Here is the brief description that is in the program…

How can teachers support mobile learning without using technology during class? The presentation explores how students can bring real-life, linguistic experiences into class and how teachers can help the students learn from these experiences. Through exploring case studies, you will gain both practical suggestions for activities and guiding pedagogical principles.

And here is the longer proposal…

This presentation demonstrates how students can use mobile devices to enhance their language learning without using technology during formal lessons.

The presenter reflects on his own language learning and his English teaching to show how mobile devices (cameras, MP3-players and cell-phones) can be used to record experiences beyond the classroom and then explore them linguistically in-class.

Students bring their everyday experiences to class, such as MP3 recordings of their real-life conversations, photos of menus/signs and videos/photos of everyday events. The lessons use language analysis to help students better understand these out-of-class experiences and simulations to prepare them for similar situations in the future.

This approach supports out-of-class (informal) learning and focuses on “just-in-time” learning. Students gain key skills such as ‘noticing’ new language and they become more autonomous learners.

The presentation focuses on real and practical activities for teachers to easily apply in their own lessons; yet it is also firmly grounded in pedagogy, including Dogme, dialogic learning, PhotoVoice, Task-based learning, and simulations.

The presentation demonstrates how technology can easily be used for language learning without the teacher or student needing to be familiar with any particular technology: the output, the dialogue and the learning take center stage.

My slot is at 1.30pm on Friday November 12 in the “West D” room (hotel plan at bottom of this PDF). The conference program is already online.

CoTESOL (The Colorado Affiliate of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) will hold its 34th Annual Fall Convention and Exhibition on November 12-13, 2010 at the Red Lion Hotel Denver Southeast, 3200 S Parker Rd, Aurora CO 80014.

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If you are going to be at CoTESOL, please do let me know. I am looking forward to getting to know other language educators in Colorado.

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

Title: Second Life as a Social Learning Environment
Presenters [avatar names]: Howard Vickers & Pierre Moussy [ Howie Yoshikawa & Mieszko Beck ]
Second Life offers language learners a place for meeting others to practice a foreign language. This two-part presentation hears from a language learner about his experiences in Second Life and from a language educator about the lessons learned for encouraging conversation practice in virtual worlds.

• What are the advantages of using Second Life for conversation practice?
• What are the experiences of language learners? What are their motivations?
• Where do they see limitations to this approach? What are the differences between the in-world voice system and text chatting?
• What can we learn from learners about how best to promote fluency through conversation practice in Second Life?

Time: 05.00 – 06.00 (Second Life time = PDT)

Date: Saturday 9 May 2009

Location: EduNation III Amphitheatre in Second Life.

Hope to see you there!

Some related links…

• Scott Thornbury in Second Life
• Jeremy Harmer in 3D – Interview in Second Life
• SLanguages 2009: Dogme ELT for Virtual Worlds

Title: Dogme ELT as a Pedagogy for Language Education in Virtual Worlds
Presenter [avatar name]: Howard Vickers [ Howie Yokishawa ]
The Dogme ELT movement promotes the use of real life materials in the language classroom as a basis for stimulating communication to promote opportunities for language learning. And as such Dogme ELT questions the use of conventional textbooks. Language coursebooks have anyhow yet to appear in virtual worlds such as Second Life, so how can language educators draw on this methodology for their in-world teaching?

• What is Dogme ELT and where is it of most relevance for language education in virtual worlds?
• Examples of virtual world based activities that draw on the Dogme ELT principles.
• How can virtual world activities be integrated into online or offline classes?

The presentation will draw on recent blog articles (below) although it will focus on virtual worlds rather than web 2.0 in general.

• http://www.avatarlanguages.com/blog/dogme-elt-web20-dogme20/
• http://www.avatarlanguages.com/blog/relevance-dogme-web-20/

Time: 18.30 – 19.30 (Second Life time = PDT)

Date: Friday 8 May 2009

Location:  EduNation III Seminar Space in Second Life.

Hope to see you there!

Some related links…

• Scott Thornbury in Second Life
• Jeremy Harmer in 3D – Interview in Second Life
• SLanguages 2009: SL as a Social Learning Environment

The Cardiff Online website is now live at: http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009

The British Council and IATEFL have launched the Cardiff Online website which offers web coverage of this year’s 43rd IATEFL Annual Conference in Cardiff.

The Cardiff Online website allows remote participants to take part in one of the world’s biggest ELT conferences through a variety of resources including:

• Video recordings of selected sessions
• Audio recordings of selected sessions
• Live streamed plenaries and events
• Moderated special interest discussion forums
• Chat sessions
• Blogs and photo albums

Last year, 1,600 teachers and trainers attended the Exeter IATEFL Conference, and over 5,000 participated online.

This year we expect a much larger audience, and this is a real opportunity to take part in the biggest online ELT training community.

The Cardiff Online website gives you an opportunity to share ideas with teachers all around the world. There will be interactive coverage with video presentations, reports and interviews ‘almost live’ from Cardiff.

It is organized by…

• Gavin Dudeney – Honorary Secretary, IATEFL
• Julian Wing – British Council Cardiff Online Project Manager
• Nik Peachey – IATEFL Online Editor

Feel free to embed this on your blog and link to www.slanguages.net.

This presentation is also available on Scribd and in the next few weeks it will be available in a dozen languages…

SLanguages 2009 Conference (Eng)

Second Life is a far more peaceful venue for the SLanguages conference – and I’m sure the 2009 event will be just as safe as the last two, where not a single avatar was lost in action.

clipped from www.linuxinsider.com To bring his point to a fine head, Bainbridge recently conducted a scientific conference in a game world to discuss research in game worlds. Certainly it was the ultimate of demonstrations, virtually speaking. The conference was the first ever held in “World of Warcraft” (“WoW”) and it had its upsides: None of the scientists had to physically travel and none had to buy any additional hardware. But it also had its downsides: Not everyone was familiar with the game; newbie levels limited access to key meeting places in the game world; in-game chat communications require a minimum typing speed of 50wpm; and, newbies are the natural diet for any number of monsters in the game. Several attendees met their deaths, as in plural, on the way to the various conference dinners, events and meeting places. A few gave up after one or more resurrections. All of the near-300 attendees ended up “dead” at the end of the conference. The recently deceased lauded the success of the entire operation.

]]> http://www.avatarlanguages.com/blog/slanguages-relatively-high-survival-rates/feed/ 0 http://www.avatarlanguages.com/blog/slanguages_2009_8-9_may_2009/ http://www.avatarlanguages.com/blog/slanguages_2009_8-9_may_2009/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:30:18 +0000 Howard Vickers http://www.avatarlanguages.com/blog/?p=103 The annual conference on language education in 3d virtual worlds is with us again (for the 3rd time now) and will take place on 8 & 9 May 2009 on the EduNation islands in Second Life.

Further information on the SLanguages website (www.slanguages.net).

Call for Papers

The following is the call for papers for SLanguages 2009…

We would like to invite speakers to submit proposals for seminars, workshops, discussions, demonstrations and poster displays on all aspects of language learning and teaching in Second Life. Sessions should be a maximum of one hour, and you should be prepared to do your session twice over the 24-hour period in order to maximise audience participation globally.

Presentations (in any language) should be voice and text (ask us for tools to facilitate this) and, where possible, include handouts and summaries for the seminar archive, which will be made available shortly after the live event itself. We are particularly interested in the following:

• Reports on language projects
• Materials development
• Teacher training / development
• Practical language demonstrations
• Practical SL skills demonstrations (building, scripting, etc.)
• Field trips to language learning projects
• Research reports

Space will also be made available for exhibitions, poster displays and demonstrations of teaching tools, gadgets and games.

Proposals should draw on experiences to advance the knowledge and information available about virtual worlds in language education.  It is important that attendees leave with a sense of what they could do – either themselves or through collaborating with others.

Proposals should include case studies of experiences.  Of particular interest is how projects developed and evolved in reaction to any changing circumstances and challenges faced.  Conclusions should be drawn including specific recommendations and lessons learned.

Please consider the possible thematic areas at the bottom of this page to guide you in drafting your proposal.  The conference is one of praxis and so although a theoretical foundation will be well received, the focus is on practical insights and tangible advice for other practitioners.

The proposed event (presentation, discussion, workshop etc) can be held in any language.  However, the proposal must specify the event’s language and the proposal itself must be submitted in either English or Spanish.

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If you would like to participate, please contact Dudeney Ge in world (please use a notecard as IMs are often capped), or write to: gavin.dudeney@theconsultants-e.com. Please send the following:

SLanguages 2009

SL Name:
Real Name:
Country:
Email address:
Title of presentation:
Type [ workshop / seminar / discussion / demonstration / research report / other ] :
Length:
Abstract:
Biodata:
Your availability on the day [ as wide a margin as possible, please - PDT/UTC ]

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Submission deadline: Friday April 10, 2009.

Possible Thematic Areas…

Activities, Materials and Content
What activities work well in Second Life, what can we do that we couldn’t do before?

• Material Development and Lesson Planning
• Classroom Management in Virtual Worlds
• Evaluation of Online and Immersive Language Learning
• Games for Learning – What Makes a Good Game?

Second Life as a Learning Environment

• Second Life for Self Access and Independent Learning
• Blended Learning – Second Life in the Real Life Classroom
• Second Life as a Complete Virtual Environment
• Virtual Learning Environments, Personal Learning Environments and Sloodle
• Attracting and Engaging Students (What do students like about SL?)

Mechanics of Second Life

• Teaching Tools and Gadgets
• Scripting and Building in Second Life
• Games for Learning – What Can be Built?
• Teen Grid – Differences from Adult Grid
• Learning to Use Second Life – How Students Learn to Use the World

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