Week 2 Second Life and Education

In this class, we mainly explored the Second Life. We had a tour in Second Life and learn some basic skills in this virtual world. I started to get the idea about why Second Life was introduced in this class. As we were doing the tour, I was surprised about how virtual worlds could be used for language learning. The fact that lectures and meetings could be incorporated in the virtual world really shocked me because I have never thought about the pedagogical purposes of virtual worlds. I used to play Legends of League, and I knew we could also play against people from other countries. However, I did not use it for pedagogical purposes. Another case that occurred to me was one of my best friends who did meet people from Europe or America when playing an online game. He told me it really helped him with language learning. Surely, unlike LOL or games like that, Second Life is more education-focused since there weren’t a lot of games going on in there.

In the first time when I logged in Second Life, I ran into an avatar who started talking to me in Spanish!! I was quite excited about that since I planned on learning Spanish as my 4th language. As we digged deep into Second Life, I came to realize that a great many tools that we had been using could be applied for language learning or teaching. All we had to do was to figure out the way to use for language learning.

After reading the article Language learning in virtual worlds: Research and Practice written by Sadler and Dooly in 2013, I got to know more about using technologies for language teaching. In that article, they presented some statistics of  an experiment they had conducted in a class in Spain. They tested the effectiveness of Second Life on assisting children's language learning. The data demonstrates that the use of VW in language learning has enriched the education purpose. Using VW for language learning helped learners--especially those who were intimidated by speaking to others in person--gain confidence in talking and learning. In addition, VW helped learners achieve the “5Cs” as they can explore new things ranged from specific subjects like art to a broader scope e.g., culture. The knowledge of the potential of VW gave me some insights into teaching Chinese students who were struggling with learning English back in China.