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Piccolo Mondo: Virtual worlds for language learning: a look at Second Life by

Piccolo Mondo: Virtual worlds for language learning: a look at Second Life by Kate Borthwick and Ann Jeffery, University of Southampton. Session outline. What is Second Life? Our interest in Second Life for language learning How we got started in SL Benefits and barriers Demo.

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Piccolo Mondo: Virtual worlds for language learning: a look at Second Life by

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  1. Piccolo Mondo: Virtual worlds for language learning: a look at Second Life by Kate Borthwick and Ann Jeffery, University of Southampton

  2. Session outline • What is Second Life? • Our interest in Second Life for language learning • How we got started in SL • Benefits and barriers • Demo

  3. What is Second Life? • Virtual, 3-D world • More than 2,700,000 people registered • Social networking service • Rich environment • Free, but a cost for building/owning land

  4. Our interest in SL for language learning • Users can create content for others to access and use • Over 100 ‘islands’ created for educational use • Research at an early stage • General potential for language learning

  5. La mia seconda vita • My perspective of the adult learner • 2 main difficulties : • getting to classes • Practising Italian conversation • Wanted to explore SL community • What were SL communities actually like? • Were there other language learners? • Would it help me to learn Italian? • Short overview of my experience

  6. Starting out • Choose your name from: • A Linden surname and a personal forename • This affects how people respond to you • My Italian name means Italian people speak to me • Create a basic avatar • Learn the essential movement controls • You decide how you want to look. • Red hair because it often gets a ‘bad press’, green eyes because I could • Unusual combination in SL, gets attention!

  7. Growingup • Overcome shyness, reserve, gain confidence • SL can be a real social leveller • I found friendly, helpful people who have actively helped out • Friends from across the world, across different time zones.

  8. Learning Italian So how has Second Life helped me with my Italian?

  9. My experience • In 4 days, I needed to extend my vocabulary etc. • Dictionaries, verb tables and grammar books. • Translating songs, making jokes, cultural concepts, phrases and sayings. • Now faster with fewer mistakes

  10. Teacher’s perspectiveMettiamo i mobili? A learning activity • Uses the culture of SL • Having land and creating a home • Studentscreate a personal space, • Choose and move their furniture • Could support language learning functions: • Learn directions, position and types of furniture. • Assessment • Screenshots • Recorded dialogues • Reflective diary • Finished house

  11. Q: Dov’é metto il divano?A : La metta in salone. Vicino al fuori

  12. Are there other benefits? • Learning styles can be explored • Visual and kinesthetic are fairly evident, but auditory styles could prove interesting. • Students acquire higher-level skills • such as negotiation, intercultural communication, social, personal and creative skills.

  13. The environment • Endless possibilities: • snowboarding, sailing, waterslides, dancing… • Exploring is one of the most fun things you can do in Second Life. You can do just about anything. • How does it benefit language learning?

  14. Conversation • Sailing in Nantucket - a themed sim • New environments promote new topics of conversation • The conversation turns to boats, and Venice. • Notecard on the bottom right shows how I include accents.

  15. Benefits and barriers • Definite cost in time and effort • Some investment of money • It takes time to get started • Technical issues • Interface issues

  16. Benefits and barriers • On the positive side: • Immersive • Difficult to dip in (very sociable) • Hours spent practising Italian • The limit does appear to be your imagination • Friendly, sociable, collaborative • Rather like the www in the beginning… • Clunky, quirky but undeniably fun.

  17. Overall learning experience • Immersive • Collaborative • Active learning • Role-play • Speed of learning • Importance of cultural knowledge

  18. Demo • A quick view of the environment, the ‘learning centre’, the informal space where we meet up. • Chat in-world with Glenn Hardaker, University of Huddersfield

  19. Useful links and articles • Find out about Second Life at http://secondlife.com/ • Second Life: the official Guide (2007) by Rymaszewski, M., Wagner, J.A., Wallace, M., Winters, C., Ondrejka, C., Batstone-Cunningham, B., and Second Life residents. Pub: Wiley • A useful article about language learning with Second Life by Vance Stevens, http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej39/int.html • The University of California IT Guidance Committee provides a site of useful Second Life information links at: http://www.ucop.edu:8080/display/SecondLife/Articles+and+Papers

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