When students who are learning English interview students learning Spanish, they both benefit.  For example, consider ways the game Language-Partner strengthens both students:

  1.     Increased Motivation: Since both of you are helping your partner learn your native language, you are the authority and they are listening to you.  Both of you are striving to help each other improve rather than competing against each other. Both students feel motivated to learn and practice language skills so you can communicate effectively with each other.
  2.     Enhanced Cultural Understanding: Studying with students from different language backgrounds creates cultural exchange. You learn to appreciate the culture of your learning partner.  This can foster empathy and respect for people from different backgrounds.
  3.     Expanded Vocabulary: You are exposed to a wider range of vocabulary and language structures. This helps both of you strengthen your awareness of your own vocabulary and understand the differences between languages.
  4.     Improved Language Learning: When you play with a student who has a different language background, you practice speaking and listening to your target language with someone who knows the language. This creates a dynamic language learning environment where both of you can practice and reinforce what you are learning with a native speaker of the target language.

Educators describe the benefit of playing with native speakers in other countries:

After his students participated in an EnTeam Game, Julian Barrero, who teaches English in Bogotá, Colombia, wrote, “I think that it will be a special challenge for our students because it improves not only their skills in an acquisition of the second language English but also these activities stimulate their perception of the world.”

John Ocker, an experienced Spanish teacher in Edison, New Jersey, said the Language-Partner game helps students feel safe in a challenging conversation because the game is cooperative and the students are helping each other be successful. 

Angela Barrera, international languages teacher in northern Michigan, plans to have her students participate because she believes that cooperative games provide an enriching experience that increases language learning, cultural understanding, vocabulary expansion, and motivation.