A multi-functioned app “WeChat” has skyrocketed in popularity among adolescent students, particularly Chinese students. WeChat is originally invented for sending voice messages. Now I’ve seen many language teachers using it as an effective tool to engage students in language learning and practicing.

In traditional language classes, students only have in-class time to communicate with teachers. Teachers try their best to demonstrate correct pronunciation as many times as they can. Considering time management, students don’t have enough opportunities to practice and receive feedback. However, with WeChat, students can subscribe to teachers’ official accounts to receive instructions of how to practice pronunciation. New reformed exam Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) is internet-based and requires examinees to speak to the microphone. Most students are unaccustomed to speaking to a machine within limited time (usually one minute). Now many students struggling with TOEFL speaking tasks prefer to use WeChat to send their recorded answers to the teacher. Coincidentally, WeChat voice message limits each message within 59 seconds. Teacher, then, can replay the submitted answers for many times and give a prompt feedback to students, either in text or in voice. Before using WeChat, students needed to find an equipment to record voice and to send to teacher via email. Most students lost motivation to accomplish new oral tasks when waiting for teacher’s feedback. Teachers, on the other hand, often felt hard to give feedback in terms of correcting pronunciation and demonstration.

I myself have been using WeChat to send video clips to demonstrate how to pronounce, and it’s easy for students to watch it for many times. I also sometimes publish audio materials to students, testing their listening proficiency before designing new lessons. I feel that by sending answers and receiving comments immediately on WeChat, students have greater motivation to practice. This new and direct method of communication satisfies adolescents’ curiosity. In my future oral class, I plan to display students’ submitted answers without pointing out senders’ names. I will ask each student to assess the answer based on rubrics I provide. This interaction will help us establish an open and warm atmosphere in class. I will also invite students to join the Chat group to discuss learning needs with me and with each other. Students won’t feel alone during the learning process, because they know their peers are waiting for seeing/hearing their finished products. Until now, I have been receiving former colleagues’ information sent by WeChat (yes, we have a Chat group for language teachers). Many of them share useful resource and students’ feedback on certain learning practice. This has been one of useful resources I need to read everyday to update my knowledge in terms of how to teach English.

I can’t help thinking that can we use YouTube or Facebook to achieve these functions? My answer is that except for WeChat, there is overwhelmingly distracted information on other media. I confess that WeChat also have “My Moments” to show friends’ lives, which could be distracted too, but since WeChat asks for invitation and ID verification to connect each other, it definitely decreases possibilities of distracted updates.

However, I also have some concerns about disproportionately using WeChat among teachers in their teachings. I think teachers are more or less “forced” to research how to use this app to assist students’ learning after school; however, some students may have misunderstandings that teachers are encouraging them to use cellphones a lot. Another concern is that teachers should not establish relationship beyond teacher-student with students. Some students may feel free to use WeChat to confide personal issues since it’s a faster and intimate way compared with email. Last, teachers may spend much time on WeChat to monitor students’ progress or on giving feedback to assignment. They may feel guilty if students wait for feedback for a long time.

Students may check email everyday, but they may check cellphone every hour. WeChat as a successful app has attracted students’ attention for its instant function of sending voice messages,video clip and text messages. Its featured group discussion enables students to stay in a community even after school. Students care about how other classmates including teachers will comment their assignments since these feedback can be seen by all group members. Usually, some technologies or software are not useful to engage young adults for they isolate users (students) from each other and for they fail in providing an instant channel to allow students to receive feedback from teachers and peers they meet everyday.