NYU Speaking Freely Online: A Pilot

For the past sixteen years, the NYU Speaking Freely Program has served as an informal language learning opportunity, where language “coaches” work with a group of students face-to-face. Administered by the College of Arts and Science (CAS), Speaking Freely has been a free-of-charge, co-curricular (non-credit) program open to any current member of the NYU community.  As such, there are no class size limits or fees associated with this popular offering.

A pilot that takes the Speaking Freely program online in the Summer of 2013 was proposed and approved. The pilot accommodated a limited number (40) of Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), and Spanish learners, and took place over five weeks.  Initial participation by current NYU community members expected.  Creating an online version of Speaking Freely holds great potential for expanding program membership, sustaining initial participation, and integrating best practices in pedagogy.  Specific benefits of online delivery consist of: increased opportunities for speaking, exploring areas of interest, and sharing expertise; more flexibility in scheduling, assessment, and program audience expansion; solutions to NYU’s space limitations; and online pedagogical development for graduate students.

Because this is a pilot program, we conducted process and impact evaluations and then used the results of both to determine the feasibility of online delivery to offer informal learning opportunities and a larger-scale online program, as well as to identify ways in which Speaking Freely Online can ameliorate challenges – limited space, a lack of assessment, administrative burden, absence of pedagogical development – that the in-person version currently faces.