VIRTUAL WORLDS: "SECOND LIFE"

Today I will write about virtual worlds and their implications in teaching English. 

Before writing this blog post and reading some articles and research on virtual worlds, I tried to explore "Second Life" - probably the most famous virtual world application - as a user. My task was not evaluating its usefulness as an entertainment tool but trying to find out whether we can use it in English language teaching. Second Life is the only 3D virtual world that I 'tested' and, so, my observations might not be generalizable for other applications.  

Well, after selecting my avatar and creating the account, I tried to do some basic activities to find out what is out there. At first it seemed very promising as there were a lot of instructions, destinations described in a detailed manner - a lot of language that learners can be exposed to. So, I started my tour - walking, running, flying, teleporting to different destinations. I was also happy to find the chat button which actually gives your avatar the opportunity to approach any other avatar (resident of the virtual world) and start a chat with him/her. However, I was disappointed from the first try. The other avatar asked me if I knew Spanish and we quickly switched to Spanish language. Besides, I quickly got bored after going to several destinations. To be fair, I should mention that maybe the problem was that it was the first time I entered the virtual world. Besides, I am a fan of real-life feelings and experience. 

I understood the partial reason of my frustration after reading the article "Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World" by Cynthia M. Cologne. M. Calogne mentions that before immersing our students into the virtual world, we should highlight some accomplishments by other students, the benefits of virtual world courses. Anyway, the article is very general and did not convince me that it's effective to create a virtual world class setting. Of course virtual worlds have their benefits like opportunity for communication, exploration, navigation but I feel this field is still underdeveloped and needs further research and advancement. 

I also read Donald J. Welch's interview on virtual worlds. According to Welch, and I agree with him, the virtual world where an institution would allow only student and faculty access and could control behaviors and things that go on in that world, has much more potential to be used in classrooms than Second Life which is more general purpose. 

As for language learning, the challenge in these environments is to create tasks which require learners and native speakers to interact and where a condition of success in the task is the meaningful use of language, a thing that I didn't see in Second Life. 

Given the above-mentioned circumstances, I will most likely refrain from using virtual worlds in my classroom until more research has been done on its effectiveness in language teaching. 

Anyway, I should confess that virtual worlds have potential of becoming language learning tools in the future. 

One thing to keep in mind - virtual world classes cannot replace campus-based classes. They can supplement them if designed and used properly. Let us wait and see!