The article focuses on university-based foreign language training from the cognitive angle within the framework of combining formal and informal educational tools. Special emphasis is laid on SpeakApps Tandem tool (a content management system for synchronous speaking tasks) that connects a pair of students and assigns them with roles based on different contents within the same assignment to encourage oral communication on a concrete topic. The paper provides findings of pilot training that combined traditional classroom activities and web-based self studies of students using SpeakApps Tandem tool that met the criteria of information processing cognitive technologies.