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Second Life as a Social Learning Environment (Presentation at SLanguages 2009)
One of our students, Pierre Moussy, has been using the 3d virtual world, Second Life, to gainconversation practice. His presentation below was given at the SLanguages conference (for language education in virtual worlds); you can listen to Pierre’s presentation and follow hisPowerPoint. Pierre’s talk is especially interesting because it gives us some insights into howlanguages learners actually use second life to talk with others in a foreign language. It also showsus how they benefit from such experiences and how language teachers can better guide their students so that they gain the most from virtual worlds.Using second life for conversation practice focuses on the social experiences available with 3Dvirtual worlds. See “
Dogme as a pedagogy for virtual worlds
” for a presentation of other experiences (immersive, creative and gaming – alongside social) that can be gained in a 3Dvirtual world such as Second Life.
Virtual Worlds as Social Environments
Virtual worlds are social in two main ways. Firstly, it is possible to meet strangers (ie other residents who are unknown to us) at any time, day or night, in Second Life. Although Skype andother 2D online chat rooms have allowed this for a few years now, the sense of physical presencethat 3D virtual worlds offer is quite new. It enables a much more natural way to meet new people,especially as it allows users to simply walk up to other users, or indeed, simply to walk away. Theother way in which Second Life can be used to meet with others, is as a venue for plannedmeetings. In an educational setting, this could be a group lesson or a prearranged meetingamongst some students. Pierre’s presentation focuses on the first way, because he used SecondLife to meet others in a ‘pub’ in Second Life to join in the conversations between the pub’s‘customers’.Pierre’s experiences are interesting because they offer the opportunity to hear directly from alanguage learner and to consider how to best support students such as Pierre. His experiencesdemonstrate the importance of motivation and of feeling confident in conversation practice – evenin 3D virtual worlds, which offer users more anonymity than in real life interactions. However, it isworth looking at each point he made in detail.1.
Virtual worlds are engaging
. In fact, they are so engaging for some as to be almostaddictive. Clearly this is not the experience that everyone has, and many languagelearners do not wish to use Second Life. And perhaps tools such as Google Street Viewis immersive enough for these people. However for some it is very enjoyable andappealing.2.
Virtual Worlds are real
. Indeed, they are sufficiently real for emotions such as self consciousness to be an issue.3.
Languages in virtual words are real
. The use of English, in Pierre’s case waschallenging, because it was fast and not always easy to understand. This made it difficultat times for Pierre to participate, much as casual conversation in real life can be.4.
Text chat is important
. While the conversation is real, it is slightly different from real life,because there is the combination of both voice and text chat. Text is usually the first formof communication, with voices being used for more in depth conversations. The greater role of text chat allows language learners to review the chat history and even look up themeaning of words while text chatting.5.
Casual conversation is less motivating
. Although the immersiveness of Second Life iscertainly attractive and an enjoyable experience, general conversation practice is not initself highly motivating and engaging.There are some observations that can be made from these points. As language teachers we candraw on this to ensure social and communicative experiences in virtual worlds are as effective aspossible.1.There are
psychological barriers
that hinder students from using a virtual world for speaking in public.
 
2.Learners with
lower levels
(A1-B1) may find
general conversations too difficult
. Thiswill be especially relevant for teachers of languages other than English, because thestudents are less likely to have a high level of proficiency.3.
Specific tasks or activities may assist
with addressing the psychological barriers andsupporting lower-level students.4.
Text chat may be a stepping stone
. Even if text chat is not considered the intendedform of communication, it may lead to the learner gaining familiarity and confidence to beable to move on to using voice.An interesting aspect of setting specific tasks is that it bridges the gap between formal classactivities and informal language practice. This means that what happens in class can support theactivities out of class and vice-versa. Homework tasks can be prepared within class time and thensubsequently drawn upon during lessons after the Second Life based work that is done for homework. It is worth mentioning that by integrating lesson work and homework, we areincreasing the variety of opportunities to use Second Life for communicative language learning.There are three main types of tasks that draw on the above…1.
Interviews with other Second Life residents can focus the conversation
on aparticular subject and give greater purpose to the dialogue. This can also be embeddedwithin a broader project or quest-based work. Second Life has many themed islands,which help students find interviewees for a particular topic. If the subject has culturalaspects, then the student can visit the appropriate community or virtual city, such as“Second Krakow”, “Virtual Berlin” or Second Life Japan. In the future this may become amore natural activity if virtual worlds such as Twinity become more widespread.2.
Economic-based tasks such as visiting shops and offices in Second Life
allowstudents to carry out tasks that mirror real life activities. Although there are many real lifecompanies that no longer staff their Second Life offices or stores, there are many real lifeand Second Life shops that continue to have live assistance. When virtual worldsbecome more widespread and commonly used, this will be a much greater opportunity.3.
Events in 3D virtual worlds
, such as the SLanguages conference, tutorials and evenpolitical demonstrations all offer the possibility to speak with others and to research atopic. Conferences and political events allow a focus on the language of opinion andpersuasion.
Second Life is Real Life
All of these tasks draw their relevancy precisely because Second Life and other 3D virtual worldsare so real. Indeed Pierre’s presentation (within Second Life) was so motivating for him becauseothers attended and engaged in discussion with him.
21st Century Skills
Aside from being real, virtual worlds are different and the different styles and habits of communication will likely become more widespread as virtual worlds themselves play anincreasingly role in our lives. As such virtual world communication skills form a part of 21stCentury Skills and so language education with virtual worlds takes on validity in its own right, inmuch the same way that cell phones, pagers and text chat have entered mainstream businessand society.
The Teachers’ Role
The focus of this presentation and text has intentionally been on how independent languageteachers can best use virtual worlds with their students. This approach to using Second Life ismore low-tech than the development of islands specifically for language learning. Clearly suchprojects are not feasible for independent teachers, but more importantly this approachconcentrates on the unique qualities of Second Life: namely that it is a social space that is wellsuited to certain aspects of language learning. The teachers’ role is therefore one of facilitatingthe students’ use of virtual worlds in a similar way as that envisaged in Dogme language teachingwith virtual worlds. Although the teacher will play an active role in the development of the
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