I must begin with a confession. I constantly mocked the idea of going onto Second Life, that is until I explored the program and lost many hours of my Real Life. I must admit that I've become quite the fan of Second Life.
Music (playing and appreciating) has always been a large part of my (real) life, so I decided to explore some of the locations geared towards music. I am now in a couple of 'groups' on Second Life and am informed of Second Life 'events' in the Mod/Soul music scene. (New Wavers, Shoegazers, and Brit-Poppers...you're next!)
Aside from music, teaching ESL has become a central part of my life. I can see how Second Life (SL) could be useful for music fans and second language learners/instructors alike (ESL and otherwise). As an instructor, I believe that language learning is easier when it is contextualized around topics of interest to the learners. On Second Life, a language learner can visit different 'locations' that they find interesting and practice the four skills of speaking and listening (with voice chatting) and reading and writing (with typed chatting). Instructors and students can 'meet' on Second Life and explore places together (e.g. museums, tourist sites, etc.) and talk about them over voice-chat and use the typed-chat feature for clarification of spelling, etc.
Some students may not be comfortable with the idea of being seen over a webcam. This issue is resolved by the fact that, on Second Life, you have an avatar in place of your actual appearance. The anonymity could help in lowering affect, although one's facial expressions and gestures would not be visible (i.e. unless the Second Life participant is quite savvy with the 'gesture' feature). In addition, some students just may not be interested in this kind of format for language learning or have access to a computer that is powerful enough to deal with the program.
With lowered affect AND contextualization around any topic of interest, I think that Second Life is a win/win. However, I would encourage SL participants to set an alarm clock. One's Second Life may take over one's Real Life very easily. Consider yourself forewarned.
Question(s):
How would you use Second Life in language instruction?
Signing off,
Ladybird SecretSpy
Reflection on CALL Experience
14 years ago
Good call, Sabah, pun intended. I've also explored 2nd Life a bit and I think your observation about using the avatar to reduce inhibitions is well put. My question is, where are you going that you are actually meeting people? Sites, please.
ReplyDeleteSabah,
ReplyDeleteI like your point that Second Life allows learners to practice their L2s within an area of their interest.
Assuming the students had access to Second Life outside of the classroom, I think I would create an assignment/task in which students had to visit a site on Second Life of interest to them, communicate with other users, and then report to the class about the communication. It would be nice if the students would be able to bring a print-out of written communication to class so that conversations could be studied for language form and pragmatics. However, if the students used voice chat, I'm not sure how they would be able to bring a copy of the conversation to class.