Language teaching across the digital divide

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of the reflexive relationships between language teaching, social justice and online networking. The overlapping objectives among these three pursuits are considered in the argument for the use of videoconferencing technology in virtual language classrooms for the purpose of revitalizing fossilized languages (in diasporic communities) and endangered languages (in aboriginal communities). The virtual classroom allows for a levelling of the playing field in that the absence of a shared physical space can potentially reduce the weight of cultural and linguistic hegemony. The capacity of the internet to overcome challenges of time and distance means that language speakers and learners in disparate locations can meet in real time to ensure a language's survival. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.