The article looks at how the WebQuest model can be used with 3D virtual worlds to enable language learning that is exploratory, social and creative.  It looks at how a Dogme approach can help teachers draw upon the 3D experiences for class-based work.  The paper also considers how this “VirtualQuest” model shares common ground with simulations (unscripted role-plays) and that this naturally leads to a focus on fluency and “whole-task practice” (Littlewood 1981).  VirtualQuests offer scope for more relevant (and therefore more motivating) activities because the student has considerable choice in the quest’s design and implementation.  This approach therefore also requires (and develops) greater autonomy on the part of the learner.

Here is the abstract…

The incorporation of 3D virtual worlds into WebQuests offers a more exploratory approach to language learning, where the learner engages in social, immersive and creative activities as part of the quest’s research. This experiential learning leads the teacher to play a greater facilitator-role and to focus more on responding to students’ needs, and less on preemptively teaching. Dogme language teaching, with its focus on dialogic learning and emergent pedagogy, offers guidance in drawing on virtual world experiences for language classes.

And introduction…

The WebQuest model offers an inquiry based learning approach where much of the research takes place online (Dodge 1997).  As such, WebQuests are a task-based method where learners are guided through the use of the web to discover and explore a topic.  LanguageQuests adopt this model to more specifically reflect the needs of language learners.  This article explores how the LanguageQuest model can be further adapted to take advantage of the exploratory and experiential learning opportunities available in virtual worlds.

The incorporation of 3D virtual worlds into inquiry based learning models changes the nature of the learning experiences and necessitates a less structured style of teaching than normally used with task-based or quest-based learning activities.  Dialogic approaches to language teaching, such as Dogme, are especially relevant for helping teachers to draw upon virtual world experiences for the language learning opportunities that emerge.

The full article is available online at http://www.ucam.edu/corell/issues/Vickers.pdf

Using second life for conversation practice focuses on the social experiences available with 3D virtual 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 3D virtual 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 and other 2D online chat rooms have allowed this for a few years now, the sense of physical presence that 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. The other way in which Second Life can be used to meet with others, is as a venue for planned meetings. In an educational setting, this could be a group lesson or a prearranged meeting amongst some students. Pierre’s presentation focuses on the first way, because he used Second Life 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 a language learner and to consider how to best support students such as Pierre. His experiences demonstrate the importance of motivation and of feeling confident in conversation practice – even in 3D virtual worlds, which offer users more anonymity than in real life interactions. However, it is worth looking at each point he made in detail.

1. Virtual worlds are engaging. In fact, they are so engaging for some as to be almost addictive. Clearly this is not the experience that everyone has, and many language learners do not wish to use Second Life. And perhaps tools such as Google Street View is immersive enough for these people. However for some it is very enjoyable and appealing.
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 was challenging, because it was fast and not always easy to understand. This made it difficult at 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 form of 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 the meaning of words while text chatting.
5. Casual conversation is less motivating. Although the immersiveness of Second Life is certainly attractive and an enjoyable experience, general conversation practice is not in itself highly motivating and engaging.

There are some observations that can be made from these points. As language teachers we can draw on this to ensure social and communicative experiences in virtual worlds are as effective as possible.

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. This will be especially relevant for teachers of languages other than English, because the students are less likely to have a high level of proficiency.
3. Specific tasks or activities may assist with addressing the psychological barriers and supporting lower-level students.
4. Text chat may be a stepping stone. Even if text chat is not considered the intended form of communication, it may lead to the learner gaining familiarity and confidence to be able to move on to using voice.

An interesting aspect of setting specific tasks is that it bridges the gap between formal class activities and informal language practice. This means that what happens in class can support the activities out of class and vice-versa. Homework tasks can be prepared within class time and then subsequently 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 are increasing 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 a particular subject and give greater purpose to the dialogue. This can also be embedded within 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 cultural aspects, 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 a more natural activity if virtual worlds such as Twinity become more widespread.
2. Economic-based tasks such as visiting shops and offices in Second Life allow students to carry out tasks that mirror real life activities. Although there are many real life companies that no longer staff their Second Life offices or stores, there are many real life and Second Life shops that continue to have live assistance. When virtual worlds become 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 even political demonstrations all offer the possibility to speak with others and to research a topic. Conferences and political events allow a focus on the language of opinion and persuasion.

Second Life is Real Life
All of these tasks draw their relevancy precisely because Second Life and other 3D virtual worlds are so real. Indeed Pierre’s presentation (within Second Life) was so motivating for him because others 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 an increasingly role in our lives. As such virtual world communication skills form a part of 21st Century Skills and so language education with virtual worlds takes on validity in its own right, in much the same way that cell phones, pagers and text chat have entered mainstream business and society.

The Teachers’ Role
The focus of this presentation and text has intentionally been on how independent language teachers can best use virtual worlds with their students. This approach to using Second Life is more low-tech than the development of islands specifically for language learning. Clearly such projects are not feasible for independent teachers, but more importantly this approach concentrates on the unique qualities of Second Life: namely that it is a social space that is well suited to certain aspects of language learning. The teachers’ role is therefore one of facilitating the students’ use of virtual worlds in a similar way as that envisaged in Dogme language teaching with virtual worlds. Although the teacher will play an active role in the development of the activities so too will the students to ensure that the use of Second Life is engaging and motivating.

Dogme and Task-Based Learning
There are opportunities to embed the activities in a Dogme or TBL (Task-Based Learning) approach with the Second Life social activities either being an experience that leads to language emergence (in the case of a Dogme lesson) or as a task that is intended to concentrate on a particular aspect of the target language (in the case of TBL). Although the methodology could differ the Second Life activity itself would be possibly quite similar. It is the teaching style that would perhaps differ most, with Dogme being more reflective and TBL being more planned and intentional.

Some related links…

• Dogme for Virtual World Language Learning
• SurReal Quests for Language Learning

This allows for a virtual field trip and for discussions of what the students have found in-world. However, virtual worlds are probably best combined with ordinary 2D websites to draw on the immense quantity (and quality) of real life materials available on the web. These materials are also multimedia with news videos, podcast audios and texts all easily available online. This means that students can do real tasks in language lessons – real tasks that are based on real websites with real content. There are also highly interactive applications online – for example there are free online whiteboards (eg Dabbleboard and Twiddla) and office tools such as Google Docs.

Virtual worlds can then be added to this for role plays, simulations or to simply explore a 3D virtual environment. Students find these immersive experiences to be very engaging and realistic, even though they are in fact virtual.

The above presentation shows an example class that uses both the 2D and 3D web. The content is taken from websites such as Lonely Planet – so they are real descriptions of real restaurants. Images of these same restaurants are easily found using Google Image search. The activities are also based around an everyday task – that of finding somewhere to eat. And since the texts are very similar to that found in a Lonely Planet guidebook, it is exactly the kind of task that is done on holiday.

The 3D element is not based on real places because it is done in Second Life. However, it is easy enough to find different locations so that the student can compare a fine-dining establishment and a burger-bar in the virtual word. Alternatively Google Maps Street View could be used to explore the locations of the real restaurants.

There are 3 YouTube clips that are embedded in the above Slideshare presnetatin, although they often don’t seem to load.  You can find them here too.  The first one is a part of the lesson that introduces some restaurant descriptions to the student.  The task is to match the descriptions with the pictures.

The second clip takes the very same descriptions and invites the student to analyse them in more detail and to choose which words or phrases were key in deciding which restaurant picture was correct.

This third and final clip shows the student visiting restaurants in Second Life to practice some of the phrases and words by describing the virtual locations.

This approach to using 3D virtual environments in class is extremely flexible. It can be done with any level, any language and for a wide range of subjects (restaurants, city locations, rural areas or fantasy places).

Some related links…

• SurReal Language Quests
• Google Maps Street View for Language Learning
• Lively is Dead – So HangOut.net
• Exit Reality – 3D Virtual Experiences for Everyone
• 3D Virtual Tourism for Language Learning: The Forbidden City

A Street View of Madrid is embedded below, so you can click on it and drag the image around to take a look.

View Larger Map

In today’s lesson with a student from Madrid, he showed me around parts of the city using this Street View function. Ruben gave me directions to guide me and then described the locations.

Because the photos were taken with a camera fitted in a Google car, there are set routes along which you can “walk” along the city. The white arrows and line (marked with red circle in the picture below) show where you can walk along. In most cities this is almost any street you can get a car down. The arrow keys take you along these lines and allow you to spin around on the spot. There is also a zoom function to get a closer look.

At Avatar Languages we are making more use of this in lessons – there are a lot of ways it can be used and it makes an interesting alternative to a 3D virtual world such as Second Life. There are no avatars, so you can’t actually meet anyone using Google Maps Street View, but you can share your exact location and even your exact view using the link function (as marked with a red rectangle in the above image).

In other lessons the students have done matching tasks using information from real websites (such as matching restaurant descriptions from Lonely Planet’s site and pictures from Google Image searches) and then done some analytical work with the short texts. The below screenshot shows this matching exercise using the online whiteboard Dabbleboard.

Students then go and visit the locations using Google Maps Street View and are able to describe the surroundings of the restaurant. A similar task is to use property descriptions and photos from online property agents and then visit the neighborhoods to discuss the location and talk about what the student thinks about it.

Street View is very easy to use – go to the map of a city in the countries with Street View (not all country maps have this function – currently it’s USA, Japan, Spain, Italy, France; UK to follow soon). Then drag the yellow avatar (see top left corner of map above) to where you want to visit on the map. Alternatively the balloons offer Street View by clicking on the little photo. The map then shrinks to the bottom right corner.

Although it seems right to say that it’s “almost as good as being there”, from a language lesson’s perspective it is better! We can now “visit” places while taking lots of supporting resources (namely, the internet!) – all from the comfort of your home, office or wherever you are.

Btw, Google has created an explanatory video…

• Accessible on any computer – I have downloaded it to my Acer Aspire One netbook, which would not cope with a full blown virtual world such as Second Life or Twinity.
• Rich content: this is unusual for virtual worlds, which are great for truly immersive learning and for social interaction, but have little text, audio or video content of their own
• Easy to use: the learning curve with the Virtual Forbidden City is pretty shallow, in part because the avatars are not able to do what would be possible in SL (build, use voice, fly, etc) – that said, there are some activities to do within the 3D environment

You can find some more information about this virtual museum at Tim Wang’s blog.

These are some initial thoughts – We’ll see if any students are interested and what can be done with this.