ROMANCE LANGUAGES PILOT PROJECT

Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Second Life: The next best thing to being there?

INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND SLENZ project group on SL – meeting 2008 Arch & Design school had an island but barely used Presented SL to library and ITS management in 2009 Brown bag lunches with guest speakers to librarians 2011 Initiated a project with Library Technology

Services Presented SL to anyone who would listen

MY VIRTUAL BACKGROUND Really kicked in at SLanguages 2009 Found a helpful, open and passionate Community of

Practice Found a home in both Edunation and Arcachon Taught French, explored sims and read research literature

PROJECT BACKGROUND French 2nd year literature course 2011 – trim1 – no show

up French 2nd year language course 2012

– trim 1 – 3 students Lecturer’s back up Optional – voluntary (intrinsic motivation) Connexion from home Started in Trim1 over 5 weeks Twice a week, 2 hours sessions Oral presentation in front of class 10% final mark Two reliable French helpers from France, Explored Paris mainly (as part of the course outline) No homework just show up VERY Positive feedback both from students and lecturer

2ND PILOT PROJECT Extended to Spanish level A2 and Italian Level A1 Funding for graphic cards and tutor training One language tutor for each language, no

experience One month preparation time and equipment Over 10 weeks, 1h1/2 per session In the lab but some students connected from home Early morning Average time 2 hours prep

AIM OF THE PROJECT

Next stage: With an Experiential

approach (Kolb, 1984)

To bridge the gap between the theoretical learning in the formal instruction of the classroom and the real-life application of the knowledge in the work environment

“To provide a social and contextualised environmentwhere learning is viewedas a social process whereby knowledgeis co-constructed”.

(Wenger and Lave, 1991) and (Herrington and Oliver, 1995)

PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES1. Learning environments (Herrington and Oliver, 1995) Provide authentic context Provide authentic activities Provide access to expert performances and the

modelling of processes Provide multiple roles and perspectives Support collaborative construction of knowledge Provide coaching and scaffolding at critical times Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed Speaking the language of instruction Integrated assessment

French B1Themes:

Cafés and food, show business, philosophy, arts and fashion

Authentic contextArcachon, Paris, Sims dedicated to arts, and holodeck

Activities and articulationInterviews and discussions with native speakers

Expert performance, modelling, coachingNative speakers, tutor and SL facilitator

Integrated assessment:6minutes per student, oral presentation 20% final mark

Italian – A1

Themes: Shopping for food, clothes, giving opinions,

directions Authentic context

Arcachon, Venezia, Napoli, Museum Island, Art Sims

Activities and articulationRole plays, questions on location interaction with objects

Expert performance, modelling, coachingNative speakers, tutor and SL facilitator

Integrated assessment: none

SPANISH MIXEDCourse Themes:

Business, technology, ideologies, hispanic culture etc..

2 out of 3 students abandoned after the 2nd class Authentic context

Machu Pichu, Opera Joven, SLVM, Costa Rica, Insituto Espanol

Activities and articulationDiscussions, questions on location, interaction with objects

Expert performance, modelling, coachingNative speakers, tutor and SL facilitator

Integrated assessment: none but student might choose to write or report to the class orally

STUDENTS IMPRESSIONS

6 respondents out of 12 to a quick survey for this conference 2 had played video games before (GTA and the Sims) None practise language online Getting used to the interface on a scale of 5 (1 = very easy) 1x1, 2x2,

2x3 For most, customising their avatar was difficult (x4)

but 5 enjoyed customising it (identity) Despite issues with camera controls (3) and that technology was

disruptive (5)they all felt immersed exploring the environment and listening to people

2 felt too distracted with the environment to focus on language and also 3 expressed the fact that sessions were too early

3 have made friends with people other than their group All felt it was a positive learning curve, 2 refreshing,

1 useful, 1 scary and 1 boring (multiple select possible)

Really difficult when you are not tech savy. 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

STUDENTS QUOTES

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 vitual!) 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

INSTRUCTORS’ IMPRESSIONS

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,”.

RecommendationsOff-World ITS support (firewall ports, hardware and broadband issues) Department support, VWs 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 them 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 (look and act while delivering and think ahead) Have a plan B (an exploration often works when thought

through)

Touch the rotating box to get the references the slides of this session

QUESTIONS?