CMC in the Classroom

Last class we dicussed the different types of CMC in the Foreign language classroom and the pros and cons of such tools in relation to SLA. I think that asynchronous tools such as emails/blogs/discussion boards can be great for students when learning a foreign language. It would be great to set up the students with either native speakers of the target language or with other students that are learning the language as well. I think it would be interesting and benificial for the students to read news articles in the target language and through email/blog/discussion postings they could dicuss the article with their partner that they have been assigned. Through this exchange the students would have the opportunity to not only practice their writing skills in the language but would also have a chance to discuss cultural viewpoints. It would be especially interesting to compare the cultural interpretations of the students that are learning the language with the students that are native to the language and culture. A pro for this type of activity would be that students have a chance to think about what they want to write before they write it and maybe less nervous as they might be if they were having a synchronous discussion through a CMC tool such as AIM or through video/webcam discussions.