Fresh from the press release oven, we have word of an entire 24-hour conference to be held in Second Life this May on the topic of teaching languages in virtual worlds. The event is called SLanguages2008, and it should prove fully multilingual (neat!). It's still two months away, but ESL dorks like myself have been officially advised to mark their calendars. From the release:
"The conference will be held within Second Life allowing the participants to exchange ideas and share experiences simultaneously around the world. The online conference is free to attend and includes talks, workshops, discussions and posters on language education using virtual worlds such as Second Life. The events will cover methodologies, teaching tools and experiences."
It'd would surely be interesting if anything useful came out of this, but what exactly is the point? I get a feeling that people are digging on the wrong spot, when it comes to utilising VWs. Then again, maybe I just don't understand the whole grandeur of SL.
Apart from being innovatively cool, where exactly are the benefits of the VW-media as a form of teaching? Anything I can think off pretty much fails to apply:
- Immersion? Certainly not. SL, or any VW for that matter, is -not- able, and probably won't be able any time soon, to provide the personal face-to-face atmosphere that a meeting with anybody in-flesh does. You simply can't compare two lousily animated avatars to a talk with a real person.
- Costs? Unlikely. Either way, you have to pay for an hour or two of your teacher's time. The few pence you'll save on the transportation will backfire on you with bandwidth and hardware expenses, which you'll have to cover in order to attend the lesson in the first place. As of the volunteers, you'll still be better off finding one in your area rather than attending a free VW-class with 300 participants.
- Learning directly from native speakers? Makes only a minor difference at the early stages and isn't required in formalised form later on. Let's be honest about this one, yes, if I want to learn Spanish, I'd rather have a teacher who grew up and studied in Spain rather than be taught by a Scotsman, who learned it from an Irishman, who learned it from another Scotsman and so forth. You'd certainly adopt a significant bit of culture, history and another native perks from a native speaker, however, would those nifty bonuses make up for the lack of presence of the physical teacher in your vacancy. Probably not.
I can (in a way) see where all the excitement is coming from, i.e. "Yay! new thing, I bet we can revolutionise teaching with it", but let's speak of experience: successfully learning a language is visiting classes with a teacher you can speak to in person (at least twice a week), practicing it, memorising dialogues and discussion themes, reading and practicing again. I’ve reached fluency in good 5 languages (which I use professionally in a purely lingual field), can translate from yet another language and am learning my 7th, by using the scheme above. It works, it’s good and I fail to see where SL fits in there. What exactly am I missing here?
Posted by: Nicholas Chambers | Mar 26, 2008 at 07:30
As the call indicates, there are a lot of people working with language instruction in SL - particularly a lot of ELT.
Why bother? For some, its simply that there is demand for it - people who are already in SL and want to learn languages, and who would like to do so there.
Perhaps there isn't access to a language teacher nearby, or perhaps it is simply preference.
I'm aware of others who are using it with their college students and have been able to use it as a motivating element in class - but without using it to replace all the traditional elements and methods. To use SL doesn't mean you have to throw away books, or any other tools and methods.
"successfully learning a language is visiting classes with a teacher you can speak to in person (at least twice a week), practicing it, memorising dialogues and discussion themes, reading and practicing again."
Yet you cant speak with your tutor, practice your language, memorise your dialogues etc, do reading outside of class and practice when your meetings are virtual why?
Posted by: Daniel Livingstone | Mar 26, 2008 at 19:18
The question is, why would I switch (even partially) from the traditional method to a virtual one, unless I'm living in an abandoned hut in the middle of nowhere, which is hopefully not the demographics these groups are aiming at?
The big point is that, for some people, learning a language, being an intellectual activity, is already quite a challenge, why add even more barriers by tutoring it through a virtual platform that once again has to be mastered (and pardon me saying, SL's clumsy interface barely helps there)?
This is precisely what I mean by digging on the wrong spot. Virtual worlds have a huge potential in the entertainment industry. You can be whatever you like, be that an Orc in WoW, a Spacemarine in R.G.'s Tabula Rasa or a party star in SL. It's about fantasy and immersion, which is what you don't need at all whilst learning to conjugate the passive of the second past tense in French.
In my regard, so take it for what it's worth, there have been or can be a plenty of practical utilisation of VWs, e.g. implementing your body-measures into an avatar and tossing him into a virtual Esprit shop, along with you best friend for feedback. Apart from technical difficulties, this would give you a significant advantage over the current online shopping. You wouldn't have to order 5 sizes in 3 colours, just to send them back again, because they're all too tight on your belly. Ergo, we're pulling use out of the platform by saving energy and time.
Now, and I'm not referring to this post in particular, but some applications seem to have been made just for the sake of being made. Best example is "SL as collaboration platform". Why on earth would you hold a business meeting in SL? What advantages would it give me over the standard spreadsheet screen-sharing? Would it make it easier for the participants? Would we be more efficient?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely pro innovation if it makes sense. This, however, reminds me of rearranging buttons, in your office application, with every new update. It’s innovative, but practically speaking, a total non-sense.
Posted by: Nicholas Chambers | Mar 27, 2008 at 11:30
"The question is, why would I switch (even partially) from the traditional method to a virtual one, unless I'm living in an abandoned hut in the middle of nowhere, which is hopefully not the demographics these groups are aiming at?"
You don't have to live in an abandoned hut to have poor access to teaching facilities. Depending on the language you wish to learn you may have to travel a good distance to receive regular tuition, sure maybe there are plenty of French tutors around but I want to learn Arabic. There's also a lot to be said for receiving tuition in the comfort of your own home.
OK so you could use Skype and do a video link up, but then there are benefits to teaching in a 3D environment where context is shared, even if it's in the simplest form of 'name this thing i'm pointing at'. It also lends itself to more complex roleplays or rehearsals where certain scenarios can be run through in the language of choice. When not actually receiving tuition the student is free to search out the communities within SL and practice what they have learnt whether that be via VOIP or text.
Using a virtual world also allows groups to be taught and take part in exercises together, group teaching on a conference call is very much a one way affair, whereas in a VW the presence of others is immediately obvious, because the environment is shared there are common visual points of reference for everyone.
Posted by: Rob Smart | Apr 15, 2008 at 17:13