. Viet-Skype Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/VietSkype

3. Viet-Skype Annual Report 2022 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid = 754210493374490&set = pcb.754221943373345

4. Viet-Skype Volunteers’ Meeting 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 4Doh26iFkOc

Appendix 2:

Sample Conversation Prompts

Table

Topic 4: HEALTH
Task 1: Start a conversation with your partner. Talk about the following:1. Do you think that you are a healthy person?2. What do you do to take care of your health?3. Do you have any bad habits?4. Do you think that people in general are healthy now?5. What do you think is important for health?6. What is healthcare like in your country?7. What are some health issues where you live?8. What can people do to keep fit?9. Have you ever had to stay in the hospital?10. What one thing could you do to be healthier?
Task 2: Visually based conversationBoth partners are asked to find two visuals that will represent the theme of health (e.g. Google images, their own pictures): two for Vietnam and two for the volunteer’s country (2 photos or pictures for each person). They are also asked to prepare five discussion questions for each visual image. Outcome: a list of at least 5 differences and 5 similarities between 2 cultures in terms of health.
Task 3: Have a conversation about one of the following situations.1. You have gained weight recently. You go to see a doctor and have a talk with him/her to get some advice on how to lose weight. One person plays the doctor; one person plays the role of the patient.2. Your friend suffers from stress now. Talk with him/her about how to deal with stress. One person plays the role of the stressed person; the other person gives advice on de-stressing.

Appendix 3:

Weekly Conversation Topics of the Sixteen-week Program

Table

Week	Topic
1	Introduction. Who am I? Partners talk about themselves.
2	Food
3	Language and Learning
4	Film and Art
5	Health
6	Sports
7	Transportation
8	Environment
9	Festivals
10	Restaurants and Eating Out
11	Clothes and Fashion
12	Facebook
13	Phones
14	Music
15	Meeting new people
16	Gender Roles

Appendix 4:

A Sample Conversation

Table

Speakers	Transcripts	Notes
V	Today's subject is food. I like meals with curry. I serve rice with especially Indian or Thai curries.	V made a sample first.
S	Oh … Oh … I like noodle. Yes.
V	What's your favorite kind of food?	V gave a prompt to encourage S to speak.
S	Hmm. I think I like noodle and rice, fish and meat.
V	What is your favorite meat?	Prompt from V
S	Ohm. I like beef
V	Ah beef! Beef is good.
S	Ohm. I love vegetables, too.
V	What's your favorite vegetable?	Prompt from V
S	Ohm. I love tomatoes, potatoes and beans.
V	What about fruit?	Prompt from V
S	What about food? Ah fruit? fruit?	S corrected his/her listening comprehension.
V	Uh huh.
S	Oh. I like orange juice and apple juice

V = Volunteer; S = Student.