About the Mixxer
The Mixxer is an entirely free non-profit website hosted by Dickinson College. The site is open to anyone looking to practice a with a native speaker in exchange for help with their own. Once registered, users can contact potential language exchange partners via live chat on the site. Members can practice speaking with the language partner via Skype or improve their writing by submitting a writing sample and asking for corrections from native speakers. Those using the writing function are asked to return the favor by correcting short samples in their native language. Our guidelines are very simple. Members are here to practice a language (this is an educational site, not a dating site), and everyone agrees to be respectful and courteous to all users at all times. Welcome to our community where everyone is both teacher and learner.
Teachers
Teachers - Are you a professional teacher? If so, you can connect your students with native speakers via written posts or Skype during or after class hours Interested? Sign up then email me at bryantt@dickinson.edu requesting teacher permissions. I'll just need something to verify you're a teacher and not a spammer. :)
Testimonials
"The Mixxer has, every semester, taken the messiness and the headache out of finding language exchange partners for my students in Spanish, not to mention more than several dozen people willing to drop everything on a Friday morning just to chat with my students in Spanish on Skype. The community here is wonderful."
Barbara Sawhill, Spanish Language Instructor, Bowdoin College.
"My online students frequently mention their satisfaction with the Mixxer program and the enthusiasm of the native French speakers with whom they connect. Over the years, they always mention the goodwill and patience of their language partners as well as their eagerness to practice English with a native speaker. As an instructor, I am delighted that the students get real time practice with French speakers who can help them with listening and their French accent. This program is a gem among language exchange tools."
Dr. Laura L. Franklin, a professor of French at Northern Virginia Community College.
"When a university language course costs up to $5,500 a semester, it’s no wonder so many American adults never become bilingual in their spare time. But there’s a free way to learn language that’s just as effective and even more enjoyable: Find a language partner."
"Becoming bilingual opens up a whole new world of different people, different cultures, and different emotions. It also takes a huge time commitment—one that many of us can't dedicate to. But what if fluency was only 90 days away?"
- Bryant, Todd. "Connect your Students with Native Speakers Today." The FLTMag, July 16, 2016. Accessed September 4, 2017. http://fltmag.com/connect-students-native-speakers-today/.
- Bryant, Todd. "The Mixxer." Educause Review, October 6, 2013. Accessed September 4, 2017. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/10/the-mixxer.
- Meguro, Akiko, and Todd Bryant. "The Mixxer: Connecting Students with Native Speakers via Skype." In Case Studies of Openness in the Language Classroom, 23-31. Research-publishing.net, 2013.
- Others via Google Scholar
Researchers are welcome to contact me at bryantt@dickinson.edu about website and analytics data for use in research in computer mediated communication in the foreign languages provided they obide by the IRB guidelines of the faculty member's institution. See our privacy policy.
