The immersive language pilot project on Second Life was initiated in 2012 and involved the use of Second Life for 3 language programmes taught at Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Language and Cultures. The intend of this project is – to provide opportunities to interact naturally with native speakers, – to enhance students’ cultural awareness by exploring various sims (RL and fantasy), – to (informally) measure students oral and written input and output compared to what they get in class – to gauge their level of engagement and motivation when immersed in a 3D virtual environment. Following the success of the project, lecturers have expressed their interest in continuing the project in the second trimester of 2013 and is currently in the planning phase. This presentation is a report of findings collated in the first stage of the project: this includes students and tutors impressions on their experience throughout the trimester and recommendations for implementation of such project in a university environment.

1. Second Life: The
next best thing to
being there?

2. Edith Paillat aka Cyber Placebo
 Language Technology Specialist @ Victoria
University
 Supports teaching @ learning 12 languages
 Interests: CoPs & SLA, Immersive environments
and situated learning, experiential approach with
technology
Betsy Quero aka Inspira Alijunaiki
 Teacher of English and Spanish FL over 15 years
 PhD candidate and Spanish tutor @ Victoria
University
 Interests: learner autonomy, language learning

3.  “To provide a social and contextualised
environment where learning is viewed
as a social process and whereby knowledge
is co-constructed”.
(Wenger and Lave, 1991) and (Herrington and Oliver, 1995)
Virtual Spain, getting started
El Instituto Español con Wara Ysabel

4.  To bridge the gap between the theoretical learning
(formal instruction of the classroom) and the real-life
application of knowledge in the work environment
Catedral de Guadalajara @ Opera Joven El dia de los Muertos @ SLVM

5. Combined with the Experiential approach (Kolb, 1984)
where students would not only “do” and “feel” but reflect and
conceptualise their experience to maximise their level of
participation in consecutive sessions
 Oral presentation for the French cohort 20% final mark
Poems & Visual
Arts
on Moya Island
Dancing at the Moulin
Rouge

6.  Project background - trim 1 2012 - French only - 3
students
 Grant for trim 2
 Extended to Spanish level A2 and Italian Level A1
 Funding for 5 graphic cards and tutor training
 One tutor per language, no SL experience
 One month preparation time and equipment
 Over 10 weeks, 1h1/2 per session, early morning
 In the lab (some from home)
 Average time 2 hours preparation

7.  Following Herrington and Oliver, 1995
 Authentic context
 Authentic activities
 Multiple roles and perspectives
 Coaching and scaffolding at critical times
 Expert Performance, modelling
Dancing “Thriller”
on a haunted sim
Ordering Pizza
on Solaria

8. Buying food in Arcachon Visiting a 3rd Art gallery at LEA
Italians and their pets on the Piazza San
Marco
Venezia Visit on a Gondola

9. Exploring Art on Torley Island
Philosophy at the Roman
Discussion at the Moulin Rouge
Driving a French 2CV

10. In the text chat:
Would you consider learning a language in-
world?
Would you consider teaching in-world?
 Tell us if you have any experience

11. Implementation Phase
 ITS support (firewall ports, hardware and broadband
issues)
 Department support, VWs design take a lot of preparation
 Inform and prepare your students well
 Inform and prepare your guest speakers well
In-world
 Plan at least two training sessions (interface, camera,
avatar, etc..)
 Know the environment(s) well to coach students well
 Get them to explore with a mission (short instructions)
 Get them to interact with people you trust
 Don‟t lose contact with them – group management
 Multi-task as the leader  look & act & deliver & think
ahead

12. Explorations
 More thematic treasure hunts
 Broader than simply linguistic and cultural targets
 Improvisation versus controlled
Train guest speakers – less guest speakers
 talking time / silences / questions
 Not at every session
Give time for contemplation then reflection
 Ice breaker recap / mid- / end of session
Propose project early stage
 Digital storytelling in a selected setting
 Machinima as final outcome?
WHAT NEXT: TRIM2 2013

13.  Really difficult when you are not tech
savvy. Sometimes things happened to
environment that you can‟t change
back then you miss the whole
conversation because you try to fix it” -
French B1  This is just a question of taste, but I
dislike the realism of the sims
because the illusion is inevitably
shattered by the unrealistic
behaviour of the
environment, objects,” - French B1
 There was a feeling of natural (even
though it‟s virtual!) and authentic
communication (did not feel forced
to participate) – Spanish B1
 “I liked having the other native
speakers there, the only thing I didn't
enjoy was having second life classes
on things we hadn't gone over in
class” – Italian A1

14.  Together with the quality of selected
guests, the variety of tools at
disposition and the spontaneous
involvement from students, I find the
sessions to have efficiently led the
group to reach the courses goals and
achievements.
Students have appropriately
practised their listening skills and
developed adequate strategies of
comprehension (using virtual
contextual elements)
 Being a total beginner implied for me
to go through a process of initiation,
which I must say was “smooth” and
intuitive.
 Despite a certain “reluctance” inspired
by a background of more „classical
academic approaches,”.

15. Contact us:
 Edith.paillat@vuw.ac.nz
 Betsy.quero@vuw.ac.nz
 http://languagepioneers.pbworks.com
 http://flickr.com/cyberplacebo

16.  Herrington, J. and Oliver, R. (1995) Critical
Characteristics of Situated Learning: Implications for
the Instruction Design of Multimedia. ASCILITE 1995
[online]
 Kohonen, V. 2000. Learning to learn through reflection
– an experiential learning perspective [online]
 Kolb, D. 1984. Experiential learning. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 Whang F., Bruton J.K., Fall J. (2012) A three-step
Model for Designing Initial Second Life_Based Foreign
Language Learning Activities, MERLOT Journal of
Online Learning and Teaching Vol.8, N0.4 December
2012 [online]