Learning a Language in Virtual Worlds - V

Transcription

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Learning a Language
in Virtual Worlds
A Review of Innovation and ICT
in Language Teaching Methodology
International Conference
Warsaw, 17th November 2011
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Edited by
Prof. Sławomir Czepielewski
Scientific Committee
Prof. Sławomir Czepielewski – Chairman
Prof. Andrzej Filipkowski
Prof. Piotr Sienkiewicz
Ph.D. Marek Kinasiewicz
Organisational Committee
Mateusz Czepielewski
Magda Nowakowska
Tomasz Rączka
ISBN 978-83-88910-36-4
Publisher
Warsaw Academy of Computer Science, Management and Administration
Meksykańska 6
03-948 Warsaw, Poland
tel. +48 22 616-15-66
Printed by
Przedsiębiorstwo Poligraficzno-Wydawnicze “GRAF”
96-321 Żabia Wola, Żelechów, ul. Krakowiańska 12
tel. 0 501 376 898, e-mail: [email protected]
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained therein.
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CONTENTS
Preface ..................................................................................................................... 5
VIRTUAL WORLD AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
Sławomir Czepielewski, Catherine Christodoulopoulou,
Judith Kleiner, Wioletta Mirinaviciute, Eduardo Valencia
Virtual 3D Tools in Online Language Learning ............................................................ 7
Sławomir Czepielewski
The Virtual World of Second Life in Foreign Language Learning .......................... 15
Luisa Panichi
Virtual Worlds: An Opportunity for Thinking about Learning ...................................... 25
Anke Berns, Antonio Gonzàlez-Pardo, David Camacho
Implementing the Use of Virtual Worlds in the Teaching of Foreign Languages
(level A1) ................................................................................................................ 33
Jessica Driscoll
The Future of Textbooks: Bringing Business English Market Leader to Life .......... 41
Ilaria Mascitti, Monica Fasciani, Daniela Di Marco
Street Artists in a Virtual Space ............................................................................. 47
Mats Deutschmann, Anders Steinvall & Anna Lagerström
Gender-Bending in Virtual Space - Using Voice-Morphing in Second Life
to Raise Sociolinguistic Gender Awareness ........................................................... 54
Ciara R. Wigham, John Fynn
An Asynchronous Virtual Space for Contact-Based Oral Work with Chinese
Students Learning English ..................................................................................... 62
Kristi Jauregi
Integrating Meaningful Interactions through Virtual Tools in Foreign Language
Education: Looking at the Added Value ................................................................. 73
Monika Nowakowska-Twaróg
The Virtual Teaching System 50+ .......................................................................... 81
ICT AND INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Herta Johansmeier
MemoStep6: Building up a Mental Lexicon in Foreign Languages.
A new Approach to Vocabulary Acquisition with Digital Flash Cards ..................... 86
Małgorzata Gawlik-Kobylińska, Dariusz Poczekalewicz
Military English (Intermediate) e-Project. Students as English Teachers ............... 94
Zdzisław Głębocki
WebQuests Revisited ........................................................................................... 100
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Emilia Korczynska
CALL Software as an Alternative to Natural Immersion in Adult SLA
– a Remedy to the Existing Problems? ................................................................ 106
Jarosław Krajka, Sylwia Maciaszczyk
Implementing Social Media in the Language Classroom ..................................... 112
Erik-Jan Kuipers
L10N in Poland – Open Source as a Solution for Computer Game Translation
Training ................................................................................................................. 119
Paweł D. Madej
Internet Platforms in EFL Teaching ...................................................................... 129
Paweł D. Madej
The Use of ICT Tools in Teaching Foreign Languages ........................................ 134
Magdalena Moderacka-Dołgało
Learning Online for Middle-Aged People – Why Not? .......................................... 141
Christine Rodrigues
An Analysis of the Potential of a Computer-Mediated Learning Course for
Vocabulary Learning in L2 .................................................................................... 145
Piotr Szałaśny, Marta Grubka
A Few Words about Video Games and Foreign Language Acquisition ................ 157
Eduardo Valencia
Pulitzer. Learn English with a Social Game ......................................................... 163
Małgorzata Gawlik-Kobylińska
The Psychological Influence of Music on Adults Learning English
at Elementary Level ............................................................................................. 173
Vicente Alapont
The Best Way to Learn Languages ..................................................................... 180
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“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”
John Dewey
Preface
The fast and ongoing development of Information and Communication
Technologies brings significant changes to every sphere of human life,
including education. In order to keep up with the rapidly changing reality,
our attitudes towards teaching and learning need a radical transformation.
This publication presents the proceedings of an international conference
‘Future Language Learning Now: Innovative Applications and Methods for
Language Training’. It was held in Warsaw on 17th November 2011, under
the patronage of prof. Barbara Kudrycka, the Polish Minister of Science and
Higher Education.
1. Background
The conference was a final event of a two-year EU funded project V-Lang
“Creative and Open Language Training in Virtual Worlds”. This international
project was realized by a consortium of six institutions from Spain, Greece,
Poland, Lithuania and Germany, under the Key Activity 3 – Information and
Communication Technologies, of the Lifelong Learning Programme. The
project focused on development, experimentation and dissemination of an
Open Source based Toolkit. It consists of a ready to use and upgradeable,
immersive virtual learning environment, as well as methodology guidelines,
enabling implementation and evaluation of this innovative approach to
language learning.
2. Conference
The conference ‘Future Language Learning Now: Innovative Applications
and Methods for Language Training’, was hosted by one of the V-Lang
project partners – Warsaw Academy of Computer Science Management and
Administration. The event aimed at presentation of theoretical and practical
aspects of innovative methods and advanced technological solutions applied
in foreign language learning and teaching. It was attended by representatives
of academic world from all over Poland and several other European countries.
There were practitioners in the field of linguistic education, lecturers, teachers,
university and high school students, representatives of national and regional
educational institutions as well as representatives of companies acting in the
field of linguistic education. The programme of the conference was divided
into two thematic blocks. In the first part the participants were familiarised
with the idea of virtual worlds and their practical usage in foreign language
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learning and teaching. Thanks to multimedia and interactive presentations
prepared by the speakers, the conference attendees witnessed an interaction
between lecturers and avatars, that represent a new type of students in
a virtual classroom. The second part of the conference was focused on other
information and communication technologies applied in language learning
and teaching at universities, high schools and in private companies.
3. Proceedings
The thematic structure of the conference was reflected in the proceedings.
The first part of this publication is dedicated to “Virtual Worlds As a Foreign
Language Learning Environment”. It presents the latest ideas, research
and findings concerning the application of virtual learning environments in
education, with particular emphasis on language learning and teaching. It
also includes an overview of European projects dealing with virtual learning
environments. The second part “ICT and Innovation in Language Learning”
includes papers presenting a wide range of state of the art tools, applications
and learning methods based on innovative Information and Communication
Technologies. The publication gives an opportunity to reflect on the present
and the future of computer assisted education; the changes that are being
done and need to be done in future to teaching methodologies, tools and
curricula as well as the approach of educators and learners in order to adjust
the education of tomorrow to the requirements of a rapidly changing reality.
4. Acknowledgements
Obviously no book can be a result of individual work. We would like to express
many thanks to a number of people who contributed to this publication. We
are most grateful to Prof. Barbara Kudrycka, the Polish Minister of Science
and Higher Education for taking patronage over the conference ‘Future
Language Learning Now: Innovative Applications and Methods for Language
Training’ and the present publication. We were truly honoured to have her
prestigious support.We are also deeply indebted to all the authors of articles,
who have decided to share their passion, enthusiasm, experience and
excessive knowledge in the field of educational innovations with the readers.
Neither the V-Lang conference, nor this publication would come into being
without the enormous work of the V-Lang project team and the hospitality of
Warsaw Academy of Computer Science, Management and Administration.
We are also truly grateful to all those anonymous contributors, whom we are
unable to list here, but who have dedicated many hours of hard work to this
publication.
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Virtual 3D Tools in Online Language Learning
Sławomir Czepielewski1, Catherine Christodoulopoulou 2 ,
Judith Kleiner3, Wioletta Mirinaviciute4, Eduardo Valencia5
Warsaw Academy of Computer Science, Management and Administration
Warsaw /Poland, 2Computer Technology Institute & Press “Diophantus”
Patra/Greece, 3Dialoge Sprachinstitut Lindau/Germany, 4Soros International
House Vilnius/Lithuania, 5DOT Pamplona/Spain
e-mail: [email protected],
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[email protected], [email protected],
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[email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract
The dynamic development of ICT technologies and Internet offers new tools
and opportunities for more effective, comfortable and attractive teaching
and learning. It is especially important in contemporary world offering
many appealing and attractive ways to spend available free time. The real
challenge for teachers is to get acquainted with these new tools and be
taught how to use them in their everyday activities. Totally new approach
and new methodologies are required.
The V-Lang project aims at overcoming the above mentioned problems with
the results being very helpful. The basic results of V-Lang project, open
source software for online management of training experiences by teachers
and students and ready to use and upgradable Virtual World with a virtual
village, virtual classrooms and meeting spaces, are described and it is
explained how to use them. Methodology Guidelines on the integration of
online/blended and virtual learning are presented and clarified. We show
the results of pilot testing in 3 European countries for 3 different groups of
beneficiaries, sharing experiences and conclusions. The Toolkit for creation
of virtual worlds is free and available on the website of the V-Lang project.
1. Introduction
Virtual communication becomes an integral part of the 21st century culture.
So it becomes a necessity to use it in the process of education. Modern
teaching with ICT technologies opens up unprecedented opportunities for
teachers and students. E-learning is growing at a rapid pace and is already
properly rooted in educational systems of countries belonging to the EU. The
next stage in this type of teaching and learning is adopting 3D technology.
Virtual worlds and 3D communities are useful for teaching foreign languages.
The benefits of their use are varied. They give opportunity to meet strangers
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S. Czepielewski, C. Christodoulopoulou, J. Kleiner, W. Mirinaviciute, E. Valencia
at any time of day or night, in a virtual simulation of real life and to organize
virtual meetings with other participants of the course in defined, virtual place.
This could be a lesson in the school or arranged group activities.
Benefits of using 3D virtual worlds in education:
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teacher may cooperate with students on less formal basis, and
students can choose an individual learning program and establish
cooperation with other participants,
the presence of avatars created according to individual needs,
the risks reduction associated with lack of success for the student,
activities may be conducted outside the virtual classroom, for
example, in any unreal space or based on real examples,
creating many communication opportunities between the teacher and
the student, both in collective and individual mode, in various forms,
such as chat, message, e-mail, verbal and visual communication in
real time.
Problems with using 3D virtual worlds in education:
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there may occur some problems with maintaining the discipline,
relationships between the participants may cause problems due to
possibility of identity changing - it may hinder the building up of trust
between students,
anonymity offered by the virtual world may provoke some not
acceptable behaviours.
2. What is V-Lang?
V-Lang “Creative and Open Language Training in Virtual Worlds” is
a European project co-funded by Lifelong Learning Programme under Key
Activity 3 – Information and Communication Technologies
The basic assumption of V-Lang project is to create a virtual 3D space
dedicated to learning foreign languages. On the one hand the project
supports teachers in solving problems related to the knowledge about
modern teaching tools and their applications in everyday work. On the other
hand it offers the beneficiaries a modern and attractive opportunity to learn
the language. The V-Lang project intends to contribute to the promotion of
innovative forms of language training by means of applying ICT in the design
and implementation of language courses. The use of Virtual 3D Worlds in
on line language training provides a full audio communication system which
allows putting into practice students’ language skills in immersive and social
environments, in Collaborative and Problem-Based Learning environments
that promote creativity. Creating communication techniques attractive for all
kinds of students motivates them to active learning of foreign language and
cooperation. Another intention of the authors is to use sociological advantages
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of 3D virtual worlds and develop informal ways of contact between students
and implement group work.
Objectives:
1. To develop V-Lang Toolkit:
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Ready to use and upgradable Virtual World containing a virtual
island, virtual classes and meeting halls.
Open source software for the on line management of training
experiences by teachers and students.
Methodology Guidelines on the integration of on line/blended &
virtual learning.
2. To carry out Pilot Testing in 3 EU countries.
Impact:
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More than 240 target groups reached.
20.000 people reached by digital means.
40 stakeholders using the Toolkit.
3. Final Product of V-Lang- a V-Lang Toolkit
Final product will be an affordable and easy to use toolkit for language
providers and a very accessible and appealing environment for learners,
especially those at risk of exclusion. The Toolkit will provide a ready to install
virtual village and classrooms allowing for immersive and collaborative
training , as well as methodology guidelines for the integration and impact
assessment of such approach to traditional on line language training
3.1 A V-Lang Platform
The basic results of the V-Lang project, open source software for online
management of training experiences by teachers and students and ready
to use and upgradable Virtual World with a virtual island, virtual classrooms
and meeting spaces, are described and it is explained how to use them.
Specifically, V-Lang aims at widespread use of Virtual Learning settings
within online language training, already successfully tested by commercial
products such as Language Lab. To that end, V-Lang Strategy focuses on
the development, experimentation and dissemination of a free Toolkit built
upon Open Source that will allow swift integration of Virtual Worlds in online
language learning.
3.2 Methodology Guidelines[2]
Teaching through 3D virtual worlds requires the development of entirely
new teaching methods and new approaches to learning from teachers
10 S. Czepielewski, C. Christodoulopoulou, J. Kleiner, W. Mirinaviciute, E. Valencia
and students. Methodological solutions proposed in V-lang project are
developed for specific needs of teachers to preparing virtual sessions. They
are accompanied by a number of guidelines for teachers to be successful
in conditions of virtual class, where a teacher is less able to enforce the
concentration of listeners, while a student has more autonomy than during
a lesson in the real world.
The methodology of teaching foreign languages using 3D virtual worlds in
V-Lang project is benefiting from the best practices used successfully by
other creators of educational virtual worlds. On the basis of these good
practices V-Lang created its own original virtual space dedicated to language
education. The guidelines of the following teaching methodologies: online /
mixed and virtual are presented and explained.
In particular, the produced Methodology Guidelines contain 2 parts: The
technical information and the practical information. The topics covered in the
Methodology Guidelines are the following:
Technical information
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What is a Virtual World?
How is the Virtual World used?
How does a classroom work in traditional conditions?
How does a classroom work in a Virtual World?
Language learning in Virtual Worlds means:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Virtual World
Worth knowing
Practical information
How do you teach languages in V-Lang?
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Several ways of communication with your students
The teaching potential of the 3D environment
The teaching potential of the Avatar
What to take into consideration when you design your virtual course?
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“Force” your students to actively communicate with each other
Include “role-playing” function in your activities
Include socialization aspect
Useful Tips to keep in mind
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Master technical features
Establish clear and specific rules for the communication process
Give specific information to your students
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When your students age ranges from 8 to 11 and from 15 to 17 and
the language level is A2 and/or B1
When your students’ age ranges from 20-25, they are international
students and their language level is B1-B2
When your students’ language level is A1
4. Pilot testing [1]
One of the tasks of the V-Lang project was to conduct pilot tests in three
groups from three countries: Lithuania, Germany and Poland. The testing
aimed at examining the produced platform along with the Methodology
Guidelines
4.1. Pilot testing in 3 participating countries
Soros International House, LT
The piloting experience took place at Soros International House Vilnius. The
platform was used to teach English.
There were two target groups for piloting:
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SIH students - age range from 15 to 17
SIH summer camp students-age range from 8 to 11
The total number of students involved in piloting - 25.The number of teachers2. The piloting was divided into five 30- minute sessions. The testing of
V-Lang was included into the training programme of 15-17 year olds as an
addition to the lesson to revise or consolidate the materials learned during
the lesson, which was organized in a normal classroom. As summer camp
students were not familiar with virtual worlds or second life, therefore their
English teacher organized a kind of introduction into the V-lang platform using
interactive whiteboard. Children and their teacher were in different rooms.
Dialoge Sprachinstitut Lindau, DE
The testing of the V-Lang platform used to teach German was organized by
Dialoge Sprachinstitut teachers.
Target group - former Dialog students from different countries- all adults.
The total number of students involved in piloting: 8. The number of teachers: 1.
The piloting was divided into five 60-90- minute session for each group
A full online testing was carried out. At the beginning there were individual
meetings lasting 15 min. with each student on the platform and then group
meetings took place. Students worked on different language tasks prepared
by their teacher. The sessions took place at 7 p.m. The students involved
in piloting were in different countries; therefore it was the best time to have
them all on the platform.
Warsaw Academy, PL
The testing of the V-Lang project took place in Warsaw in May and June
2011. Warsaw Academy was responsible for testing the V-Lang platform
used to teach Spanish.
Target group for piloting- students-age range from 20 to 40
The total number of students involved in piloting -36.The number of teachers- 2.
The piloting was divided into eight 60-minute sessions.
Each session consisted of 2 parts: a short technical training conducted in
Polish and a 45-minute Spanish lesson.
Two professional Spanish teachers were employed to perform this task.
The teachers prepared the syllabus of the lesson that was formally set at A1
(elementary) level according to CEFR (Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages). All the sessions took place in the evenings (6pm
– 9pm) as the majority of participants were working adults.
4.2. Evaluation Process
Evaluation questionnaires were created for teachers and students to evaluate
the platform in terms of:
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the level of difficulty in using the platform
the most attractive features of the platform
the overall impression of the class experience after using V- Lang for
learning
the advantages and the disadvantages of the platform
Advantages and the disadvantages of virtual teaching
Suggestions concerning further improvement of the platform
There was also a question devoted to evaluation of the Methodology
Guidelines.
4.3. Evaluation results
Usefulness of Methodology Guidelines
The Methodology Guidelines were used by teachers while planning virtual
sessions. All the teachers commented on their usefulness, pointed out all
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the practical hints the guidelines offered. The guidelines are relevant for the
virtual classroom experience in which the roles of a teacher and a student
have to be redefined considering the virtual, not real, environment, which
equips the teacher with less power and the student with more autonomy.
Teachers were of the opinion that the guidelines could be shorter and more
practical. There should be less text so that it would be easier to find things
you are looking for.
The V-Lang Platform management
The overall feedback received after the sessions was very positive. The
participants liked the innovative and interactive character of the V-Lang
platform. They enjoyed the functionality of the software which offers
tremendous opportunities for learning foreign languages. They also enjoyed
the platform features which, for instance, allowed them to create and modify
avatars, they could enjoy another dimension of activity, could fly and go
visiting other places, chat with their friends
Benefits of using V-Lang platform to assist teaching
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offers a very effective way of learning a foreign language
provides simulation of real life environments
the role model activities are more enjoyable and engaging for
students
a full audio communication system which allows students to talk and
listen within virtual classrooms
at initial stage of language learning the platform should only be used
as a complementary component of a traditional language course
the platform would probably perform its task more effectively if used
with more advanced students that already can communicate in
a foreign language.
Obstacles faced
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The main obstacle of the platform highlighted in the final evaluation
questionnaires is its strong dependence on technology.
Communication – students could not hear each other and had to use
other software (e.g. Skype) for audio communication
Projector functioning- it didn’t work properly
The software is not suitable for all computers
Stressful for the teacher to handle technical problems and at the
same time to concentrate on the contents of the lesson
Lack of computer skills among students
Lack of non-verbal communication
Difficulties in keeping students on tasks (especially young learners)
Some confusing menu options e.g. my library –Open Sim library
Less material covered than in a traditional classroom
Advantages of virtual teaching
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Distance learning: students can learn from home
A lot of language educational applications
More interesting learning experience
Integration of different items into the lesson
Possibilities of simulating real life situations
It’s not boring
Features like note card and chat can be very helpful in organizing
language lessons
Role playing activities
Activities include students teaching each other how to do things
Extensive use of inventory as basis for vocabulary expansion
All media at hand
Disadvantages of virtual teaching
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Lack of feedback
Frustration experienced by some of the students
Class management problems
Too much dependency on technology
Too time consuming
Stressful for the teacher to concentrate on both the technical support
and teaching at the same time
Suggestions to improve the platform and the guides
First of all, the functionality of the projector should be improved. The
projector plays a role of a virtual blackboard and as such it has to be reliable
for both students and teachers. It should enable showing both Power Point
presentations as well as pdf and video files. Some students suggested that
some V-Lang functions should be removed from the user’s interface as they
distract attention and may overwhelm a new user, especially someone who
is not very familiar with IT.
References
[1] V-Lang Report on Piloting, Soros International House, 2011
[2] V-Lang Methodologies Guidelines, Computer Technology Institute &
Press “Diophantus”, 2011
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The Virtual World of Second Life in Foreign
Language Learning
Warsaw Academy of Computer Science, Management and Administration,
Warsaw /Poland
e-mail:[email protected]
Abstract
The use of ICT has become an indispensable element not only of social life
but also business and economic relations. It is also slowly revolutionizing the
educational process. The direction of its development is determined by the
3D technology, which brings incredible and unique opportunity for education,
especially in the field of foreign language training. This process can be observed
as more and more language schools offer their services in the Second Life
(SL), furthermore there are some which were created and offer their services
only there, in virtual worlds. What makes the virtual worlds gaining more and
more popularity among students and teachers? Why the 3D environment is an
extremely conducive environment for learning foreign languages?
The uniqueness of SL is mainly determined by strong involvement of all
senses and strong commitment of emotions, which gives the feeling that
education is becoming “real reality”. In SL, there works the phenomenon of
linguistic and cultural immersion, which is coherent with “full immersion” in
foreign language, by communicating and explaining the entire virtual world
only by using a foreign language. In addition, the user can also perform
individual needs through the creation of virtual identities through his/her
avatars. Language training in 3D worlds provides students and teachers with
unique opportunities and tools which are not available in traditional language
training methods. It also allows for the use of communication tools and
educational resources which are not available in other forms of e-learning.
Therefore education with use of SL is becoming more and more popular and
it is a real opportunity to make changes in the way learning and teaching is
performed.
Introduction
Information and communication technologies are inevitably affecting each
sphere of life. Today the exchange of information with use of ICT determines
the economy and business, as well as social life. Individuals exist on the
Internet, thus all their affairs pervade the web – at the same time the Internet
pervades human life. Sometimes it is easier to find somebody in cyberspace
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than in real life. It also happens that such contacts are quite sufficient [1].
Regardless of personal opinions about information and communication
technologies the fact is that they are an inseparable element of human life.
They have become reality and are a part of everyday life, treated either as
a source of information, or as a tool for work, or as alternative reality. More
and more frequently they are also used as a learning environment.
Didactics is being revolutionised by technology. Changing means of
communication as well as functioning in an environment different from
the real one, leaves a stamp on technology. Today ICT supplements the
learning process realized in real world. Still, a 3D technology determines the
course of technological evolution. A three-dimensional virtual space creates
unprecedented educational opportunities – especially for language learning
– and can revolutionise the didactic process. There are even theories
suggesting that in future education may be entirely moved to the cyberspace.
What is a virtual world of Second Life?
Second Life (SL) is a virtual, three-dimensional environment that simulates
reality. The user of SL creates an avatar, that is kind of an alter ego, enabling
unrestricted individual creation. Avatars, like people, communicate with voice,
text messages, body language and gestures. SL is a place where people
originating form different countries, environments and cultures contact one
another in real time. The website provides the users with entertainment,
social life, business opportunities. It can also be a field of marketing activities
and, more and more often, educational ones.
The most popular Serious Virtual World is Second Life – a product of Linden
Labs. It is estimated that over 15 million people all over the world have their
user accounts on the platform. Educational career of Second Life began
in 2007, when the first language schools appeared on the platform. Their
success initiated a new stage in development of e-learning. Due to an
enormous educational potential of 3D environments, the usage of “second
life” in educational process is gaining greater and greater popularity. What
does determine this attractiveness? It is based on a variety of options
offered by tools available in SL. Individual or group lessons can have much
more interesting form than traditional classes or even participation in 2D
multimedia education. Second Life belongs to a category of Serious Virtual
Worlds. Even though they were initially made for entertainment, they are not
games. They are an imitation of the real world, where each of the participants
can realize his own objectives – connected with social life, entertainment
or business. One of such objectives may also be education. Second Life
is an open world created by the users. Everyone can join the platform and
create his own part of the world. Currently schools and universities have
their own islands in SL. They are accompanied by educational platforms and
institutions existing only in virtual world. It is also a place where conferences,
meetings and the exchange of scientific ideas take place [2].
The Virtual World of Second Life in Foreign Language Learning
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Why 3D?
In a 3D technology image has undergone an evolution. Human dreams about
the third dimension in images came true. The artists were trying to overcome
its “flatness” with different artistic tricks. But it was only the development of
technology that changed the role of user from a spectator to a participant.
A three dimensional space intensifies emotional engagement of users.
People begin to look upon an electronic 3D environment as a different kind
of reality. The user is not surrounded with pictures, but with an electronic
reality. A Serious Virtual World makes people experience and value things.
While traditional e-learning, realized with use of a 2D technology or even
audiovisual media, despite all the advantages, leaves the awareness of
using another medium, a 3D technology is engaging student’s senses and
emotions so strongly, that education in SL becomes real. A user of Second
Life perceives the virtual space not as a simulation, but as a real surrounding
[3]. The characteristics of a 3D environment change basic notions known
from the real world, such as:
§ Communication. Interactivity changes its character from unilateral to
multilateral.
§ Presence. Existence in a particular real place and time becomes
existence in electronic form through virtual identity.
§ Senses. Virtual World is a mediator of sensory perception.
§ Contact. The immateriality of virtual worlds changes the sense of
time and space – electronic contact is completely different from the
real one. Contact is realized with an interface that exerts significant
influence on linguistic expression [4].
Existence of an individual in an electronic environment is regulated by
several rules:
§ Cyberspace is a reality alternative to the physical world.
§ Cyberspace is a human world, capable of adopting all the aspects
of humanity, including emotions and feelings, as well as spiritual
values.
§ Cyberspace is a place of auto-creation, creation, exploration and
expression, where each kind of human activity is manifested.
§ Cyberspace is a source of opportunities different from those available
in the physical world.
§ Cyberspace can be a place of existential choices and making
decisions concerning reality, in which people want to function.
§ Cyberspace is evolving faster than the physical world, influencing
human’s evolution [5].
On the one hand, by changing the needs and value system, technology is
changing human being and his attitude towards the real life. On the other
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hand people are using technology to achieve their own goals, and thus
become more and more attached to the world wide web. Special kind of
relationships between human beings and technology appears in case of 3D
worlds. They are connected with engagement in virtual reality.
A virtual world and didactics
The use of a 3D environment in education may change the didactic process.
It is connected mainly with methods of communication, as well as existence
in an environment that in many ways differs from the physical world. The
users of Second Life are leading an alternative life online. On the basis of
technology they create a new identity and in fact realize all forms of human
activity [6]. Due to their characteristic features, virtual worlds – unlike
traditional e-learning – are not only meant to support the process of teaching.
The point is to move the whole didactic process to the cyberspace [7].
The first attempts to use virtual reality in didactics were undertaken in the 90s
of the last century. At that time technologies excluding the user entirely from
the real world were developed. The user was putting on a helmet with an inner
screen, on which a three-dimensional image was displayed [8]. Still, it was only
the common availability of computers, the Internet, as well as development of
ICT that enabled comprehensive exploitation of 3D technologies in didactics.
But why is it worth to use them in language learning?
From didactic point of view, the most interesting are Serious Virtual Worlds
(SVW). A “serious” world is not a game – it is based on different rules. There
are no missions to complete, no levels and no points to gain. An SVW is
co-created by the users and adjusted to their needs. They can establish
social relationships, create different types of objects and places, trade, earn
money, offer services, communicate with voice or chat, travel.
Second Life is also a place of language acquisition. The term was taken from
the behavioural theory. According to this theory, a child assimilates speech
sounds from the surrounding and at the same time, in a way automatically,
develops the system of an inner language. The theory also estimates that
development of language skills is not based on elimination of incorrect forms,
but on continuous development of linguistic hypotheses based on heard input
or linguistic stimuli. Language constructs are tested in practice and verified.
In Second Life people of different age may experience this process. A threedimensional virtual world is also a place of cultural acquisition based on the
communication context and the role of a speaker. It is particularly important,
as the development of correct language structures is determined not only by
the range of vocabulary or the knowledge about grammar, but also by proper
understanding what, how, when and to whom can be said [9].
A 3D technology brought the phenomena of immersion, telematics and
immateriality to language learning. They determine the existence of a „logged-in”
19
person – they are equivalents of space, time and matter in the real world
[10]. Immersion in virtual worlds is connected with a feeling of „merging”
into the alternative reality, based on the feelings of co-presence and selfexpression through creation of an avatar [11]. Linguistic immersion means
“merging” in a foreign language through communication realized exclusively
in that language. It is closely connected with cultural immersion. It is enabled
by contacts with other users and a lecturer, as well as staying in a world that
is explained in a foreign language. Language code is exclusively acquired
through linguistic stimuli. The method of linguistic immersion conduces
reaching a code- switching level, which means automatic switching from
one language to the other. Other advantages of linguistic immersion include
a higher level of language competences, faster elimination of linguistic
deficiencies, irrelevancy of the learner’s individual talents and initial skills [12].
There is one more thing that can be used as an argument for organization
of educational space in SL. It is connected with conscious identity-related
processes or existentialization. A user of a virtual world becomes engaged
in work, commitments, establishing interpersonal relationships. Second Life
becomes an element of everyday life. Sometimes real living is based on
activities undertaken in cyberspace. An avatar enables expression of an
individual inner life, that not always could have been realized in the real
world. This often encourages people to undertake activities, which have little
chance of success in the real world. Thus, virtual world becomes a human
world [13].
Foreign language learning in 3D
Multicultural, international and multilingual character of Second Life, as
well as variety of communication means, make it an incredible medium for
language learning. There are professional linguistic websites available in
SL. But there is also a place for those, who just want to raise the level of
their language skills. Conversation with users speaking a foreign language,
context recognition based on facial expression and body language, visiting
different locations facilitating acquisition of new vocabulary – these factors
are priceless for linguistic education. Other advantage of SL is its free and
open character. Users originating from different cultures, countries and
nations use their avatars to create their own community of so called digital
natives [14].
Virtual identity gives the students an opportunity to express themselves
and observe one another’s non-verbal expression. A possibility of constant
creation of an avatar contributes to the development of electronic identity.
Changes in appearance attract attention of other users and are a source
of inspiration, at the same time providing much greater freedom of autoexpression than the physical world. Education in SL is an element of one’s
existence in an alternative reality – creating one’s own space with use of
educational platforms. Anyone in any time can start learning in a virtual world.
20
Its open character provides a perfect place to express one’s thoughts, views.
The learners can include their own materials, such as links or addresses of
other Second Life locations in the didactic process [15].
Who can learn in Second Life?
The virtual world is open for everyone. There are no age, cultural or national
limits. Still, Second Life attracts mainly those, who are easily assimilating
technological innovations. Usually, but not always, these are young people,
for whom staying online is a part of everyday life. For these people ICT is
a natural way of gathering information and communicating. Therefore, they
easily become an educational tool as well.
Research indicates that the perception of usefulness of Second Life in
education differs among people representing different learning styles [16].
SL is positively perceived by people representing the types of activists,
pragmatists and reflectors, according to the Honey and Mumford’s typology:
§ An activist enjoys innovations, looks for challenges and new
contacts, learns actively; for this type of personality Second Life is
a perfect environment to realize individual needs.
§ A pragmatist learns actively with tools that can be used in practice.
Such people are aware that Second Life offers greater possibilities
than the real world.
§ For reflectors learning is based on thorough, careful data gathering
and analysis. In such case Second Life is perceived as continuation
of the real world, therefore avatars are treated like real people.
There is one more type of personality – theorists, who aim at acquisition of
deepened knowledge. Their attitude towards education in SL is negative,
because they regard it as superficial [17].
What does Second Life offer to teachers?
The 3D virtual worlds offer a range of didactic means unavailable in other
forms of e-learning, not to mention traditional education. From the point of
view of a language teacher running classes in a virtual world an important
advantage is a great range of communication tools as well as availability
of educational materials. Another advantage is increased interest and
engagement of learners. A teacher can use visualizations of maps, reference
plans, schemes and presentations. Methods that can be used include e.g.
role playing, simulations of communication situations, action learning in
SL [18]. Power-point presentations can be used instead of students’ and
teachers’ books. Simultaneous communication of members within a group
as well as accessibility of materials facilitates realization of competitions,
quizzes or tests [19]. A teacher and a student contact each other using
avatars. Communication between them is realized with use of several media:
21
§ Voice. Voice information is audible within a particular space, it
enables contacts between many people at the same time.
§ Individual contact. It is possible to contact a chosen person using
a „private phone call”.
§ Chat. Works within a particular space and enables contacts with
a group of people.
§ Sharing. Enables sharing materials, links, files with chosen people
or group.
§ E-mail. Enables sending a message to a user staying outside the
system.
The communication tools provide a teacher with an opportunity to verify
mistakes – the feedback is given instantly, which often cannot be achieved
in typical e-learning or traditional education. There are different ways of
obtaining feedback from students. One option is giving special remote
control devices to students. They enable pointing at correct answers in test
questions displayed on a screen. On the one hand, a student takes active
part in a task, on the other hand a teacher is provided with feedback about
acquired knowledge.
A 3D virtual world offers many organizational opportunities. Real life conditions,
such as classrooms with interactive whiteboards can be transferred to
a virtual world. Then, virtual classes are similar to those held in a real school.
Actually, opportunities offered by available methods, techniques and tools
are unlimited. Any place, object or communication context can be created
and used in particular classes. Thus, it is possible to have a conversation or
learn new vocabulary in a topic-related scenery. For example it is possible to
learn sport-related vocabulary at a stadium or shopping –related vocabulary
in a supermarket. Marine vocabulary can be learned while playing a sailor or
pirate on a ship. Teachers using Second Life for foreign language teaching
confirm that the use of opportunities offered by a virtual world in different
tasks makes the participants more interested in the classes and raise the
results of learning – the level of vocabulary acquisition is higher compared to
traditional methods [20].
What does Second Life offer to students?
Few things are necessary to begin learning in SL: a computer, a microphone,
a headset and installation of a Skype or MSN communicator software. After
a basic training concerning the use of an avatar, elementary functions and
moving around the SL spaces, a student is ready to begin a language course.
It is not difficult to learn how to download the materials or use communication
tools. An average-skilled user of ICT is able to learn everything in a short
time. An additional advantage – unavailable in traditional classes – is a true
possibility to adjust teaching methods to individual learning style of a user
[21].
22
To a student participation in linguistic education means plainly unlimited
opportunities of conversation in a foreign language. Various means of
communication, regular information about activities of other learners
as well as anonymity are very important for interpersonal relationships
between the participants of classes. They all help to overcome the feeling of
embarrassment caused by presence of other people. Boundaries resulting
from age differences, complexes or disabilities disappear too. Anonymity
facilitates free expression of thoughts and open discussion. The feeling of
discomfort resulting from failures is limited.
It is also important, that costs of education connected with commuting or
purchase of handbooks is limited. Sometimes it is even possible to learn
free of charge. The advantages of learning foreign languages in Second
Life are also connected with time spend on education. Knowledge and skills
acquisition does not require physical presence in particular places. One
does not need to loose time on commuting and instead of a few hours of
classes a month one can spend unlimited time talking to friends. Moreover,
all resources of the virtual world are available for the users after the classes.
Second Life can also be used as a browser. The platform provides access
to virtual museums, cities and all kinds of visual materials. A 3D technology
enables specific management of available materials – any information can
be easily reached with active links and displays spread around different
spaces of SL.
All elements of the virtual world have an interactive character – touching an
object results in a text appearing. Students can skim through newspapers,
read books, visit museums, galleries, cities, enter different room and at the
same time receive text or audio information related to a particular topic –
which is particularly beneficial in glottodidactics. Moreover, each avatar has
a notebook, where he can note down selected information and store it in
an inventory. The students can also use video materials or presentations.
Second Life provides access to libraries. Since 2006 there is an Info Island
in SL, established on behalf of an American organisation Alliance Library
System. The project aims at establishing cooperation with real libraries,
educational institutions and scientists. Thanks to the Info Island a student
has access to articles and whole books online.
It is worth mentioning that a 3D virtual world offers a unique chance for people
with disabilities, who may find it difficult in many ways to participate in reallife education. A variety of communication channels is particularly beneficial,
e.g. chat or instant messaging enables deaf people to communicate with
other users and take part in didactic process. Evaluation of educational
projects realized in Second Life indicates clear benefits for learners, who can
repeat activities, test skills, correct mistakes and try new behaviours without
any boundaries or limits. A student is able to test his knowledge and adjust
learning methods to his individual needs.
23
Summary
The use of 3D technology in linguistic education offers brand new opportunities
to the learners. It provides access to many tools, which are unavailable in
other forms of e-learning. It also increases the engagement of users in the
learning process thanks to immersion and realization of individual needs
through creation of virtual identity. The popularity as well as didactic results
achieved with Second Life indicate that it is a way to motivate people of
different age and different background to learn. Still, it is worth to emphasize
that obtaining great learning results is connected with proper organization of
work. In a three-dimensional virtual world most of educational activities are
initiated by the users, who create the content. It is a spontaneous, valuable
and motivating phenomenon, that still may be lacking an appropriate
structure organizing knowledge and skills. Therefore, it is worth to support
learning with services provided by professional websites and educational
institutions. Education in Second Life gives an opportunity to combine formal
and informal education. Materials developed by the students can easily be
exploited. Thus, the users can participate in development of didactic content,
which clearly increases the engagement of students in the didactic process.
It is a fact that e-learning and the use of 2D technology slowly becomes an
element of everyday life. It is also assumed that in the future it will probably
be inevitable to move the whole educational process to the world wide web
and to the 3D environments in particular [22].
References
[1] M. Ostrowski, Tożsamość człowieka w środowisku elektronicznym,
p.150, http://www.ostrowicki.art.pl/Tozsamosc_czlowieka_w_
srodowisku_elektronicznym.pdf, on:30.11.2011.
[2] Topol Paweł, Wirtualność 3D i Second Life, p.1, http://www.up.krakow.
pl/ktime/ref2010/topol.pdf, on: 29.11.2011.
[3] M. Ostrowski, Tożsamość człowieka w środowisku elektronicznym,
p.143, http://www.ostrowicki.art.pl/Tozsamosc_czlowieka_w_
srodowisku_elektronicznym.pdf, on: 29.11.2011 .
[4] M. Ostrowski, Dydaktyka w środowisku elektronicznym 3D, http://
www.e-mentor.edu.pl/artykul/index/numer/28/id/614, on: 30.11.2011.
[5] M. Ostrowicki, Tożsamość człowieka w środowisku elektronicznym,
http://www.ostrowicki.art.pl/Tozsamosc_czlowieka_w_srodowisku_
elektronicznym.pdf , p. 151, on: 30.11.2011 r.
[6] M. Ostrowicki, Tożsamość człowieka w środowisku elektronicznym,
elektronicznym.pdf, p. 150., on:29.11.2011.
24
[7] M. Ostrowicki, Dydaktyka w środowisku elektronicznym 3D, http://
www.e-mentor.edu.pl/artykul/index/numer/28/id/614, on: 29.11.2011.
[8] Topol Paweł, Wirtualność 3D i Second Life, p.1, http://www.up.krakow.
pl/ktime/ref2010/topol.pdf , on 29.11.2011.
[9] Konrad Juszczyk, Akwizycja językowa, p. 144, http://www.slideshare.
net/Linguist/akwizycja-jzyka-naturalnego, on:30.11.2011.
[10] M. Ostrowicki, Tożsamość człowieka w środowisku elektronicznym
elektronicznym.pdf, on :30.11.2011.
[11] Topol Paweł, Wirtualność 3D i Second Life, s.1 http://www.up.krakow.
pl/ktime/ref2010/topol.pdf, on: 30.11.2011.
[12] Metoda immersji, w: Serwis szkoły językowej Angloville. Pierwsza
anglojęzyczna wioska w Polsce, http://angloville.pl/szkola/metodaimersji.html , on:30.11.2011.
[13] M. Ostrowicki, Tożsamość człowieka w środowisku elektronicznym
elektronicznym.pdf, p. 148, on: 30.11.2011.
[14] U. Świerczyńska-Kaczor, Nauczanie języków obcych z zastosowaniem
wirtualnych światów i serwisów społecznościowych, http://www.ementor.edu.pl/artykul/index/numer/28/id/613, on: 29.11.2011.
[15] M. Ostrowicki, Dydaktyka w środowisku elektronicznym 3D, on:
29.11.2011 http://www.e-mentor.edu.pl/artykul/index/numer/28/id/614,
on: 29.11.2011 r.
[17] R. Robert Gajewski, O stylach uczenia się i I-edukacji, http://www.ementor.edu.pl/artykul/index/numer/11/id/189, on 29.11.2011.
[18] P. Topol, Nauka języka w Second Life? Tak! Ale czym? http://www.eedukacja.net/siodma/referaty/Sesja_2a_3.pdf, on 29.11.2011.
[20] J.Kuchnio, Second Life pomocne w nauce języka? http://www.
gamestar.pl/news/145492/Second.Life.pomocne.w.nauce.jezyka.html,
on:30.11.2011.
[21] Rozkosz E., Multimedialne przestrzenie edukacyjne – wirtualne
przestrzenie edukacyjne Infolit iSchool, http://eprints.rclis.org/
bitstream/10760/15817/1/ROZKOSZ_E_Multimedialne.pdf,
on:30.11.2011.
[22] M. Ostrowicki, Dydaktyka w środowisku elektronicznym 3D, http://
www.e-mentor.edu.pl/artykul/index/numer/28/id/614, on:29.11.2011.
25
Virtual Worlds: An Opportunity for Thinking about
Learning
Luisa Panichi
Dept. Modern Languages, University of Hull, UK
[email protected]
Abstract
This paper will provide an overview of how virtual worlds are being used in
different educational, training, support and research contexts. In particular,
the paper will discuss results from some of the leading European funded
projects in the field of virtual world education (i.e. AVALON, AVATAR,
NIFLAR, V-Lang) and will provide a discussion of the main educational
affordances of virtual worlds and their implications for the development of
a teaching methodology and best practice guidelines. The paper will also
introduce the EUROVERSITY network funded under Key Activity 3 (ICT) of
the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU which builds on some of the
previous projects and whose aim is to bring together European educators in
the field for the sharing of best practice and the transfer of core knowledge
to new contexts.
The second part of the paper will discuss ongoing research about, around
and in virtual worlds and will attempt to outline some of the main issues of
interest for research and further development. Examples will be provided,
in particular, from the Nordic Virtual Worlds Network (NVWN) project which
is focused on investigating entrepreneurship and innovation in relation to
virtual worlds and the ASSIS (A Second Step In Second Life) project which is
investigating the impact of virtual worlds for socio-cultural and sociolinguistic
awareness training for language teachers. A concluding discussion will
attempt to look at the potential of virtual worlds to enhance and transform our
current understandings of teaching and learning beyond the specific virtual
world environment.
1. Introduction
Virtual worlds such as Second Life [1], Active worlds [2] and Opensim [3],
to name but a few, are increasingly attracting users from educational and
professional contexts. Recent surveys of virtual worlds include an analysis
of different features which educators and decision makers in the field of
education may want to consider when selecting one world over an other
[4] [5]. Some of the features of 3D environments which are of particular
interest for education include activity sharing among users such as building
together, travelling together, joint performances and sharing of online
26
Luisa Panichi
educational events in a highly immersive environment. Here students can
communicate via text chat, voice chat and aesthetically through their avatars
and user-generated content. 3D environments are particularly appreciated
by the educational community for the heightened sense of presence and
immersiveness compared to 2D environments [6]. In this sense, virtual worlds
constitute a valuable platform for distance education and a complement to
existing 2D online educational platforms, in particular where learners are
required to co-build or co-act with other students. In addition to this, virtual
worlds are also used as an extension of face-to-face classroom activities. In
the sciences, for example, 3D environments are used for the simulation of
laboratory experiments which are either too dangerous or too expensive to
be carried out face-to-face [7]. In the digital humanities these environments
are used for the representation and co-reconstruction of historical buildings
and artefacts by students and historians [8]. In the teaching of literature and
cultural studies, they are used as a medium for cultural re-enactments and
representations [9] including performance [10]. In geometry, they are used
to help learners grasp basic understandings of spatial relations [11] and, in
physics, to help learners understand basic concepts by doing rather than
observing [12]. To sum up, virtual worlds in general are distance learning
platforms that allow for telecollaboration, synchronous and multimodal
communication. The 3D rendering of the environment allows for joint building,
design and simulations, thus making them highly immersive contexts
with significant potential for learner engagement, participation, cognitive
development, sharing of experience and, last but not least, transformation
of knowledge.
The following is a summary of how virtual worlds can be used in education
compiled from Deutschmann and Panichi [13], Lim [14], Molka-Danielsen
and Deutschmann [15], Bignell and Parson [16], Cheney and Sanders [17],
Ritke-Jones [18] and Huang et al. [19]:
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
§
exploration
experimenting
experiencing
searching for information
belonging
collaboration
social interaction and communication
being
building
championing (i.e. promotion of real life causes such as charities)
expressing
doing
sharing
acting, performing, role play and story telling
playing and games
problem solving
Virtual Worlds: An Opportunity for Thinking about Learning
27
2. Virtual worlds in language education and beyond
This section will discuss in particular four projects co-funded under the
Lifelong Learning programme of the EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and
Culture Executive Agency) of the EU for the development of expertise in
virtual worlds, in particular, for foreign language education.
The AVALON (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live Online) project was
a two-year project under Key Activity 3 (ICT) of the LLP which ended in
December 2010 and built on existing expertise among partners. The aims
of the project were to experiment and explore virtual worlds for language
education. The project attempted to reach these aims by creating and testing
language-learning tasks and courses. The results from these activities were
then used to create and run a teacher training course and in the production of
educational models and best practice guidelines. The permanent outcomes
of this project are a series of open online repositories of tested teaching and
learning materials [20] which also allow for further development by teachers
[21]. Another resource is an online open teacher community for language
education in virtual worlds which meets regularly for teacher development
and the sharing of materials and best practice [22].
A similar project, NIFLAR (Networked Interaction in Foreign Language
Acquisition and Research), has taken a closer look at the specific
affordances of virtual worlds compared to video-conferencing. NIFLAR
aimed at making foreign language education more authentic, relevant and
rewarding through the use of innovative e-learning environments: videowebcommunication and 3D Virtual Worlds. The results of comparative research
between the two platforms indicate that virtual worlds are a motivating and
engaging environment with an impact on Second Language Acquisition, in
particular when the task design makes uses of the specific features of the
environment [23].
A third project to explore the potential of language learning in virtual worlds
under Key Activity 3 (ICT) is the V-lang project for “Creative and Open
Language Training in Virtual Worlds”. The outcomes of the project include
a specific Toolkit which contains a ready to use and up-gradable virtual world
with a virtual village, virtual classrooms and meeting halls, open source
software for the on-line management of training experiences for teachers
and students, and a set of Methodology Guidelines for the integration of on
line/blended and virtual learning [24].
The fourth and last project to be considered in this section is the AVATAR
project. AVATAR (Added Value of teAching in a virTuAl world) is a two
year project (December 2009 - November 2011) co-financed by the European
Commission under the Lifelong Learning Sub-Programme Comenius. The
project’s primary aim has been to enhance the quality of teaching and
education in secondary schools through an innovative virtual world learning
28
Luisa Panichi
experience. V-learning is viewed as a platform which promotes learningby-doing that stimulates different learning styles and increases the level of
student engagement in different subject matters through technology, the
integrations of textbooks, discussion groups and labs. Last but not least,
the AVATAR project provides examples of the use of virtual worlds not only
for language education but for science education and other areas of the
European school curricula [25].
3. The EUROVERSITY Network
The EUROVERSITY Network was put together as an exploitation activity
which stemmed from the AVALON project and runs from 1st December
2011 [26] [27]. There was a general awareness among the AVALON project
partner consortium in 2010 that parallel developments and understandings
about the use of virtual worlds were being developed across Europe in
different subject areas in education and that there was a need to start pooling
expertise and materials. The network is a 3 year multilateral and transversal
network co-funded under Key Activity 3 (ICT) of the LLP of the EACEA. The
partnership includes 18 partners from 10 EU countries and 1 partner from
a Third Country (Israel).
The specific aims of the network are to:
§ collect examples of good practice in teaching and learning in virtual
worlds from different subjects and national and local contexts
(including, for example, the projects listed in the section above);
§ facilitate the transfer of core knowledge to new contexts;
§ provide a framework for the creation of a pan-European virtual-world
university.
In reaching the aims of the network, EUROVERSITY expects to:
§ increase the number of experts in virtual world education;
§ create a policy of long-term sustainability of the network and its
outcomes;
§ design a model of the transfer of knowledge to new contexts;
§ engage new partners in the delivery of the network outcomes and in
the endorsement of a shared vision.
The Euroversity vision is to:
§ become a European and international point of reference for virtual
world education;
§ create strategic formal alliances with major educational bodies for
the delivery of education in virtual world platforms;
§ make virtual worlds a more commonly used platform in both distance
and face-to-face education;
29
§ provide official validation via certification of teaching and learning
that takes place in virtual worlds so that education in virtual worlds
may receive recognition in terms of Higher Education credits.
4. Virtual worlds as a context for research
As we have seen in the previous section, virtual worlds are being used for
the teaching of a variety of subject matters. This section will look at how
virtual reality is not only being used for education but for research purposes
in the field of education. Both examples below are taken from partners of the
EUROVERSITY network.
The first project which is discussed here is the Nordic Virtual Worlds Network
for business and entrepreneurship [28]. The Nordic Virtual Worlds Network
(NVWN) project is a pan-Nordic, inter-disciplinary project focused on
investigating entrepreneurship and innovation in relation to virtual worlds.
The project runs from March 1, 2010 to February 28, 2012 and has a budget
of approximately NOK 6 mln. The project’s primary financier is the Nordic
Innovation Center (NICe). The project is represented in the EUROVERSITY
network via project partner Stockholm School of Economics. The first objective
of the network is to explore how SMEs and entrepreneurs globally are using
and could use Virtual Worlds (VWs) to improve their competitiveness. The
second objective is to create a Virtual Centre for VW Entrepreneurship &
Innovation in order to stimulate and facilitate knowledge and resource sharing
and networking among individuals and organizations interested in VWs.
The second project listed here is the ASSIS (A Second Step in Second Life)
project [29]. The project is run by the Department of Language Studies at
Umeå University, Sweden, and is funded by the Flex fund, a strategic fund for
the development of solutions involving flexible learning at Umeå University.
The project can be seen as a continuation of a previous flex-project: the
Språkens Hus project (House of Languages project), aimed at developing
the teaching of oral proficiency in distance courses of North Sami, Finnish
and Spanish using virtual worlds. The North Sami part of this project also fed
into the EU-funded AVALON project mentioned in the previous section. The
educational aim of ASSIS is to build on the experiences of Språkens Hus
and other projects to further exploit the affordances of Second Life and other
online tools in language learning. The project aims to use virtual worlds as
well as other interactive online tools in order to:
§ allow students to communicate with native speakers in an authentic
situation using the target language;
§ create interactive student-centred courses where students
themselves contribute to the content;
§ create learning environments and scenarios which are relevant for
the particular course being taught, and where students can gain
30
Luisa Panichi
new insights into the course contents through experiencing things
together with others (as opposed to just reading about it).
In addition to the educational aim, this project also has fundamental sociolinguistic research aim. The recordings of all virtual world sessions will allow
the researchers to look at how the specific tasks and the environment impact
on the teacher-trainers’ knowledge and understanding of socio-linguistic
characteristics of the foreign language classroom. The main virtual world
affordance this research project hinges on is the use of avatars for identity
creation and identity modification [30].
5. Virtual worlds as a tool for thinking about education
In this paper we have discussed several projects that are making use of
virtual worlds for education and research in different subject areas that
come under the general umbrella of the EUROVERSITY Network. While
these projects have been initially designed and developed in specific local
educational contexts, the inclusion of their activities within the EUROVERSITY
network allow for greater visibility of the work being carried out and for the
dissemination of project results within a wider, cross-disciplinary educational
context and research community.
However, as the network expands and more and more examples of best
practice and research from a variety of contexts become available, we are
now in a better position to take a greater critical stance towards how we, as
an educational community, are using virtual worlds. In addition to this, as
argued by Choi and Boek [31], virtual worlds, like all new media and their
applications, also hold the potential of transforming our understanding of
education in general.
The following is an open-ended list of questions that have been put together
as a summary of where we are today and in an attempt to stimulate increased
awareness of our current practice in the interest of further development
in teaching and the design of meaningful research frameworks. These
questions are:
§ How are we using virtual worlds?
§ For replication, simulation, experimentation, representation,
communication?
§ How do we communicate in virtual worlds?
§ What teaching methods are we using?
§ Why?
§ How do virtual worlds make us feel as teachers?
§ What is the continuum between virtual-world education and nonvirtual world education?
31
References
[1] http://secondlife.com/
[2] http://www.activeworlds.com/
[3] http://opensimulator.org
[4] Comparative study of 3D environments, Avalon Learning Project https://
files.pbworks.com/download/iNsDc2pPQ6/avalonlearning/34821688/
WP4-4+comparative+study+of+3D+environments+(final).pdf
[5] Analysis report on the most effective virtual world for teachers (Last
accessed on December 11,2011) 89.202.197.83/avatar/images/files/
Deliverable 10_FINAL_ Most Effective V-Platform for Teachers.pdf
[6] de Freitas, S., Rebolledo-Mendez, G., Liarokapis, F., Magoulas, G.,
Poulovassilis, A. (2010). Learning as immersive experiences: Using the
four-dimensional framework for designing and evaluating immersive
learning experiences in a virtual world. British Journal of Educational
Technology, Vol 41(1), pp. 69–85.
[7] Swift project. Last accessed on 11/12/2011 at http://www2.le.ac.uk/
departments/genetics/genie/projects/swift
[8] Bani, M., Genovesi, F., Ciregia, E., Piscioneri, F., Rapisarda, B., Salvatori,
E. and Simi, M. (2009). Learning by creating historical buildings. In J.
Molka-Danielsen and M. Deutschmann (eds) Learning and Teaching
in the Virtual World of Second Life, Tapir Academic Press, Norway, pp.
125-144.
[9] Carter, B. (2009) Enhancing virtual environments. In J. Molka-Danielsen
and M. Deutschmann (eds) Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World
of Second Life, Tapir Academic Press, Norway, pp. 103-113.
[10] Sant, T. (2009) Performance in Second Life: some possibilities for
learning and teaching. In J. Molka-Danielsen and M. Deutschmann
(eds) Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life, Tapir
Academic Press, Norway, pp. 145-166.
[11] TALETE project http://www.avatarproject.eu/avatar/images/AVATAR_
handout_Francesco_Fedele_TALETE.pdf
[12] Panichi, L., Reiner, M., Stefanelli, C. and Tramonti, M. (2011). Science in
virtual reality. Examples from the Euroversity Network. Refereed paper
accepted for the New Perspectives in Science Education Conference,
Pixel, Florence, Italy, 8-9 March, 2012. http://www.pixel-online.net/
science/common/download/Abstract_pdf/251-NTST20-ABS-PanichiNPSE.pdf
[13] Deutschmann, M. and Panichi, L. (2009). Instructional design, learner
modeling, and teacher practice in Second Life. In J. Molka-Danielsen
32
Luisa Panichi
and M. Deutschmann (eds) Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World
of Second Life, Tapir Academic Press, Norway, pp. 27-44.
[14] Lim. K. (2009) A framework for designing curricular interventions inworld. JVWR Vol 2, No 1: Pedagogy, Education and Innovation in Virtual
Worlds, pp-3-11.
[15] Molka-Danielsen, J. and Deutschmann, M. (2009). Learning and
Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life, Tapir Academic Press,
Norway.
[16] Bignell, S. and Parson, V. (2010) Best Practices in Virtual World Teaching.
A guide to using problem-based learning in Second Life. Preview-psych
Project. Available online at previewpsych.org/BPD2.0.pdf
[17] Cheney, A. and Sanders, R.L. (2011) Teaching and Learning in 3D
Immersive Worlds: Pedagogical Models and Constructivist Approaches.
Hershey: IGI Global.
[18] Ritke-Jones, W. (Ed.) (2010) Virtual Environments for Corporate
Education: Employee Learning and Solutions. Hershey: IGI Global.
[19] Huang, H-M., Rauch, U., and Liaw, S-S. (2010) Investigating learners’
attitudes toward virtual reality learning environments: Based on a
constructivist approach. Computers & Education 55, pp.1171–1182.
[20] http://www.avalonlearning.eu/
[21] https://avalonlearning.pbworks.com/w/page/7682818/FrontPage
[22] http://avalon-project.ning.com/group/slexperimentsteachersgroup
[23] http://cms.hum.uu.nl/niflar/
[24] http://www.v-lang.eu/section/about/
[25] http://www.avatarproject.eu/avatar/index.php
[26] http://project.unimarconi.it/euroversity/
[27] http://euroversity.ning.com/
[28] http://nordicworlds.net/research-team/
[29] https://assis.pbworks.com/w/page/33613545/ASSIS- A Second Step in
Second Life
[30] Deutschmann M. & A. Steinvall (2011). Identifying Identity. Paper
presented at European Computer Assisted Language Learning
Conference , 31/08-3/09 2011, Nottingham, U.K.
[31] Choi, B. and Baek, Y. (accepted for publication 2011) Exploring factors
of media characteristic influencing Flow in learning through virtual
worlds. Computers & Education, doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.06.019.
33
Implementing the Use of Virtual Worlds in the
Teaching of Foreign Languages (Level A1)
Anke Berns1, Antonio Gonzàlez-Pardo2, David Camacho3
Department of Modern Languages, Universidad de Cádiz (Spain)
Computer Science Department, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
3
[email protected]
1
2,3
Abstract
Since Virtual Worlds (VWs) have been recognized as a powerful tool in
education, they have been attracting the interest of many educational
institutions and instructors. Our paper intends to explore the possibilities of
using Virtual Worlds in foreign language teaching, focusing specifically on
the A1 level (CEFR) of German language learners. The present research
demonstrates the authors’ experiences with the design of several gamelike applications in a 3D virtual environment as well as their benefits for the
teaching and learning process. The paper commences with a short analysis
of the specific features of videogames. It then continues by outlining the
advantages of integrating them into Virtual Learning Platforms. The aim of
this analysis is to explore new ways of guaranteeing a highly interactive,
motivating and effective learning environment, not only in face-to-face
teaching, but also in the autonomous online learning process. The latter is
considered to be complementary to, rather than different from the dynamic of
the face-to-face learning situation. Our work combines theoretical research in
language learning with a number of empirical studies using a 3D virtual game
environment to measure the effectiveness of videogame-like applications on
foreign language learning. Finally, the paper concludes with an empirical
evaluation of different language learning sessions in which students played
the videogame-like application we had designed for this research project.
1. Introduction
Since the creation of Second Life in 2003, by Linden Lab, VWs have
attracted the attention of many people from very different fields, including
foreign language learning. In the area of foreign language learning VWs
are probably amongst the most challenging online tools, as they offer new
possibilities as well as new perspectives regarding the teaching/learning
process [1],[4],[6],[11],[15],[19]. Some of the reasons for this are related to
the fact that VWs offer several features which are very similar to natural
language learning situations. This explains why learning becomes, for
many students, often more attractive (engaging) and dynamic in VWs than
34
in traditional E-Learning environments (Moodle, WebCT, etc.). Among the
features that make VWs interesting teaching and learning tools the following
is worth highlighting:
VWs usually offer highly immersive environments because of its 3-D format.
This allows users to feel easily immersed and identified with the environment.
This is reinforced by the fact that each user moves with his own avatar
(student’s 3-D virtual representation) through the VW.
VWs offer the recreation of environments which are very similar to real-life
situations. This allows the recreation of those scenarios that are difficult
to reproduce in the classroom, such as scenarios from a supermarket,
shopping center, airport, etc.. All of them are fundamental scenarios in reallife interactions and thus are interesting for language acquisition.
VWs offer the possibility to get in touch with other users including native
speakers and to practice language directly through the use of voice and text
chat.
Even though the above mentioned features are quite interesting in language
teaching [21] and in particular for the online teaching/ learning process,
there are still other aspects which might make it difficult to use VWs with
beginners of a foreign language. One is related to the fact that students
might feel disoriented or even lost in VWs. This can be explained by the fact
that VWs are usually very open spaces which allow users to switch from
one place to another and to explore an almost unlimited number of different
environments where they can meet, chat and talk with other people. Whilst
these features make VWs, for some language learners, highly attractive since
they create the opportunity to practice language skills with native speakers
worldwide, at the same time these same features make VWs less attractive
for other learners. In particular, VWs are less attractive for beginners, as
they usually lack the very basic language skills necessary to interact with
other speakers in the target language. Therefore, the possibilities of taking
advantage of VWs for their own language learning process are much lower
when compared to that of advanced learners since the topics they would
be able to speak about are still very limited. Taking into consideration the
fact that the students our research project addresses are from the A1 level,
we needed to guarantee that they wouldn’t feel lost or disoriented in the
virtual environment, but rather motivated to use it. To do this we needed
a virtual environment which could be configured and fully controlled by the
system administrators and instructors. In this way we would be able to not
only design specific tasks in accordance to our students’ language level
and needs, but also to follow their individual task performance and learning
progress. In order to select the most appropriate learning environment, we
started analyzing different Learning platforms (Second Life (SL), Active
Worlds, Open Cobalt and OpenSim) as well as the possibility to add some
additional tools [2],[3],[4].
Implementing the Use of Virtual Worlds in the Teaching of Foreign Languages... 35
1.1 OpenSim and VirtUAM
The reason why we selected the OpenSim platform [23] is that unlike other
popular platforms such as Second Life, Active Worlds, etc., OpenSim is open
source software that can be used with the appropriate software modules, as
an E-Learning platform or Learning Management System (LMS). In order to
use OpenSim as an E-Learning platform we designed, on top of the OpenSim
platform, a Virtual World platform which we called VirtUAM (Virtual Worlds at
the Universidad de Madrid). This enabled us to design the mentioned gamelike application. VirtUAM is comprised of four different modules: a grid of
computers hosting the 3D environments, a Web portal to provide users with
access to information and data, several background databases and finally
a statistical module. In our platform users can build their own virtual space
with an almost unlimited number of objects to interact with. Additionally,
the platform can only be accessed by registered users. In this way we can
prevent external users from accessing the VW-learning environment and
interfering in students’ task performance. Furthermore, VirtUAM provides
teachers and administrators with the possibility to modify and adapt the
program, in accordance with the teaching purposes and students’ individual
needs. Such modifications might aim at storing the players’ behaviour within
a database system or even at including a mechanism which could detect
individual learner problems and focus specifically on these problems [4],[22].
Fig 1. VirtUAM platform diagram
36
2. Game design
Taking into consideration the fact that our students are at the beginning level
of their language learning experience we were particularly concerned about
designing very clear tasks to be performed by the students within the VW.
It was at this point that we started exploring the possibilities of combining
videogame-features with VWs [2],[4],[5],[12],[24]. In the following section we
are going to present the videogame-like application that we designed and we
modified to include several game-features. Among the features we included
were the following:
§
§
§
§
All the activities were task-based and goal oriented.
Feedback was delivered in real time.
A score system was included.
Most of the activities had a competitive element.
The game we designed was a 3-D virtual videogame-like application called
“The supermarket-game”. The game itself was based on student motivation
and its impact on student learning when they are involved in an interactive
task-based learning environment [7],[8],[10],[13]. Additionally individual
feedback on student task-performance [1],[4],[11],[16],[25] was included
and delivered during the game. The game’s main goal is to introduce basic
vocabulary related to German food (vegetables, fruit, milk-products, cereals,
etc.) and beverages. In part, both had been previously practiced in faceto-face teaching and are now being fostered and widened through “The
supermarket-game”. The following table provides a brief overview of the
main game structure and its different levels.
As table 1 shows, the game is based on five rooms which, aside from one
room, all aim to train the learners’ listening and reading skills whilst writing
skills are practiced mainly through the use of text chat. During the game
students have to move through the different rooms (levels) with their avatar.
In each level they face a new language task. The game itself is built on
a bottom-up principle, focusing firstly on providing students with the necessary
language input (level 1), secondly on the opportunity to train newly introduced
vocabulary (levels 2 and 3) and thirdly, on the performance of the final task
(level 4). This final task requires students to go shopping and acquire several
items which are on the shopping lists displayed on the students’ monitor.
With the additional integration of a score-system we aimed not only to give
students real-time feedback on their performance while playing, but also
to increase their motivation. As discussed by several game researchers,
motivation is enhanced by individual challenges [9],[10],[14],[16],[17],[18],[
20]. One of those challenges can be competition since it increases learners
willingness to outperform other players. Given this, competition is therefore
seen to be a highly attractive game feature to be explored within the teaching
and learning process.
3. Empirical Evaluation
3.1 Experimental setup
During the current case study one lecturer and one language instructor was
on hand to answer queries from the players. Additionally, several external
observers analysed the data registered by the VirtUAM-platform. The target
group consisted of approximately 85 Spanish university students learning
German. Most of them were studying for a degree in modern languages
while others in economics or engineering. The students’ target language
competence corresponded to the A.1.1 level (CEFR). All students were
accustomed to being exposed solely to the target language from the very
first moment of their language classes. During the different sessions students
were connected from home and invited to use the text chat by communicating
solely in the target language. Once the students became familiar with the
game dynamic and learning tools they were free to play the game as often
as they wanted. The purpose of game repetition was to give students the
opportunity to reinforce their learning as well as to improve their scores.
3.2. Game impact and evaluation
To measure the supermarket-game’s impact on student learning and
motivation we designed a general questionnaire, to be completed by the
student participants at the end of the study. The results from the survey
can be summarized as follows: 86% of the students state that their
motivation towards online-learning increases significantly when learning
contents are embedded in a game-based environment. In addition to this,
88% of the students confirm that learning becomes easier, whereas 86%
emphasize that it becomes even more entertaining than in other E-Learning
environments such as Moodle or WebCT. Moreover, 80% of the students
stress their remarkable improvement in terms of vocabulary, 74% in terms of
38
pronunciation, 70% with regard to their listening skills and 38% concerning
their writing skills. When examining the results it was especially interesting
that students became aware of the improvement in their writing skills since
these had not been explicitly practiced within the game, only on an individual
basis through text chat. Additionally the results from the survey are reinforced
by the results from a pre- and posttest, which were completed by the students
participants before and after playing “The supermarket game” [2],[4].
4. Conclusions
It is acknowledged that the proposed study still presents several limitations,
such as the omission of the voice chat, the need to increase cooperative
activities as well as to provide learners with more opportunities for meaningful
interaction with others. It is also necessary to design more game-levels in
accordance with learners different needs and it is necessary to compare
the results of our empiric research with those of a control group. However,
some final conclusions can be supported by the previous experiment and
the results obtained. Turning back to our initial research question we can
conclude that VWs can be used not only from upper intermediate (B1) up to
higher language levels (C1), but also with beginner levels (A1). Nevertheless,
they have to be used in different ways and according to the specific needs
and language skills students have at each language level. As our research
project has shown, one of the possibilities to use VWs with beginners is to
combine VWs with videogame-like features and thus design very specific and
clear tasks to be performed by the learners individually as well as through
interaction with others. By including constant individual feedback on learners
task performance learners feel highly supported and motivated throughout
the learning process. Furthermore, the results of the questionnaire have
proven that students feel much more relaxed and free from fear of failure
in game-based environments than in traditional learning environments. This
can be explained by the fact that gaming is often perceived by students as
fun and entertainment rather than related to learning. Nonetheless, further
research has to be done in order to explore the educational potential of VWs
combined with videogame-like applications on the long-time perspective.
Acknowledgement
This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation
under the project ABANT (TIN2010-19872/TSI). We would like to thank Rita
Segheri (University of Washington, Seattle) for her much valued suggestions
on this paper.
References:
[1] Aldrich, C. (2009). Learning online with games, simulations and virtual
worlds. Strategies for online instruction. San Diego: Pfeiffer.
[2] Berns, A., González-Pardo, A. & Camacho Fernández, D. (2011).
Designing videogames for foreign language learning. 4th International
Conference ICT for Language Learning, 20-21 October, Florence, Italy,
2011. Ed. by Simonelli Editore srl, (ISBN 978-88-7647-719-5).
Combining face-to-face teaching with online-learning in Virtual Worlds,
Conference Proceedings, Eurocall 2011 Nottingham (submitted nov.
2011).
Learning online with videogame-like applications and Virtual Worlds,
ReCALL (submitted nov. 2011)
[5] Chang, W.-Ch. & Chou, Y.M. (2008). Introductory C Programming
Language Learning with Game-Based Digital Learning. ICWL, 221-231.
[6] De Freitas, S. (2007). Learning in Immersive Worlds. A Review of
Game-Based Learning. London: JISC.
[7] Dörnyei, Z. & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation.
2nd ed. Harlow: Longman.
[8] Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
[9] Garris, R. & Ahlers, R. (2002). Games, motivation and learning:
A research and practice model. Simulation & Gaming 33 (4), 441-467.
[10] Gee, J.P. (2007). Good Video Games and Good Learning. New York:
Peter Lang.
[11] Helmer, J. (2007). Second Life and Virtual Worlds. Technical Report
Light.
[12] Jenkins, H., Klopfer, E., Squire, K., & Tan, P. (2003). Entering the
Education Arcade. ACM Computers in Entertainment, 1 (1),17-17.
[13] Krashen, S.D. (2003). Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use,
Portsmouth: NH: Heinemann.
[14] Lepper, M. R. & Cordova, D.I., (1992). A desire to be taught: instructional
Consequences of Intrinsic Motivation. Motivation and Emotion 16, 187208.
[15] Lim, K.Y.T. (2009). The six learnings of Second Life: A framework for
designing curricular interventions in-world.Journal of Virtual Worlds
Research, Vol.2 (1), 1-11.
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[16] Lunce, L. (2006). Simulations: Bringing the benefits of situated learning
to the traditional classroom. Journal of Applied Educational Technology,
3 (1), 37-45.
[17] Malone, T. (1981a). Towards a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating
Instruction. Cognitive Science 5 (4), 333-369.
[18] Malone, T. (1981b). What makes computer games fun? Byte 6 (12),
258-276.
[19] Molka Danielsen, J. & Deutschmann, M. (2009). Learning and Teaching
in the Virtual World of Second Life. Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press.
[20] Prensky, M. (2001). Digital game-based learning. New York: McGrawHill.
[21] Purushotma, R., Thorne, S.L. & Wheatley, J., 2008. 10 key principles
for designing video games for foreign language learning. Language,
p.1-37. (Available at: http://knol.google.com/k/ravi-purushotma/10-keyprinciples-for-designing-video/27mkxqba7b13d/2#done..)
[22] Rico, M., Martínez G., Alamán, X., Camacho, D.& Pulido E. (2011).
Improving the Programming Experience of High School Students by
Means of Virtual Worlds. International Journal of Engineering Education,
27 (1), 52-60.
[23] The OpenSimulator. http://opensimulator.org/
[24] Torrente, J., Moreno-Ger, P., Martínez-Ortiz, I. & Fernandez-Manjon,
B. (2009). Integration and Deployment of Educational Games in
e-Learning Environments: The Learning Object Model Meets Educational
Gaming. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (4), 359–371.
[25] Sun, P.-Ch., Tsai, R. J., Finger, G., Cheng & Y.Y.& Dowming, Y. (2008).
What drives a successful E-Learning? An empirical investigation of the
critical factors inﬂuencing learner satisfaction. Computers & Education
50, 1183–1202
41
The Future of Textbooks:
Bringing Business English Market Leader to Life
Jessica Driscoll
Languagelab.com London, United Kingdom
[email protected]
Abstract
Using text books to teach ESL has historically been a central part of many
teachers lesson planning and continues to be important in classroom
teaching. There are textbooks for every subject area from Medical English,
Oil and Gas to Business and General English and content varies from country
to country. Now the text book has been extended into digital versions using
interactive white boards, iPads and mobile devices.
With these challenges in mind how does a traditional text book fit into a
modern classroom or method of learning? Does the text book have a place
in this digital age? Is it enough to simply digitise a book or do educators have
to go one step further to make use of this way to present content to students?
How can virtual worlds be a part of text books of the future?
This paper will discuss the process of turning a text book, ‘Market Leader’ into
a digital online experience in English City, the virtual city that uses Second
Life as its platform. It will explore the challenges, look at the Beta testing
phase and also look at feedback from students about the experience. It will
show how turning a text book of tried and tested Business English activities
into an immersive 3-D experience is a suggestion of how text books can
have a place in the modern digital world.
Introduction
Using text books to teach ESL has historically been a central part of many
teachers lesson planning and continues to be important in classroom
teaching. There are textbooks for every subject area from Medical English,
Oil and Gas to Business and General English and content varies from
country to country. Now the text book has been extended into digital versions
using interactive white boards, iPads and mobile devices. For many students
reading has become a digital activity using kindles, palmtops, other eBook
readers and mobile phones. This can change and shape the way that
information is processed and the linear nature of following a text book from
start to finish, unit by unit is being undermined by technological changes.
[1] The collaborative way of reading and sharing information online has
42
Jessica Driscoll
also changed the way students view text books. Personalised and adaptive
learning have also become more important, where a one size fits all approach
that many text books still have may not be the best approach for students.[2]
Challenges
With these challenges in mind how does a traditional text book fit into
a modern classroom or method of learning? Does the text book have a place
in this digital age? Is it enough to simply digitise a book and add a search
function or do educators have to go one step further to make use of this way
to present content to students? How can virtual worlds be a part of text books
of the future?
This paper discusses the process of turning a text book, ‘Market Leader’ into
a digital online experience in English City, the virtual city that uses Second
Life as its platform. It touches on the challenges, looks at the Beta testing
phase and also looks at feedback from students about the experience. It will
show how turning a text book of tried and tested Business English activities
into an immersive 3-D experience is a suggestion of how text books can
have a place in the modern digital world.
Market Leader is a popular Business English book from the publisher
Pearson. The book has 5 levels from Elementary to Advanced and is linear
course where students with their teacher can work through the units to get
the vocabulary and language practice they need to complete a case study at
the end of the unit. The case study has been designed to enable the students
to use the language they have learned in the unit in a real business situation.
We chose to turn the case study units of the text book into a digital, immersive
experience where students could learn by doing in English City and use
the language that they have gained in the previous unit. There are many
challenges with this process, in particular how to make 2-D lessons materials
into 3-D experiences where students and teachers have the opportunity to
play a real business person and use their skills to complete tasks. To really
bring the text book to life it was necessary to build all the physical locations
of the companies and businesses in Market Leader and to showcase the
products that the students would be talking about. The creation of characters
and distinctive physical spaces in the virtual world which the students may
have seen in the text book added to the feeling of immersion. Interacting with
the objects collaboratively in real time created a strong sense of co-presence
among the students. [3]
A further challenge when adapting Market Leader for use in a virtual world
was how to balance the language input the students needed to complete the
activities with the actual business knowledge the tasks required. Each of the
immersive experiences in English City are stand alone experiences which
the student can take in a non-linear way, mirroring the types of business
The Future of Textbooks: Bringing Business English Market Leader to Life
43
interactions they may face in real life. Therefore, the environment had to be
equipped with visual prompts, vocabulary, listening materials and the ability
for the students to work collaboratively and the teachers playing character
roles had to create a context for the authentic interactions.
Character Driven Learning
Languagelab calls the roles that the teacher plays ‘character driven learning’.
The teachers in English City play characters which allows the teacher to act
in way they may not be able to in a traditional classroom environment. In
a business context for instance the teacher playing the role of the struggling
entrepreneur that is about to go bankrupt, the students can give him
advice. Or if there is a human resources situation which requires a heated
interchange the student is interacting with the character and not a teacher,
thus we have found the interactions to be highly authentic. In the case of
Market Leader the characters have been taken from the text book so those
students who have used the text book are able to ‘meet’ the characters and
interact with them.
There is a great deal of training involved in preparing teachers for character
driven learning and a suspension of belief is required from the student. [5]
However, in many ways this is less suspension of belief required than the
simulation of a business situation in a classroom context, where the student
knows the teacher well and a significant portion of the students’ energy is
focused on imagining a context and not focused on language production.
In the virtual environment the context, the characters and the language
input is already provided so the student can concentrate more on language
production. Negotiating meaning is key in using a virtual environment for
Business English tasks and students have to use social skills as well as
language skills to complete the tasks. [6]
Immersion and realism
Some additional advantages of using a virtual world rather than a Skype for
a conference call Business English simulation are the interactions before
and after class time. In an interview about meetings at Suncorp Medway,
the General Manager Gavin Keely stated “In the sterile environment of
a conference call you do not get the pre-and-post-call interaction....What
you find with Second Life meetings is the sidebar conversations happen...”
[7] The sidebar conversations he is speaking about are what happens in
physical meeting situations, conference participants and colleagues can
informally receive and give out information, utilise and build communication
networks. These virtual world interactions assist participants when trying to
do a real life task as a recent article from the Science Daily states, ‘ Virtual
Worlds offer the possibility of realistic, interactive environments that can go
beyond the formal curriculum. They can enable young people to develop
44
Jessica Driscoll
skills which are used in real world settings, such as organisational and
cognitive skills.’ [8]
In addition to the use of character driven learning and the real world simulation
in the form of meetings, negotiations, product pitching etc. multi-media in the
virtual space and a combination of video, audio, interacting with web pages,
collaborative writing tools and images create a full and engaging experience
for the learner. The tools a virtual world can offer in this respect take the
text book experience to the next level in terms of engagement. A group
of students can work collaboratively on an interactive screen and discuss
tables, graphs etc without leaving the virtual environment resulting in fewer
distractions and a higher degree of immersion. Students can listen to sound
clips relating to the case study and also bring in media that relates to their
job or to the case study topic.
Adaptive Learning
Making the virtual case studies personal to each student was also a challenge
as students have diverse cultural backgrounds and linguistic needs which
effect their learning. To ensure that the students focused on the units of
the case study that were most important and beneficial to them, they were
required only to complete the initial assessment which ascertained a students’
level and competency and an end of course assessment which would give
an indication of their progress. All other modules could be taken in any order
the student wished, thus enabling a greater deal of autonomous learning.
However, as part of the Market Leader Live course the students also had
access to English City and General English classes and events. Students
reasons for attending the General classes were varied, some of them wished
to further improve pronunciation, others wanted to gain extra vocabulary or
attend fluency building sessions. The General English courses in English City
work by a principle of adaptive learning.
The use of a recommendation engine enables adaptive learning to
happen and empowers the student to chose their own learning path. The
recommendation engine works on a system where teachers recommend
skills that a student needs to improve after every class. For example they
may choose pronunciation and grammar. This results in a list of generated
recommendations for classes where the focus is pronunciation and
grammar. This approach combined with the requests of the student results
in a personalised adaptive system. The importance of adaptive learning
and being able to respond to student needs is central to the importance of
a virtual world as a platform for personalised learning.
Results from the Beta test phase of the Market Leader Live case studies
fed into further research and development to improve the product. These
results reinforce the suggestion that experiences in virtual worlds can be
The Future of Textbooks: Bringing Business English Market Leader to Life
45
as realistic as those in the real world, “Many thanks to the organizers for
a vivid, memorable event” [9] and “Both teachers did an excellent job and
challenged us with networking exercises in simulated real-life situations.
Special thanks...... put huge efforts in organizing this event!” [10] Both of
the virtual experiences are seen here as real events where the students
completed real activities and felt an emotional connection to the outcome.
The feedback from the teachers included one teacher stating that it was
the highlight of his teaching week, when students interacting with little or no
teacher prompting for 45 minutes in a simulated business situation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the future of text books as virtual experiences and what further
research and development could be done to make student experiences more
meaningful is exciting and the possibilities are endless. With the capability to
produce bespoke integrated solutions across platforms, students could bring
their work documents and proposals to a Market Leader Live session and get
a real time critique from an international and experienced audience in time
for a presentation the next day. The textbook in this case is the scaffolding
for real experiences and the guidelines for the teacher to facilitate something
much more than role playing in a classroom situation. The added advantage
of having a global audience and the opportunity to create communities to
network in are also beyond the scope of a traditional textbook where the
narrative is merely a background and not a central part of the language
production. As students all over the world continue to expect more from
language learning and technology, it is no longer enough just to digitise
a text book. Adaptive, immersive, custom built experiences will soon be the
standard education provided on a digital platform.
References
[1] Lin, C. C., Lin, I.Y.-J “E-book Flood. for Changing EFL Learners’
Reading Attitudes. Proceedings of the 17th International Conference
on Computers in Education” (2009), http://www.apsce.net/ICCE2009/
pdf/C6/proceedings769-776.pdf
[2] Sonwalkar, Nishikant. “Changing the Interface of Education with
Revolutionary Learning Technology.” Syllabus, November, p. 10-13.
(2001), http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0507.pdf
[3] Attasiriluk, Songpol. Nakasone, Arturo. Hantanon, Wisut. Prada,
Rui. Kanongchaiyos, Pizzanu. Prendinger, Helmut. “Co-presence,
collaboration, and control in environmental studies: A Second Lifebased approach”(2009) http://gaips.inescid.pt/gaips/component/gaips/
publications/showPublicationPdf?pid=28&format=raw
46
Jessica Driscoll
[4] Bronack, Stephen. Sanders, Robert. Cheney, Amelia. Riedl, Richard.
Tashner, John. and Matzen Nita. “Presence Pedagogy: Teaching and
Learning in a 3D Virtual Immersive International Journal of Teaching
and Learning in Higher Education” (2008), Volume 20, Number 1, 5969, http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE453.pdf
[5] Mantovani, Fabrizia. Castelnuovo, Gianluca. “Sense of Presence
in Virtual Training: Enhancing Skills Acquisition and Transfer of
Knowledge through Learning Experience in Virtual Environments”
(2003) http://www.neurovr.org/emerging/book4/4_11MANTOV.PDF
[6] Schwarzer, David. “Best practices for teaching the “whole” adult ESL
learner.” New Directions of Adult & Continuing Education, (2009):
Issue121, P. 25-33.
[7] Sharwood, Simon.” Suncorp GM Second Life Trumps Video
Conferencing” (2007) http://searchcio.techtarget.com.
au/news/2240019427/Suncorp-GM-Second-Life-trumpsvideoconferencing
[8] “Avatars help people develop real world skills” 7th December,
(2011) Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2011/12/111207104817.htm
[9] Philly,Anatoliy. “The Benefit of the red shirt for a memorable
presentation” Languagelab Student Blog, October 2011
http://studentsblog.languagelab.com/post/11027865572/the-benefit-ofred-shirt-for-a-memorable-presentation
[10] Franz, Andreas “Market Leader Launch” Languagelab Student Blog,
October 2011 http://studentsblog.languagelab.com/post/12198798278/
market-leader-launch
47
Street Artists in a Virtual Space
Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi, Rome
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Abstract
Information and communication technologies have great potential for
knowledge dissemination, effective learning and the development of more
efficient education services. The information and communication systems,
whether networked or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning
process.
The present paper will give a general overview of a new integrated learning
methodology that combines an e-learning platform with a 3D virtual world and
that aims at encouraging students participation as well as creative teaching
and learning. It will show how this new methodology has been applied
through the project ST.ART in the European partner schools. The learning
takes place within technology-supported community of learners involved in
creation as well as consumption of content.
Introduction
ST.ART (STreet ARTists in a virtual space) project aims at providing an
innovative learning platform as a laboratory where contemporary art works
can be carried out by young students in particular of visual art schools.
ST.ART project embraces the best of the new possibilities offered by modern
technologies as a support to education in order to break down the barriers
between formal and informal education. Allowing the users to have a voice
and to actively participate in the learning process is a very powerful way to
keep them engaged and to have them reflect upon what they are constructing
and eventually learning.
Today’s students learn differently from those of previous generations,
they are equipped with different attitudes toward education. The use of
technological tools can create an alternative to traditional education, that
blends together games and learning. The functionalities of the technological
system are designed to facilitate the pedagogical model implementation in
a wide range of educational settings, both formal and informal. The didactic
environments involve the users with user-generated contents, transforming
people from content readers into publishers thus participating in the
knowledge construction. The use of multimedia tools offers the possibility to
use different communication codes at the same time.
48
1. ST.ART project
ST.ART is a 24 months project co-funded by the European Commission Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, Lifelong Learning
Programme Comenius Project (project number 503230-2009-LLP-ITCOMENIUS-CMP) www.startproject.eu. As the title suggests the pivotal topic
around which the project unfold is street art. Street art is art made in public
spaces and includes: graffiti, stickers, stencil art and wheat pasting. It has
developed out of the graffiti tradition of the 1980s and over the last decade
it has become one of the most popular and controversial art forms in the
contemporary scene, reaching also the mainstream. Given its background
and origins Street art gives rise to a variety of interpretations: by some it is
considered a plague while for others it is an artistic expression or a tool to
communicate dissent and expressing concerns. For these reasons most of
young people do not know the nuances of street art forms and they are not
totally aware of the liable boundaries existing between street art and vandalism.
In this context the main aim of ST.ART project is to have students (16 to
18 year old students in secondary schools, especially in art schools) better
know street art, its origins, roots and latest developments and understand the
difference between aesthetics, street art forms and vandalism. ST.ART wants
to produce innovative learning materials, which deal with curricular topics,
but go more in details and merge together the theoretical and the practical
aspects: i.e. the contents, that integrate the latest art trends with current art
curricula and an innovative technological system, which creates a new Virtual
Learning Environment. The pedagogical tools are developed in the form of
attractive and fun contents delivered in virtual environments (i.e. e-learning
platform and 3D virtual world).
1.1 ST.ART background
As first step, ST.ART partnership carried out a Comparative research on
current art curricula, defined by the Ministry of Education (or any other relevant
institution) in the countries involved in the project i.e. Italy, Austria, Malta and
Lithuania. The research aimed at defining whether in the schools addressed,
Street art is a topic included in official modules within the curricular planning
of contemporary art history classes. The research wanted to point out
similarities and differences existing in legislative/education frameworks about
street art forms. What came out as an outstanding issue is that there are no
special street art school programmes or express references in contemporary
art curricula of all inquiring countries. However street art is close to students’
interests and there is a number of experiences in extracurricular activities.
On the other hand there are no education programmes and activities aimed
at preventing vandalism.
1.2 Training path
At methodological level, the objective of the ST.ART project is to put the
school teachers in a position to pursue a flexible teaching, using appropriate
49
resources and completely friendly technology. The teaching is flexible if it
is able to adjust better to the learning levels of students to allow them to
activate a cognitive complexity appropriate to their actual potential.
ST.ART’s educational objectives are to improve students’ basic and
transversal skills, for example:
§ communication in English with their peers;
§ digital, social and civic competencies, sense of initiative and
entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression;
§ creativity thanks to the development of the art project work in Open
sim.
The processes of learning are complex and multifaceted and they undergo
changes over the time. The most advanced education methodologies are
focusing on flexibility, risk-taking, creativity and problem solving through
modern methods of teaching and so called “atypical” forms of learning,
such as co-operative learning, and through the use of multilateral clusters,
community networks and ICT in teaching. The breakthrough of cognitive and
constructivist approaches shifted the focus of education methodologies from
teaching to learning. According to this paradigm teaching and learning in
schools should be viewed as systemic processes that rely on principles of
active participation, social interaction, dialogue and reflection. In this context
teachers are more like facilitators who help learners to get to their own
understanding of the content.
Based on these assumptions ST.ART learning process has been implemented
in three different and parallel sessions:
§ the first one is an e-learning environment where students have
access to theoretical information about the relevant topic, street
art. The course is structured around three core modules: aesthetics
and creativity of street art forms; entrepreneurship; and digital
competencies in web 2.0 and virtual words. The lectures are mediated
by teachers who can apply several methods to keep students actively
involved in the course: course e.g. reciprocal questioning (students
work together to ask and answer questions); jigsaw classroom
(students become "experts" on one part of a group project and teach
it to the others in their group); or structured controversies (students
work together to research a particular controversy). All the learning
objects (included audiolessons and lecture notes) are in English
and this makes these educational tools usable as interdisciplinary
material for English language and art teachers. Within the learning
platform a forum area is foreseen ,where teachers can exchange
ideas, opinions or talk about different learning methodologies with
their peers in other European countries involved in the project.
§ In a 3D virtual world, which is the second session, students carry
out a project artwork. Open Sim is a 3D world that tries to reproduce
50
the real one, including the development of new rules. This virtual
world has the potential to develop a simulation of “real life” skills
and competencies. First students have to create their own avatar
and go around the city, Metropolis. They have to learn how to use
all the tools that the 3D virtual world provide them with, and start
working on the practical art work project. The activities in the city
foresee some synchronous lectures to be held by the Mayor of the
city. The lectures are mainly discussion groups through which the
Mayor gives students insights for discussion about correct behaviour
in the city, a draft legislation, how to perform street art legally. The
discussions on the correct behaviour in Metropolis turned out to be
a common denominator in the live sessions in Open sim.
These discussions gave birth to the “Law for the Regulation of
Street Art in Urban Areas” in its own terms the Law regulates “static
inanimate artistic forms of expression in urban areas of the City of
Metro, the issue of licenses and establishment of the regulatory
authorities”. The discussion engaged the students, thus favouring
social interaction within Open sim. They saw the law changing from
a draft into a final document to be used in Metropolis and this made
them more committed to the design of contents and implementation
of activities. The Law has been uploaded in the Art gallery as
a memorandum.
While virtual worlds with their three-dimensional landscapes and
customizable avatars seem similar to popular Online Games,
they do not adhere to the traditional definition of a game. Virtual
worlds are more focused on socializing, exploring, and building. As
a consequence, one of ST.ART’s expected results was to create an
active educational community in Metropolis. In order to encourage
students from different countries and different schools to interact
with their peers and behave in compliance with the regulation agreed
upon, Metropolis has been divided into 5 different areas: each area
is characterised by a colour and a background theme. The students
had to choose an area in which they wanted to operate: therefore
they are called to make research, build their own artwork or upload
pictures related to the theme of the area and they become part of
a multinational and multicultural group.
§ The third session is represented by the social area, within the
3D Virtual world, where the students can interact with peers, in
a collaborative way, exchange ideas, opinions, views, teach each
other and learn from each other. In the social area and 3D virtual
world training sessions the students are engaged in an active
learning process which is student-centred and guided by an expert
of content (as moderator/mentor) who interacts with the students.
This kind of learning allows an active development of competencies
based on evidence as students actively construct new knowledge as
they interact with other people.
51
1.3 Methodology
In order to achieve its objectives the ST.ART developed a new and innovative
Virtual Learning Environment, made up of two settings:
§ an e-learning environment with a training area that uses the common
tools of a modular learning platform to favour students’ content
learning
§ a virtual 3D world (based on the Open Sim environment) where art
works are performed; the 3D world includes a social area where
students can have open discussions.
Claroline is the e-learning platform used for delivery of the online course.
This platform is suitable for delivery of distance learning, in particular through
Internet.
As for the 3D Virtual world ST.ART used the Open Simulator, often referred
to as Open Sim, that is an open source server platform for hosting virtual
worlds. While it is most recognized for compatibility with the Second Life
client, it is also capable of hosting alternative worlds with differing feature
sets with multiple protocols.
The friendly interface of technological tools allows users to connect with
one another and to identify themselves with their own avatars, to increase
motivation, to reinforce the skills previously acquired and to enhance their
overall learning experience. The use of game-based systems format is very
effective since it engages the young generation and lets them speak their
own language. Positioning students in the role of the main learning character
can strike their interest, and at the same time, can lead them to have a deeper
engagement with the content. School teachers play together with students
since it is essential for the teachers to engage themselves in the virtual
worlds too. They need to communicate with students in a common language
in order to be able to still lead and shape students’ learning. As teachers play,
they help the narrative unfold, motivate students with appropriate feedback
and highlight key concepts embedded in the virtual scenario.
The collaborative environment of virtual worlds, provides synchronous
communication and interaction among students. This social interaction and the
relationships that develop, in this immersive virtual reality, between students
and among students and others, create a community of learners. Virtual
worlds promote a greater in-depth knowledge of the content, process, and
applications, facilitating an authentic learning experience. The experiential
learning processes involve a higher level of interaction, which evolves as
student and teacher participate in discussions, collaborations, feedback, and
shared content knowledge. In addition to creating an enjoyable experience,
virtual worlds provide students scaffolded spaces that can support practical
experimentation, critical thinking, and other information literacy skills.
52
1.4 Results
The main result of our project is to have produced an innovative learning and
teaching methodology that merges together the theoretical and the practical
aspects i.e. the contents that integrates the latest art trends with current art
curricula and an innovative technological system which creates a new Virtual
Learning Environment.
The functionalities of the technological system are designed to facilitate the
pedagogical model implementation in a wide range of educational settings,
both formal and informal. The range of applications used to support the
chosen topics demonstrates an interest to cross subject boundaries and
take learning beyond the classroom. The access to Metropolis is restricted to
teachers and students who participate in the implementation of the project,
in order to guarantee more effective control, better protection of their privacy
and real development, in a virtual environment, of the school settings.
Conclusions
In conclusion the ST.ART project embraces the best of new possibilities
offered by modern technologies as a support to education, in order to break
down the barriers between formal and informal education. The technologies
used can facilitate the process of creation and rendition of art topics. The
pedagogical model related to 3D virtual world provides the students with
inputs and tools: the students are then called to interact, through the use
of avatars in a virtual role-playing context, reproducing a real life setting. In
so doing they can build a community of artists: they have to work together,
respect each other, allow space for others, create friendships and try to turn
Metropolis into a modern artistic city.
The educational model offered by the project is in fact based on synchronous
as well as asynchronous tools, with specific and dedicate focus on group
activities. The latter offers a great opportunity for social interaction and it
shows how cooperation can produce amazing results.
The current global situation requires new ways of thinking and the key
competences needed in future have to reflect more than before, flexibility,
risk-taking, creativity and innovation. This is a challenge for formal education
in general and lifelong learning in particular.
References
[1] Hirooka, Masaaki, (2005), Nonlinear dynamism of innovation and
business cycles, in U. Cantner, E. Dinopoulos & R. Lanzillotti (Eds.),
Entrepreneurships, the new economy and public policy (pp. 289–316).
New York: Springer.
53
[2] Lave, Jean, and Wenger, Etienne, (1991), Situated Learning: Legitimate
Peripheral Participation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
[3] Prigogine, Ilya. (1997). End of certainty. New York: The Free Press.
[4] Swan, Karen, and Shea, Peter, (2005), The Development of Virtual
Learning Communities, in Hiltz, Starr Roxanne, and Goldman, Ricki,
eds., Learning Together Online: Research on Asynchronous Learning
Networks (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum).
[5] Tavangarian D., Leypold M., Nölting K., Röser M.,(2004). Is e-learning
the Solution for Individual Learning? Journal of e-learning.
[6] Vygotsky L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher
Psychological Processes, ed. Cole, M., John-Steiner, V., Scribner, S.,
and Souberman, E., (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
[7] Wood, N. T., Solomon, M. R., Marshall, G. W., Lincoln, S., (2010).
Corporate Training Goes Virtual: A Hybrid Approach to Experiential
Learning In Virtual Environments for Corporate Education: Employee
Learning and Solutions (pp. 284-301).
54
Gender-Bending in Virtual Space - Using VoiceMorphing in Second Life to Raise Sociolinguistic
Gender Awareness
Department of Language Studies, Umeå University (Sweden)
[email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected]
Abstract
This paper presents further innovative use of virtual worlds under the pilot
stages of ASSIS (A Second Step in Second Life), a project funded by Umeå
University. One aim of the project is to make use of the affordances offered
by Second Life in order to raise sociolinguistic language awareness among
teacher trainees and other students studying sociolinguistics. Several
experiments have been conducted where creative use of the avatar in
combination with so-called “voice-morphing” allowed students to be exposed
to, or experience different linguistic identities. In the following paper, we
describe four such experiments.
In the First one, we recreated a classic sociolinguistic experimental design,
the so-called matched-guise test, in order to test whether our female
students were evaluated differently on various personal characteristics when
they appeared as male avatars. Contrary to previous match-guise studies,
our results showed that all the females were more positively evaluated than
all the ‘males’. However, this overall pattern was very likely a result of the
poor quality of the female-to-male voice-morph. In the second experiment,
students were offered the possibility of experiencing the opposite gender in
a cross-cultural course setting in SL, in order to reflect over how this “gender
change” affected the way they were treated in conversations. Only one
student took this opportunity leaving few conclusions, except awareness of the
ethically problematic aspects of such arrangements. In the third experiment,
we used voice-morphing in SL to raise students’ awareness of how gender
stereotypes can influence their perception of teachers. In addition to the real
(male) teacher, we created two voice-morphed teacher assistant avatars in
SL, one male and one female. Student evaluations showed that they were
partly influenced by stereotypes and partly not. The design of the experiment
was criticized by the students, however, as they felt that they had had too
little time with the teacher assistants to evaluate them properly and therefore
gave average ratings. In the fourth study we used similar characters as in
the previous study, but in an online lecture during which the real teacher
spoke as himself and also gave talks, one as his female and one as his male
Gender-Bending in Virtual Space – Using Voice-Morphing in Second Life to...
55
PhD student. The students listening to the lecture evaluated the female PhD
student as more likeable and the male PhD student as more intelligent. After,
the design was revealed and the students reflected extensively on the result
and how unconscious gender stereotypes influence how we judge people.
The models and studies presented here point to the potential of virtual
worlds as tools for awareness-raising activities regarding gender as a social
construct
1. Introduction
On the basis of studies from various 3D VEs, Thorne, Black & Sykes [1]
point to several possibilities for language learning including in the area of
experimentation with identity in relation to language. In this context, gender
is a variable that has been contemplated as important, but while Second Life
(SL) offers excellent opportunities to investigate gender roles, little has been
written about this topic in relation to SL and language studies (SL) [2].
In the project ASSIS, funded by Umeå University, Sweden, we wanted to
raise gender awareness among language students using the affordances
offered in SL. The activities were integrated in courses in sociolinguistics,
where the social-constructivist view on gender and language was one of the
main topics explored. According to this view, gender is not a stable state, but
rather constructed in the conversational interplay between interlocutors [3]
[4]. We wanted to raise awareness of the mechanisms of this construction
through experiments using voice-morphing and avatar construction. The
following paper describes four such experiments.
2. Case Descriptions
In all of the cases described below, we used the voice-morphing tool that
is available in SL in packages consisting of 5 voices (feminine packages,
masculine packages etc.) from “Voice Island”. Once purchased, the voicemorph can be activated by clicking on the arrow beside the voice button in
Viewer 2. You then have the option to activate one of the five voice-morphs
(see Fig. 1 below).
2.1. Matched-Guise Experiment
This experiment explored matched-guise technique using the possibilities
that virtual worlds offer in terms of gender manipulation. The original study [5]
investigated how Canadian listeners’ attitudes were affected by the language
of the speaker. Four bilinguals would read the same text in both English
and French. These recordings were then played to respondents or ‘judges’,
who were asked to evaluate the speakers on personal characteristics. Of
course the ‘judges’ did not know that the same people were speaking in the
two languages. The study showed that the person reading was evaluated
56
Fig. 1. Voice-morph options in package ‘Feminine 2’.
differently depending on which language was used. Since then the technique
has been used and developed in a number of studies investigating different
attitudes to language output such as national and regional accents, [6]. While
comparisons of gender effects on evaluations of different dialects have been
studied previously [7], to the best of our knowledge, no study has explored
this technique in virtual worlds, and with regard to gender.
Our experiment was set up in a Master’s course at a Swedish university with
four female students, from Sweden, Iran, South Africa and China. We made
machinima recordings of the students reading a short text in SL using their
real voices and female avatars. We then used female-to-male voice-morphing
and male avatars to record the same students reading the same texts as
‘males’. Approximately 50 outside ‘judges’ were asked to evaluate the avatars
using a 7-point Likert scale. Essentially following the methodology and trait
inventory of Cavallaro & Chin [6], the traits were ‘hardworking’, ‘intelligent’,
‘ambitious’, ‘confident’, ‘trustworthy’, ‘considerate’, ‘kind’, ‘honest’, ‘caring’,
‘likeable’ and ‘funny’. One obvious difference compared to previous studies
was that the ‘judges’ could see an avatar. Because the appearance of the
avatar could affect the evaluation, the students were asked to keep their two
avatars as ‘neutral’ as possible in relation to one another.
Based on the results from Andrews’ study, where male voices were
evaluated higher than their female counter-parts on all traits [7], our
hypothesis was that male avatars would be evaluated higher, especially on
prestige attributes such as ‘intelligence’, ‘confidence’ and ‘hardworking’. Our
hypothesis was refuted. In fact, the female avatars were evaluated higher
on all characteristics. However, statistically significant differences were only
found (t-test, p≤ 0.05) for one avatar and for three characteristics (‘confident’,
‘intelligent’ and ‘kind’). The most feasible explanation for these results was
57
that poor and artificial quality of the female-to-male voice morphs influenced
the ‘judges’ leading to higher evaluations of the un-morphed female voices.
We find it unlikely that the avatar appearances produced this outcome.
2.2. Students Gender-Bending
In the second experiment, we gave students the opportunity to gender morph
to experience if there was any difference in the way that they were treated
in conversations when acting the opposite sex. The setting for this second
experiment was a Master’s course in sociolinguistics where the students
were to discuss gender and language matters in a cross-cultural setting
with peers from Chile. All participants could choose to gender morph or not,
and perhaps because almost all students were female and the female-male
morphs had proved themselves of poor quality, only one person decided
to use this option. Unfortunately, she was far from convincing as the voice
sounded artificial, but nevertheless she maintained that the experience was
“extremely liberating”, but “quite psychologically disturbing”.
In retrospect, the main problems with this model are the ethical dilemmas it
presents. Firstly, we do not know how students may react when they enter the
role of the opposite sex. Some students may find this extremely disturbing
(for a number of reasons), and the experience may trigger psychological
processes over which we have little control. A second dilemma is the fact that
interlocutors may say or do things they would otherwise not if they knew the
true identity of the conversational partner. People may, for example, disclose
secrets or make flirtatious approaches, all of which can cause considerable
embarrassment and place students in difficult positions. With all this in mind,
we hesitate to propose this approach and instead recommend more controlled
models where the educators themselves take on the gender morphed roles.
2.3. Evaluation of Teacher Assistant(s)
In the third experiment, we used voice-morphing in SL to study if gender
stereotypes influenced students’ perception of teacher performance. The
pedagogic aim was to raise teacher trainee students’ awareness of this
issue. The setting was a course in sociolinguistics on the subject of gender
attended by 34 third-year EFL teacher trainees. The students were to
conduct two case discussions on the topic of gender in the classroom in
SL, and would be joined by outside ‘expert peers’ (active language teachers
and researchers). In SL, the students were split into 11 discussion groups
of 3-4 students and one expert peer, and assigned their own sound parcel
(see Fig. 2). They were also told that there would be two teacher assistants,
Rory (female) and Rico (male), circulating during the discussion helping out
to clarify things.
58
Fig. 2. Aerial view of sound parcels used for group discussions.
In reality, a (real) teacher acted as both Rico and Rory, with his voice
morphed to a lower pitch for Rico and higher pitch for Rory. After each
session, the students then evaluated the two in an online questionnaire in
relation to statements about facilitating discussion, addressing female vs.
male students, and listening vs. talking much themselves.
The student’s ratings of Rory and Rico were analysed using t-tests (p≤
0.05). In order to compare student ratings with actual performances, the
group discussions were recorded, and used to collect data corresponding
to the statements in the questionnaire. The students rated Rico significantly
higher than Rory for facilitating discussion (workshop 2), giving both males
and females more attention (workshop 1), and for making students speak.
This result was unexpected as studies show that female teachers are more
likely to be rated high for promoting discussion and giving students attention
[8]. However, data from the sound recordings showed that Rico facilitated
discussion more, meaning that the students were not influenced by gender
stereotypes in this case. Rory, was rated significantly higher than Rico for
addressing male and female students equally (workshop 1), for “taking over
conversation”, and for “listening with interest”. It is well established that
teachers tend to address male students more frequently than female [9].
However, the sound recordings showed that contrary to this and to most
students’ perceptions, Rory and Rico both addressed proportionally more
female students. It is possible that the teacher overcompensated, or that
female students were more active in interacting with teachers. Contrary
to the evaluations, the sound recordings showed that Rico, not Rory, took
over conversation more. It is possible that we expect this kind of behaviour
59
from male but not female teachers. That Rory was considered to be a more
interested listener was expected as female teachers tend to be perceived
as better listeners [10]. These results confirm that the students were at least
partly influenced by gender stereotypes in their evaluation of Rory and Rico.
After the experiment the design was revealed during a debriefing, with the
aim to use the data as a starting point for discussions on gender stereotypes
in the classroom and how these had influenced the students’ perceptions.
Unfortunately, there were too many distractions during the experiment
drawing students’ attention from the aim: Rory and Rico spent very little time
with each group since “they” had to interact with all groups; the additional
variable of an outside discussion partner took much attention, and finally
students were focussing on the content since they had to write two graded
reports. Many students claimed that they did not get a lasting impression
of Rory and Rico, whose presence they experienced as peripheral. We
thus conclude that whilst our results were partly in-line with what we had
expected, they did not cause the “aha-effect” we had hoped for. Letting
morphed assistants partake during the entire discussion with each group
would be a way around this problem.
2.4. The Lecture Model
During the project we were invited by one of our colleagues (Kristy Jauregi
at Utrecht University, Holland) to give an online lecture on virtual worlds to
her Master students in Intercultural Communication, studying a course on
multilingualism and mediation. In the course, topics such as culture, identity,
stereotypes, competences of the intercultural speaker and mediator are
central. With the aim to demonstrate virtual world identity construction in a
practical way, the online lecture, which was formally framed as a talk in SL
on virtual worlds by a Swedish lecturer and his two PhD students (see Fig.
3), was projected to two groups of students (36 in all) in a lecture theatre.
Fig. 3. The male lecturer character (left), with his female PhD student
(middle) and male PhD student (right)
60
In reality, the lecturer and the PhD students were the same person working
from two computers using three avatars, with his un-morphed voice
representing the lecturer, a female voice-morph representing the female
PhD-student, and a voice-morph which made his voice deeper representing
the male PhD-student. During the presentation, the lecturer introduced the
subject of virtual worlds after which he handed over to “his PhD students”
and logged out. In the first trial, they then each gave a 20-minute talk about
ASSIS. After this, the lecturer returned and asked the students to rate the PhD
students on the attributes: likeability and intelligence, using a 6-point Likert
scale. The ratings were then immediately calculated and the experimental
design was revealed. Students were also asked if they suspected that voicemorphing had been going on, after all, it was the topic of the lecture. This
was followed by a discussion of the results and what they revealed about the
groups’ stereotypical views on males and females.
The first group that was given the lecture strongly suspected that some form
of voice-morphing was taking place (13/20) and hence these results were
discarded. In the second lecture, we modified the design so that instead
of taking two distinct turns, the “PhD students” gave the lecture together
in a more conversational fashion, sometimes commenting on each other
and asking questions. This was made possible by wearing two head-sets
simultaneously and alternately muting the microphone on one head-set
depending on which avatar was supposedly speaking. In this second group
no one suspected that the doctoral students were the same person (the
lecturer), and there was a significant difference between how the students
evaluated the male and the female PhD avatars. The male was evaluated
as slightly more intelligent (p= 0.07 using a t-test), while the female was
deemed as significantly more likeable (p= 0.001 using a t-test).
The most favourable result, however, were the responses to the question of
what they had learnt, posed in the post-event survey:
§ “I learned how easy it was to influence people's thoughts on
somebody's identity/personality […]. It creates a whole new look on
how we judge people by looks and gender!”
§ “I think it's very interesting how male and female can be so different
even though they are the 'same' person.”
§ “Yes, I learned that even though I think gender isn't important in the
vision you have of a person it plays a big role in your valuation of
a person, […] in the real world too I guess.”
§ I think most of us learned that our judgements […] were mostly
influenced based on exterior features and voice rather than the
information that they gave to us. I think it brought some kind of
awareness that you have to look further than only the exterior of
a person.
61
3. Concluding remarks
While we see great potentials in using SL to raise language awareness in
relation to gender, we also encountered some problems in the development
of our models. For example, the relatively poor quality of the female-to-male
voice-morphs in SL hindered us from fully exploring the full potential of some
of our designs. A way around this problem would be to use voice-morphing
tools of better quality outside SL. We were also struck by some of the ethical
dilemmas our experiments presented that we had not fully contemplated
prior to the project. We thus see the future need to carefully consider all
possibilities before embarking on identity manipulation, especially when
students are involved. Finally we see great potential using virtual worlds
in order to explore other variables that may affect listener perception. Age,
outward appearances and ethnic identity are examples that we look forward
to investigating in the future.
References
[1] Thorne, S. L., Black, R. W. and Sykes, J. M. (2009) Second language
use, socialization, and learning in Internet interest communities and
online gaming. The Modern Language Journal, 93 (1), (p.813).
[2] Inman, C., Wright, V. H. and Hartman, J. A. (2010) Use of Second Life in
K-12 and higher education: A review of research. Journal of Interactive
Online Learning, 9 (1), (p.54).
[3] West, C. & D. H. Zimmerman (1987). Doing Gender. Gender and
Society, 1 (2), 125-151.
[4] Crawford, M. (1995). Talking Difference: On Gender and Language.
London: Sage. Darcy.
[5] Lambert, W.E., R.C. Hodgson, R.C. Gardner, and S. Fillenbaum. (1960).
Evaluational reactions to spoken language. Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology 60 (1), 44-51.
[6] Cavallaro F., Ng Bee Chin (2009). Between Status and Solidarity in
Singapore. World Englishes, 28 (2), 143-159.
[7] Andrews, D. R. (2003). Gender Effects in a Russian and American
Matched-Guise Study: A Sociolinguistic Comparison. Russian
Linguistics 27 (3): 287-311.
[8] Bachen CM, McLoughlin MM and Garcia SS (1999) Assessing the role
of gender in college students’ evaluations of faculty. Communication
Education, 48: 193-210.
[9] Sunderland, J. (2000). New Understandings of Gender and Language
Classroom Research: Texts, Teacher Talk and Student Talk. Language
Teaching Research, 4:149-173.
[10] Centra JA and Gaubatz NB (2000) Is There Gender Bias in Student
Evaluations of Teaching? The Journal of Higher Education, 71: 17-33.
62
An Asynchronous Virtual Space for ContactBased Oral Work with Chinese Students Learning
English
Clermont Université, Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Langage, ClermontFerrand, France
[email protected]; [email protected]
Abstract
This case study sets out to investigate the impact of the introduction of
a computer-assisted language learning tool into an English-as-a-foreignlanguage course for Chinese students on a one-year university diploma
programme at Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
VoiceForum, an asynchronous platform for oral interaction, is currently
being used in class with these students as a complement to face-to-face
activities. In the study, student questionnaire data is used to describe the
students’ previous English-as-a-foreign-language background. We present
why VoiceForum was introduced in response to student reticence and lack of
confidence to participate in speaking activities, despite data showing student
awareness of the importance of these for target language improvement.
Using teacher questionnaire data, we describe the challenges teachers met
in organising face-to-face speaking activities for this class and the necessary
role of the teacher during these as a facilitator inciting peer interaction.
After explaining the main functionality of VoiceForum’s virtual web space
for oral interaction, in response to two research questions concerning
student motivation and the teacher’s role, we describe and exemplify how
the platform has helped both teachers and students with the challenges
faced. Firstly, by increasing students’ confidence concerning oral production
because students do not perceive that they are communicating in front of
everybody and, thus, are less concerned about projecting a good impression
of themselves. We also discuss here the importance attributed by students
to being able to review and prepare their productions. Secondly, we describe
how VoiceForum provides the primary mediation between the students,
encouraging peer-to-peer interaction without teacher intervention and how,
on using this platform, students feel more receptive to teacher feedback.
1. Introduction
The case study developed here describes how a class of Chinese students
has presented teachers of the Hypermedia Language Centre at the Faculty
An Asynchronous Virtual Space for Contact-Based Oral Work with Chinese...
63
of Languages and Business, Université Blaise Pascal, France, with particular
challenges. After describing the students’ previous English-as-a-foreignlanguage (EFL) background, we present these challenges which include
a lack of student confidence in speaking and interacting with peers and
discuss how using VoiceForum [1], an asynchronous in-house computerassisted language learning platform, during contact-hour sessions, has
helped both teachers and students in managing them.
2. Case study context and research questions
Our study focuses on 12 Chinese students learning EFL as part of a oneyear diploma course for international students as preparation for a Bachelor’s
programme in the faculty. The three male and nine female students mainly
at CEFR [2] B1 level concerning speaking skills, have an average age of 20.
The students attend two two-hour EFL sessions each week. These classes
use multimedia computer suites where the peripheral placement of the
workstations facilitates rapid transitions between face-to-face and computerbased activities. They are taught by two experienced, native-speaker
teachers who have responded to an observation by subject teachers of the
Bachelor’s programme, in which certain modules are taught in English, that
the Chinese students were at a disadvantage. One session (S1) focuses on
the communication skills needed for presentations. The second (S2) gives
students practice in the types of interaction they might meet in small-group
discussions at university. The S2 syllabus is organised thematically. Outside
of class, the students produce weekly learning logs focusing on vocabulary
and expressions in written texts which, in turn, form the thematic basis for
both S2 classes and the formative and summative presentations given in S1.
Liu [3], summarising research literature concerning Asian students,
underlines the cultural differences that give rise to reticence to speak in class
and a conservative approach to linguistic risk-taking through fear of making
mistakes and losing face. These differences are seen as challenges to the
learner-centred, communicative approach adopted by staff at the language
centre.
VoiceForum has been designed to create a learner-centred focus and
addresses affective and pedagogical issues associated with speaking in
public. Despite using asynchronous technology, more often associated with
distance learning, this platform for oral interaction was introduced in class
time with the Chinese students to complement face-to-face activities.
Our case study investigates whether VoiceForum, effective with French
students [4], is the right tool to help resolve the more acute issues observed
with the Chinese class. Our research questions are 1. Do the Chinese students
perceive the platform as more likely to motivate their oral participation and
help them progress than with face-to-face only activities? 2. What are the
specific implications for the role of the teacher in VoiceForum work?
64
The study is informed by a student questionnaire (SQ) alongside a teacher
questionnaire (TQ) and observation of the students’ oral production on
VoiceForum. Each student’s and teacher’s questionnaire was attributed
a code, e.g. SQ1/TQ1. Informed consent was received from all participants.
3. EFL learning context
3.1. Data concerning students’ EFL background
Previously, the students had studied for two years at Chinese higher
education institutions. Whilst ten undergraduates had EFL courses, two had
had no EFL courses since high school. On average, the students had 10
years and 11 months of EFL study, in classes in which they estimated the
average number of students at 37.
In previous EFL courses, students describe an infrequent focus on speaking
skills. Instead, reading and listening skills were focused upon (see Figure 1).
This quote, from the student questionnaires, is a typical description of the
students’ previous EFL classes:
§ “The teacher played the record of the text and we read it without
making any sounds. Then the teacher explained every grammar
point and vocabularies in the text. And then we were required to
finish text questions after the text.” (SQ6)
Fig.1. Frequency of focus on specific language skills during students’
previous EFL courses
Student questionnaires inform, on average, 8.75% of time in previous EFL
classes was spent focusing on speaking activities compared to 40% on
65
reading and 23% on writing. When classes involved speaking skills, the most
frequent activity was oral presentations. Describing these classes, several
students acknowledge the difficulty in organising speaking activities for large
classes:
§ “The professor […] asked the questions. No one responded […]
because there is maybe 50 students in classroom. It is hard for him
to take care of everyone.” (SQ8)
3.2. Data concerning face-to-face speaking activities
A specialisation of the language centre is teaching spoken interaction.
Although the Chinese students believe speaking skills are important to
improve their English (see Figure 2) and, in particular, that group debates
and discussions would improve their speaking skills (see Figure 3), teachers
report reticence to participate in speaking activities.
Fig.2. Skills to which students give importance for improving their English
Fig.3. Speaking activities which students believe would most help them
improve their English
66
Teacher questionnaires evoke this reticence, describing how students react
by silence to questions unless singled out to respond. The teachers describe
a lack of target language interaction, commenting:
§ “small group activities are essentially conducted in Chinese unless
I am hovering over them. I have rarely observed these students
attempting to practise English on a conversational level with each
other, unless I am closely monitoring the activity.” (TQ1)
Teachers, therefore, describe their reliance on whole-class activities where,
although students participate in English, teachers adopt the role of facilitators,
organising turn-taking slots to incite peer-to-peer interaction. Cultural
differences may play a role. Liu’s [3] study reports that Chinese culture
values modesty, teaching people to be neither first nor last and suggests this
makes students afraid of being perceived as showing off. Instead, they wait
for others to initiate discussions.
The teachers’ observations are also illustrated in student data. On a scale of
0 (‘not at all confident’) to 10 (‘very confident’), students rate their confidence
concerning i) speaking activities with a partner at 8.7; ii) speaking activities
in small groups at 8.04; and iii) speaking in front of the class with the teacher
present at 6.75. In the latter, students express several reasons for lacking
confidence including the need to make a good impression, shyness, a fear
of making mistakes and forgetting ideas. Although students acknowledge the
kindness and patience of their teachers who “always had a cordial talk with
us like a friend in class” (SQ2), they express their concern about not giving
a good impression:
§ “I want to show a perfect behaviour and a good impression for the
whole class and teacher. And if I make any mistake, I would be care
how other people thinking of me or judge me.” (SQ6)
§ “I am afraid to say something wrong and the teachers and classmates
will think that I’m not good enough. […] I would feel shame about it.”
(SQ1)
The students suggest they feel reassured and more confident when given
preparation time which helps them overcome fears of “forgetting some
important ideas” (SQ4) and “forget[ting] what I want to say” (SQ7):
§ “It is a little hard to speak frequently. Because I will concern at if my
sentence is white [right], and then to speak.” (SQ12)
§ “I’m not afraid to speak in front of the whole class if I have prepared
even if I just prepare it for several minutes.” (SQ3)
67
4. Software for spoken interaction
4.1. Main functionality
VoiceForum provides an asynchronous virtual web space for oral interaction.
Its development responded to the dilemma confronting teachers concerning
feedback in face-to-face contexts [5] whereby interrupting student interaction
to correct form may be detrimental to authentic communication but giving
feedback at the end of a communicative message lowers its effectiveness
[6].
The platform uses a threaded-discussion format. A built-in audio recorder/
player, accompanied by a text editor, allows message creation (see Figure
4). VoiceForum’s hierarchical structure enables users to address either the
forum by initiating a topic or particular forum members by introducing new
themes or continuing existing themes (see Figure 5). The platform’s structure,
showing the interrelationship between messages, facilitates intervention in
the discussion and reflects, via the display of the message threading, the
degree of interactivity in the virtual conversation.
Fig.4. Message creation in VoiceForum
68
Fig.5. VoiceForum’s threaded peer-to-peer interaction
VoiceForum’s original feature is its separate pedagogical space for teacherstudent dialogue. Using a commenting facility, teachers can offer guidance
and contextualized feedback at a separate level hyperlinking a comment to
a particular student message within the main forum. An icon system informs
students of teacher feedback and teachers of student responses to this (see
Figure 6).
Fig.6. VoiceForum icons
69
4.2. Introduction and use of VoiceForum
VoiceForum is a convenient way to practise oral interaction in distance
learning situations [4] but its asynchronous affordances justify its use in
contact-based teaching also. Reasons for its introduction in the Chinese
students’ course included a potential increase in learner autonomy and
reduction of the stress these students experience by real time (face-to-face)
demands on speaking. The teachers also describe how during VoiceForum
activity they anticipated their newfound availability to help students on an
individual level. Thus, this study investigates the hope that the computerassisted language learning platform would address the issue of reticence to
participate orally in the target language, described in Section 3.2, and the
teachers’ wish to encourage unarbitrated peer-to-peer interaction.
Since its introduction, VoiceForum has been used with the Chinese students
for discussion activities linked to the thematic syllabus with practice of
language seen in class (see Figure 7).
Fig.7. Sample VoiceForum task
5. Data and discussion concerning VoiceForum
5.1. Motivation for oral participation
Concerning the introduction of VoiceForum, students suggest they feel more
confident to practise oral production. Using the scale described in Section
3.2, students rate their confidence speaking on VoiceForum at 8.4.
The same students, concerned about not giving a good impression when
speaking in front of the class, state they feel:
§ “confident when I talk on VoiceForum. Because I’m with my own
at that time. I don’t need to care about others’ opinions and I just
need to be myself. I can express what I want to say on VoiceForum.”
(SQ6)
§ “less afraid to talk on Voice Forum. […] If I said something wrong
I would console myself it doesn’t a serious problem. Teacher will
correct my answer.” (SQ1)
70
Working on VoiceForum, students do not perceive themselves as speaking
in front of everyone although, on posting to forums, their communication
becomes public to all class members.
Eleven students explain they systematically listen to messages before
posting them. Reviewing messages before posting to the forum, allowing
for re-recording of messages, combined with the possibility offered to
intervene later in response to a previously posted message, e.g. to correct
pronunciation or grammar, may contribute to students’ increased confidence
and decreased fear of losing face. As a student comments:
§ “there can be lots of chance for me to try again.” (SQ2)
Student data also illustrates a preference for VoiceForum speaking activities
because they provide opportunities to prepare answers:
§ “I have a lot of time to prepare, if I don’t know how to explain I can
use my dictionary. A good prepare will give me more confidence.”
(SQ5)
This relieves the fear of not giving a good impression and supports a study
by Poza [7] concerning asynchronous computer voice conferencing which
suggests students, by having time to prepare, gain security concerning the
quality and accuracy of their oral productions.
Two students describe, however, their strategy of writing and reading aloud
messages to help avoid errors. One teacher challenge is, therefore, how
to accompany students from prepared to spontaneous oral production on
VoiceForum.
5.2 Changed teacher role on VoiceForum
Our data suggests that during VoiceForum work, the teacher has a pedagogical
rather than facilitating role. The platform, not the teacher, provides the primary
mediation between the students. Indeed, forums exemplify peer-to-peer
interaction in the target language without teacher intervention in the main
message area to organise turn-taking or encourage interaction (see Figure
5). The threads exemplify that students are posting messages, listening and
replying to each other’s contributions as well. In an example forum, during
the allotted timeframe of 50 minutes, we observe 50 separate audio postings.
Students show a slight preference for correction of oral production on
VoiceForum rather than in face-to-face situations. On a scale of 0 (‘I don’t
mind at all, I feel comfortable if I am corrected’) to 10 (‘I really dislike being
corrected’) students rate face-to-face corrections at 1.2 and VoiceForum
corrections at 0.9. Rated at 7.7 on a scale of 0 (‘not at all helpful’) to 10
(‘helpful’), teacher feedback on VoiceForum is perceived as pertinent.
71
The separate pedagogical space for teacher-student dialogue may explain
this receptiveness to feedback. Whilst student questionnaires express
shyness at asking teachers questions in face-to-face situations, one
teacher suggests that he is more solicited by students on VoiceForum due
to the pedagogical space being perceived as private. In addition, the S2
teacher expresses his satisfaction at taking the time to gain a more detailed
understanding of the students’ linguistic needs rather than giving immediate
unsettling face-to-face corrections. The S1 teacher adds that VoiceForum
encourages students to self-correct whereas in the face-to-face situation
a simple slip might be immediately corrected.
6. Conclusion
Our data shows, in answer to research question one, that the students do
prefer the paradoxically perceived privacy of speaking in VoiceForum, the
possibilities for review of oral production and opportunities for preparation,
to teacher-mediated face-to-face class discussion. The felt relevance of
teacher feedback suggests its potential contribution to progress. Investigating
research question two, VoiceForum has encouraged peer-to-peer interaction
unarbitrated by the teacher who, instead, is solicited for correction within the
‘private’ pedagogical space. Teachers expressed their satisfaction in giving
delayed, contextualized feedback which they perceive as less unsettling to
the students. Our study highlights, however, a real need to dissuade students
from reading prepared messages into the microphone. Teachers report this
habit is more prevalent among the Chinese students although it is to be
put into the perspective of their B1 maximum level. With teachers alerted to
this issue, a future longitudinal study might establish whether VoiceForum
training in class can progressively lead to more spontaneous message
posting and, in turn, greater progress towards initiative in turn-taking and
risk-taking in face-to-face discussions.
References
[1] Fynn, J., Mammad, L. & Gautheron, Y. (2004). VoiceForum. [http://lrlvoiceforum.univ-bpclermont.fr]
[2] Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Liu, M. (2005). Causes of reticence in EFL classrooms: A study of
Chinese university students. Indonesian Journal of English Language
Teaching, 1(2):220-236.
[4] Fynn, J. &. Wigham, C.R. (2011). VoiceForum, a software platform for
spoken interaction: a model for the “Call Triangle”?, EuroCALL 2011.
[http://edutice.archives-ouvertes.fr/edutice-00583273/en/]
72
[5] Fynn, J. (2007). Aide à l’apprentissage du discours oral dans un contexte
de communication asynchrone. ALSIC, 10 (1):101-110.
[6] Doughty, C. & Long, M. (2003). Optimal psycholinguistic environments for
distance foreign language learning. Language Learning & Technology,
7 (3):50-80.
[7] Poza, M. (2011). The effects of asynchronous computer voice
conferencing on L2 learners’ speaking anxiety. IALLT Journal, 41(1):3363.
73
Integrating Meaningful Interactions through
Virtual Tools in Foreign Language Education:
Looking at the Added Value
Kristi Jauregi
Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
[email protected]
Abstract
Organizing and implementing telecollaboration projects in foreign language
curricula is not an easy endeavour as pedagogical, organizational and
technical issues have to be addressed before interaction sessions can be
carried out. These issues make many teaching practitioners reluctant to
try to integrate new technologies in their teaching. Within the European
NIFLAR project we attempted to find out whether there is an added value in
integrating synchronous collaboration projects through video-communication
or Second Life in language teaching. Different sources of data were gathered
and analysed in an attempt to study the added value: questionnaires and
interviews, oral pre- and post-tests and recordings of interaction sessions.
Results show that cross-cultural interactions with native speakers through
this media have an added value on linguistic, cultural, interpersonal and
motivational issues.
1. Introduction
The European NIFLAR project (Networked Interaction in Foreign Language
Acquisition and Research) is a two year European project (2009-2011)
that aimed at enriching and innovating foreign language teaching and
learning processes, by creating opportunities for enhancing authentic social
interaction between students of foreign languages and native speakers
(student teachers) by means of two virtual communication environments:
virtual worlds and video-web communication. In the first one, voiced-enabled
3D virtual worlds, students participate as avatars (participants cannot see the
real “you”), can engage in textual and voiced interactions with other avatars
and can undertake all kind of actions (walk, sit down, run, fly, dance, take
and give objects, even build…), they can be teleported to different places,
countries, cities or public and private spaces (a house, shops, restaurants,
hospitals, hotels, courtroom, parliament, theatre, museum), just by a simple
mouse click. These different scenarios and the possibilities of undertaking
action while communicating with others, make 3D virtual worlds a potentially
interesting environment for education in general, and foreign language
teaching, in particular. Within NIFLAR experiences were conducted in
Second Life (tertiary education) and Open Sim (teenagers).
74
Kristi Jauregi
The second environment, video-web communication, facilitates distant
spoken and written interaction and collaboration by sharing files (photos,
presentations, films) among dyads or groups of students while seeing each
other. Adobe-Connect, Elluminate or Visu are examples of platforms being
used for educational purposes (Guichon, 2010; Jauregi, 2011; Jauregi &
Bañados, 2008, 2010). The video-web platform used for the interactions
within NIFLAR was Adobe-Connect.
Over the last years different experiments have been carried out both in
video-web communication and virtual world platforms. Jauregi & Bañados
(2008, 2010) describe an intercontinental project between Dutch students
of Spanish and Chilean student teachers who collaborated through videoweb communication and blogs on improving their communication skills,
pedagogical competences and broadening up their intercultural competence.
Results showed a positive impact on motivation and communication skills,
particularly in language use and cultural awareness.
As for Virtual Worlds, studies show that these 3D environments are
a suitable space for language teaching (AVALON project; Bryant, 2006;
Dieterle & Clarke, 2008; Thorne, 2008; Molka-Danielsen & Deutschmann,
2009; Deutschmann et al. 2009; Warburton, 2009), for stimulating learnerlearner interaction (Peterson, 2010) and a place where foreign language
learners can meet native speakers of the target language for engaging in
meaningful communicative and social interaction while undertaking joint
action in different scenarios (Kuriskak & Luke, 2009; Jauregi et al., 2011).
2. NIFLAR experiences
During the project 22 pilot experiences have been carried out in both virtual
environments, criteria for effective task development have been specified
based on results of second language acquisition research studies (Doughty &
Long, 2003; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006) and 60 interaction tasks with a focus on
intercultural awareness raising (Kramsch, 1991;Byram, 1997; Hinkel 2004;
Belz & Thrne, 2006) for the project’s target languages (Dutch, Portuguese,
Russian and Spanish as foreign languages) have been developed and tested
according to task based language teaching approaches (Willis, 1996; Ellis,
2003; Van den Branden, 2006; Norris, 2009; Thomas & Reinders, 2010).
During the two project years 430 participants carried out interaction sessions
in dyads or triads (one native speaker with one or two non-native speakers)
in world.
3. Research questions addressed in NIFLAR
In the NIFLAR project the main focus lied on investigating in which
pedagogical sound ways synchronous oral interactions through video-web
communication and/or virtual worlds could be integrated in the educational
system at secondary and tertiary levels. The affordances such environments
Integrating Meaningful Interactions through Virtual Tools in Foreign Language... 75
may offer to enrich and dynamise learning processes in combination with
appropriate pedagogical approaches were taken as a starting point.
Organizing successful cross-cultural sessions is a quite complex endeavour
(O’Dowd & Ritter, 2006) and this complexity increases a great deal
when communication sessions are synchronous, as it is the case with
communication enacted in virtual worlds and video-web communication
platforms.
There is a clear need to know whether there is an added value in integrating
networked cross-cultural interactions in language teaching, before it can be
broadly implemented in education. This was addressed by NIFLAR through
four research questions:
§ What are foreign language learners’ experiences with networked
interactions?
§ Is there any impact on motivation?
§ Is there any indication suggesting that learners learn more if they
have the opportunity to engage in networked interaction with experts
according to relevant tasks than if they have not?
§ What happens during those cross-cultural interactions?
4. Methodology
The data analysed in this paper was gathered during the follow-up experiences
of the Spanish cluster (February to April 2010). 38 first year students of
Spanish from Utrecht University (the Netherlands) and 14 native speakers
of Spanish from a teacher education program at Valencia University (Spain)
participated in the study. Students of Spanish were randomly assigned to
three research conditions:
§ Condition 1: video-web communication group;
§ Condition 2: Virtual Worlds group, and
§ Condition 3: control group.
The course for the first two condition groups was considered blended learning,
as students met twice a week face to face with their teacher (the same one
for both groups) whereas the third meeting was computer-mediated with the
native speaker in small groups (one native and two non-native speakers).
The control group had also two face to face teaching sessions with the same
teacher as the other two condition groups and a third encounter for carrying
out the group tasks with each other in the classroom setting.
Before the interaction sessions began, language learners and student
teachers participating in conditions 1 and 2, took tutorials to become
familiarized with the tools.
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Kristi Jauregi
Each group in the three conditions carried out 5 tasks at intervals of once
a week. Tasks were designed and aligned with the course contents at B1
proficiency level (CEFR). All tasks were scheduled weekly to be carried out
after the two face-to-face lessons. In “Gente genial” (1) students visited an
apartment they were meant to share and after sharing first impressions and
cultural information they had to discuss and choose an outing option; “Gente
y Aventura” (2) consisted of planning a holiday and reflecting on past holiday
experiences; “Gente de cine” (3) was a selection of different short scenes in
which participants had to play different roles given the indications of a brief
script; “Gente con corazón” (4) allowed students to impersonate different
characters and experience the reactions caused on others; and “Gente
y culturas” (5) was designed as a cultural television-game style contest
between a Dutch and a Spanish team.
Four sources of data were gathered for analysis: pre-, mid- and post surveys,
interviews, pre & post oral tests and recorded interactions, among students
and native speakers (student teachers).
5. Results
5.1 Language learners’ experiences
Figure. 1. Responses to the learning outcome of sessions for videowebcommunication (VWC) and Second Life (SL) condition groups
according to a 5 point Lykert scale.
The experiences of participating in CMC sessions with native speakers were
very positively evaluated by students in conditions 1 and 2. Tasks were felt
to be motivating and useful, interactions with native student teachers highly
contributing to enhance learning processes (see Figure 1) and motivation,
and the environments, in spite of technical problems, described as being
effective in enabling distant native non-native speaker interaction.
5.2 Impact on motivation
The networked sessions were found to have a positive impact on
motivation, particularly on foreign language learners’ willingness to
communicate, as measured by repeated mid questionnaires (Jauregi et
al, in press). Comparisons between experimental (Second Life and videoweb communication) and control groups (students taking regular language
courses) showed significant differences for perceived competence in the
target language (Figure 2), positive attitudes towards talking to native
speakers, and decrease of speaking anxiety.
Average Answer
5
Competence
VC
4
3
C
C
VC
C
VC
VC
SL
SL
SL
2
3
C
VC
VC
SL
VC
C
SL
SL
C
C
5
6
7
SL
2
1
5 point Likert scale
Start interaction
sessions
4
Week
Spanish
Figure 2. Values for perceived competence according to three research
condition groups: VC:
Video-web communication group (N=13), SL: Second Life group (N=14), C:
Control group (N=14).
5.3 Indicators of learning growth
The difference in pre- and post-oral tests taken by students in the three
research conditions showed a significant interaction effect between groups
on pre- and post- oral proficiency tests, experimental groups outperforming
the control group.
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Kristi Jauregi
5.4 Cross-cultural interactions
Analysis of the interaction sessions showed that richer meaningful sequences
arise in the experimental conditions than in the control group sessions.
Social and cultural meanings seem to be more thoroughly negotiated when
there is an “expert” native speaker in the interactions. In such a mixed
setting there are more instances of negotiation of meaning, both linguistic
and cultural, as participants collaborate with each other reflecting upon and
clarifying concepts, customs, styles or behaviours resorting to their personal
knowledge and experiences. Discussions in the control group were on the
contrary superficial and anecdotic.
The two environments, video-web communication and Second Life,
elicited different types of interaction patterns. Sequences in video-web
communication were more static compared to Second Life sessions. But in
video-web, as well as by the control groups, visual cues (facial expressions,
body language, laughter) played clearly a crucial role in the process of
intensifying and clarifying meaning and contributed to enhance interpersonal
relationships. Sequences in virtual worlds, were dynamic and action-related.
Unpredicted context-specific sequences emerged, as avatars changed their
appearance or unexpected things happened, which occasionally elicited
hilarious communication exchanges (Jauregi et al., 2011). There were many
instances of laughter, with participants sharing empathy and working towards
creating symmetrical relations during the interaction exchanges trying to
strengthen interpersonal relationships and solidarity.
Conclusions
The main research focus of NIFLAR addressed the question whether there
is an added value of implementing networked interactions in small groups
with expert peers (native speakers) in language teaching. The results from
the different sources of data analysed points towards cultural, linguistic,
interpersonal and motivational benefits. Within NIFLAR telecollaboration,
in spite of the organizational burdens, was experienced as challenging,
motivating, rich and innovative. The synchronous learning environments
used in conjunction with effective interaction tasks and the opportunities to
engage in meaningful interaction with expert peers contributed to empower
intercultural learning experiences of both experimental groups.
References
[1] Belz, J.A & Thorne, S.L. (Eds.) (2006). Internet-mediated intercultural
foreign language education. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
[2] Bryant, T. (2006) Using World of Warcraft and Other MMORPGs to
Foster a Targeted, Social, and Cooperative Approach Toward Language
Learning. Academic Commons.
[3] Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative
Competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
[4] Deutschmann, M., & Panichi, L. (2009). Instructional design, teacher
practice and learner autonomy. In J. Molka-Danielsen and M.
Deutschmann (Eds.), Learning and teaching in the virtual world of
second life: Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press.
[5] Deutschmann, M., Panichi, L. & Molka Danielsen, J. (2009). Designing
oral participation in Second Life – A comparative study of two language
proficiency courses. ReCALL, 21 (2), 206-226.
[6] Dieterle, E., & Clarke, J. (2008). Multi-user virtual environments for
teaching and learning. In M. Pagani (Ed.), Encyclopedia of multimedia
technology and networking. Hershey, PA: Idea Group, Inc.
[7] Doughty, C., & Long. M. (2003). Optimal psycholinguistic environments
for distance foreign language learning. Language Learning and
Technology (7) 3, pp. 50-75.
[8] Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford,
UK: Oxford University Press.
[9] Guichon, N. (2010). Preparatory study for the design of a desktop
videoconferencing platform for synchronous language teaching.
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 23 (2): 169 – 182.
[10] Guth, S. & Helm, F. (Eds.) (2010). Telecollaboration 2.0. Bern: Peter
Lang AG.
[11] Hinkel, E. (ed.) (2004). Culture in Second Language Teaching and
Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[12] Jauregi, K. (2011). La negociación de procesos de escritura a través de
la videocomunicación. Estévez, N. Gómez, J.R. & Carbonell, M. (eds.)
La comunicación escrita en el siglo XXI. Quaderns de Filología, Estudis
Lingüistics, 16. 65-81.
[13] Jauregi, K. & Bañados, E. (2008). Virtual interaction through video-web
communication: A step towards enriching and internationalizing learning
programs. ReCALL, 20, (2), 183-207.
[14] Jauregi, K. & Bañados, E. (2010). An intercontinental video-web
communication project between Chile and The Netherlands. In Guth, S.
& Helm, F. (Eds.) Telecollaboration 2.0. Bern: Peter Lang AG. 427-436.
[15] Jauregi, K., Canto, S., Graaff, de R., Koenraad, A. & Moonen, M. (2011).
Verbal interaction in Second Life: towards a pedagogic framework for
task design. Computer Assisted Language Learning Journal. 24 (1). 77101.
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[16] Jauregi, K.,. de Graaff, R., Kriz, M. & van den Bergh, M. (in press). Native
non-native speaker interactions through video-web communication and
Second Life, a clue for enhancing motivation? CALL Journal.
[17] Kramsch, C. (1991). Culture in language learning: A view from the States.
In K. de Bot, R.B. Ginsberg, & C. Kramsch (Eds.), Foreign language
research in cross-cultural perspective (pp. 217-240). Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
[18] Kuriscak, L.M, &, Luke C. L. (2009). Language learner attitudes toward
virtual worlds: An investigation of Second Life. In G. Lord & L. Lomicka
(Eds.), The next generation: Online collaboration and social networking
in CALL. San Marcos, TX: CALICO. 173-207.
[19] Lantolf, J.P., & Thorne, S.L. (eds.) (2006). Sociocultural Theory and
Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[20] Molka-Danielsen, J. & Deutschmann, M. (Eds.) (2009): Learning and
teaching in the virtual world of Second Life. Trondheim, Norway: Tapir
Academic Press.
[21] Norris, J. (2009). Task-based teaching and testing. In M. Long & C.
Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching. Malden, MA:
Wiley-Blackwell. 578-594
[22] O’Dowd, R. & Ritter, M. (2006). Understanding and working with ‘failed
communication’in telecollaborative exchanges. CALICO Journal, 23 (3),
1- 20.
[23] Peterson, M. (2010). Learner participation patterns and strategy use in
Second Life: An exploratory case study. ReCALL, 22(3), 273-292.
[24] discourse. Mind, Culture & Activity, 13 (1), 38-52.
[25] Thomas, m. & Reinders, H. (ed.) (2010). Task-based language learning
and teaching with technology. London: Continuum International
Publishing Group.
[26] Thorne, S. L. (2008). Transcultural communication in open internet
environments and massively multiplayer online games. In S. Magnan
(Ed.), Mediating Discourse Online (pp. 305-327). Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
[27] Van den Branden, K. (2006). Introduction: task-based language teaching
in a nutshell. In K. van den Branden (ed.), Task-based language
education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-17.
[28] Warburton, S. (2009). Second Life in higher education: Assessing the
potential for and the barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and
teaching. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40 (3), 414-426.
[29] Willis, J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. Harlow, UK:
Longman.
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The Virtual Teaching System 50+
Profutura.s.c. Monika Nowakowska-Twaróg. Mikołaj Nowakowski, Poznań,
Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
The Virtual Teaching System 50+ project is classified as an innovative
testing project with a transnational component. The project is funded by
European Union within the framework of European Social Fund. This is
a model for remote e-learning training for 50+ workers and educational
institutions, allowing the workers and institutions to get to know and to use
modern information and communication technologies. The project worked
out an effective model for teaching, along with the tools and techniques to
facilitate the process. During the training, participants get acquainted with the
rules of the remote training through an e-learning platform. The e-learning
training of the project is adjusted to the needs of the 50+ workers and their
superiors. This is a model that increases the participation of 50+ people in
continuous education and that opposes the stereotype that 50+ people are
less useful as employees.
The need to implement the project stems from the ageing of the society,
the shortage of labour force as well as from the tendency for retiring early
and thus burdening the pension system. The Polish society, just like other
European societies, is ageing. The number of young people entering the
labour market is decreasing each year. On the other hand, the number of
people who become inactive as they reach their retirement age or retire
earlier is increasing. In Poland, the greatest number of people retire at the
age of 56 (according to the website www.rynekpracy.pl).
The reason why the above-mentioned rate of professional activity is at
such a low level for 50+ workers is that training available on the market
does not match with their needs, and that their skills are not up-to-date
(above all, they are unable to use modern ICT technologies and speak
foreign languages), which in turn leads to lowered self-esteem. Conducting
a project in a transnational partnership brought about a positive change
of the approach to the above-mentioned problem because our partner
institutions specialise in their countries in e-learning trainings for people
aged over 50. One of these institutions is the Centre for Research and
Training ERIFO from Italy that specialises in e-learning trainings for people
aged over 50. Within the project, we used the SISC e-learning model,
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developed by ERIFO along with other research and training-oriented
institutions. The SISC e-learning model is a tool based on ICT technologies
for both women and men over 50 that allows them to determine individually
their competences (their fortes and shortcomings) and to determine their
schooling paths directed towards mentoring and towards making them
aware of their worth and their knowledge that they could then pass on to
younger generations. The other supranational partner of the project is Life
Academy from Great Britain. It is a career planning centre that helps people
get ready for the so-called ‘autumns of their lives’, and it specialises in both
e-learning and stationary trainings in the area of pre-retirement counselling
as well as in educating 50+ workers. The model developed in the course
of the project is aimed at educational institutions, continuous education
centres and third age universities. There is also a great need for changing
the attitude of entrepreneurs to 50+ workers, for changing their mentality by
means of stressing the benefits of having such employees. These benefits
include greater experience and abilities, transferring knowledge to younger
colleagues, lesser staff turnover, increased morale and greater emotional
bond with the company. The proposed model also makes it possible to
change the attitude of 50+ workers towards the idea of remaining on the
labour market and it helps to open up new possibilities for them as well as to
change their own perception of their superiors. In the course of the project
a new product will be developed, assuming the form of an e-learning platform
called Virtual Teaching System for 50+ workers and training institutions, and
the platform will be accompanied by a platform user’s manual for course
participants and by a handbook for trainers. E-learning courses suited to the
needs of 50+ workers will be developed – i.e. language courses, trainings
facilitating competences based on mentoring (SISC – an e-learning path
based on mentoring), and courses adjusting people aged over 50 to the
changes that follow reaching a certain age.
1. The goal of the project
The general goal of the project is to develop tools increasing the professional
activity of 50+ workers by means of using modern methods of continuous
education in the form of the above-mentioned comprehensive e-learning
trainings as well as through working out and implementing efficient solutions
for increasing the participation of people aged over 50 in continuous
education between June 2010 and May 2012.
Specific goals:
§ Creating the tools for increasing the qualifications of 50+ people and
equipping them with a set of competences to strengthen their skills
of adaptation,
§ Tailoring the training programs to 50+ people and preparing their
trainers,
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§ Adapting the e-learning solutions from partner countries and
adjusting them to the situation on the Polish labour market,
§ Increasing the motivation of 50+ people to remain on the labour
market and to acquire new skills as well as to transgress mentality
barriers,
§ Popularising continuous education,
§ Taking avail of remote training methods.
1.2 Target groups
The target group of the project are people who are 50 or more and employed
and/or people leaving agriculture or fishery and/or people whose contracts
expired or were resolved for reasons not related directly to the people in the
period of time not greater than 6 months since entering the project, and who
are from the Greater Poland voivodeship. The recipients of the innovative
product will be 50+ workers (50% of women and 50% of men).
2. The innovative nature of the project
The innovative nature of the project lies in the form of support, i.e. it relates
to an approach that has not previously been used in the Greater Poland
voivodeship in the area of increasing the participation of 50+ people in
continuous education. The project is also innovative in that it combines these
specific trainings with modern ICT technologies. Local trainings so far have
been addressing training problems of the general audience but with a slant
toward younger people. The project allowed to adapt the solutions tested in
partner countries.
It is an e-learning model that comprehensively responds to the diagnosed
problem.The recipients of the project are people who acquired their
experience many years ago and have spent the majority of their professional
life in a single company. 50+ people have little chance of finding a new job,
employers do not want to hire them because very often they cannot use
computers, they are not flexible and they do not want to learn anything new.
There is an increasing number of unemployed 50+ people in Greater Poland.
The project is supposed to solve the problem of the lack of solutions concerning
keeping 50+ workers at work along with improving their qualifications. The
problem should be solved through developing an innovative model of training
in the form of the Virtual Teaching System e-learning, through acquiring new
skills via ICT technologies by 50+ workers, as well as through adapting the
training system and materials to the needs of 50+ workers.
The final product is the model of the Virtual Teaching System e-learning
remote training for workers aged over 50, by means of which they have
a chance to get to know and use modern ICT technologies. It is an
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educational model of continuous education of 50+ workers, which will allow
the skills of these workers to be used effectively. A new product in the form of
a Virtual Teaching System e-learning platform for 50+ workers and training
institutions, a platform user’s manual for the participants of the course and
a methodological handbook for trainers will all be created in the course of
the project.
3. The e-learning platform
The final product is the model of the Virtual Teaching System e-learning
remote training for workers aged over 50, by means of which they will have
a chance to get to know and use modern ICT technologies. It is an educational
model of continuous education of 50+ workers, which will allow the skills of
these workers to be used effectively.
A new product in the form of a Virtual Teaching System e-learning platform
for 50+ workers and training institutions, a platform user’s manual for the
participants of the course and a methodological handbook for trainers were
created in the course of the project. Within the model, e-learning courses
adjusted to the needs of 50+ workers are developed.
3.1. Language courses
Two English courses were created; English for Beginners, English for
Elementary Students, designed especially for 50+ people, taking into
consideration their needs, interests, strategies for learning. The content of
these courses was developed through continuous work with people 50+,
the vocabulary is adjusted to their needs, there are a lot of translations and
explanations as well as repetitions. The course contains balanced quantity
of grammar, pronunciation with and impact on useful vocabulary. It equips
students with skills to get them speaking foreign language with confidence.
The course is for adults who want to learn to communicate effectively,
based on communicative approach, it combines methodologies in order to
make learning and teaching easier. Within the process of the creation of the
course many aspects were taken into consideration such as; target groups
(characteristics, age, education, social context), their knowledge of foreign
language, their attitudes, motivation. The Students can learn a language
on their own, without any external help. Within the platform, there are two
figures that were created to assist students to undergo the training (language
course). They explain how to manage the course, how to do the exercises.
There is also a “help” file with a detailed description of all the buttons used
within the platform and guidelines on how to learn with the platform.
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3.2. Trainings enhancing the development of competences
based on mentoring
The platform offers trainings enhancing the development of competences
based on mentoring (SISC – an e-learning path based on mentoring). The
SISC e-learning model is a tool based on ICT technologies for both women
and men over 50 that allows them to determine individually their competences
(their fortes and shortcomings) and to determine their individualised schooling
paths directed towards mentoring and towards making them aware of their
worth and their knowledge, which they could pass on to younger generations.
The tool help seniors to develop their own shadow competences, convince
entrepreneurs of the importance of exploiting senior workers know how and
transferring it to the younger generations. The platform also enable the use
of ICT learning tool by seniors.
3.3. Pre- retirement courses
The courses adjusting people aged over 50 to the changes that follow
reaching a certain age, e-learning trainings in the area of pre-retirement
counselling as well as in educating 50+ workers. The tool developed through
the project help senior employees to prepare to the retirement. The course
contains several modules, such as money in retirement, working possibilities,
health, lifelong learning possibilities.
4. Project coordinator
The leader of the project is Profutura, a company that does language, computer
and psychology courses. Profutura is experienced in trainings for 50+ people
as well as in e-learning trainings. It conducted two project financed by EFS
(European Social Fund) within Priority II of ZPORR (Integrated Operational
Programme for Regional Development), activity 2.1. It is currently conducting
3 projects financed by EFS within activity 8.1.1. Profutura also conducted
one project from activity 7.2.1 ‘It’s us now – Generation 50+’, in the course
of which our company has trained 150 people aged over 50 in a foreign
language with the use of the stationary method (60% of the classes) and the
e-learning method (40%). The partner of the project was the Society of the
Third Age University.
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MemoStep6: Building up a Mental Lexicon in
Foreign Languages.
A new Approach to Vocabulary Acquisition with
Digital Flash Cards
Herta Johansmeier
MemoStep6, Münster / Austria
[email protected]
Abstract
MemoStep6 is an innovative tool for vocabulary acquisition. The features
of the software are based on the idea of an associatively organized mental
lexicon, respecting the results of research on second language acquisition.
The holistic approach departs from the consolidation of new items by
combining them to meaningful units such as patterns, idioms and lexical
sequences. Additionally such chunks may be complemented by sound,
images, videos and committed to memory by using a customized repetition
mode.
1. Spaced repetition versus depth processing
How many times do you have to encounter a word before you use it like
a native speaker? Traditional vocabulary trainers are based on the
assumption of Sebastian Leitner that unknown items have to be reviewed
at least six times at increasing intervals before they are stored in the longterm memory. This has proved to be right to a certain extent, nevertheless
this approach does not take into account that not only rehearsal but also the
depth of processing affects how information is stored and how easily it can
be retrieved.
In language acquisition, a monotonous memorization of the same items
turns out to be boring and uninspiring for several reasons. First of all, lists of
preselected items in alphabetical order, often taken out of context, only give
a rough idea of the meaning of a word. Secondly equations between L1 and
L2 presented in such lists wrongly suggest that the meaning of a specific word
covers the same concept in two different languages, whereas only a partial
equivalence exists. Even after several repetitions, many of these items will
remain passive, receptive vocabulary, whereas the productive vocabulary
will still be limited. Many words learned on the basis of vocabulary lists
cannot be used or will not be used for fear of failure.
MemoStep6: Building up a Mental Lexicon in Foreign Languages. A new...
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2. Mental lexicon
In the light of these disadvantages, the theory of mental lexicon offers
a different approach. Switching the focus from isolated items to learning by
associations, the results will be much better:
“Random facts and figures are extremely difficult to remember, but enormous
quantities of data can be remembered and utilized, as long as they are well
organized.” [1]
The mental lexicon can be imagined as a network of associations, just like
a spider web, where several meanings related to a specific item are stored.
Associations are tied in different ways to different words thus widening the
vocabulary.
The vocabulary trainer MemoStep6 has transposed these ideas into new
features taking into account individual learning preferences and specific
needs. The program is usable for all languages. Building up a large mental
lexicon in a foreign language means: Transformation of passive vocabulary
into active vocabulary by embedding isolated information into context.
3. Innovative features in MemoStep6
3.1. Access to online dictionaries
A direct access from MemoStep6 to online dictionaries in more than 200
languages allows to use existing vocabulary lists as a starting point. By looking
up specific words of these lists, students learn how to handle a dictionary.
In many languages it is possible to search for definitions, descriptions,
synonyms, antonyms or a superordinate term. If the user encounters
various translations that prompt him to check their exact meaning, he may
find expressions or idioms which contain the word he looked up before. In
order to display derivations or compositions, an asterisk may be introduced
in front of or after the stem or root of a word. By looking up a word with the
same stem in the source and target languages, it becomes clear very quickly
whether the words mean the same or whether they are false friends.
All important information may be easily inserted into a digital flash card via
the paste button. Moreover, this feature prevents typing errors.
3.2. Access to text corpora
In case of doubt, example sentences in more than 100 languages can be
found in the text corpora of the University of Leipzig.
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Herta Johansmeier
Screenshot 1: “Online search for vocabulary” in an English-Spanish
dictionary. [2]
Screenshot 2: Online search for sentences
89
These online searches require a considerable conscious effort to build
up vocabulary, turning the mindless and uninspiring learning of lists into
a challenging task. Getting familiar with the structure of sentences in which
a new word is used presents the following advantages:
“[…] vocabulary acquisition is not merely a mental collection of individual
lexical items with a 1:1 correspondence to L1 lexical items. […] Vocabulary
learning is the acquisition of memorized sequences of lexical items that
serve as a pattern on the basis of which the learner creates new sequences.
[…] Although it might appear illogical at first sight, it is the ability to use
conventionalized and predictable language sequences that brings an L2
learner close to the native speaker. […] Therefore, the task of the L2 learner
is to acquire lexical sequences (collocations, phrases and idioms), as well as
sequences within lexical units.” [3].
Instead of only picking up the prototype of a word, the user is confronted
with the precise meaning of a word, with double meanings, connotations,
i.e. with a lot of semantic facets. On the other hand, the high-frequent basic
vocabulary will occur again and again in these sentences so that known
words are continuously connected to unknown ones. The effect is an insightful
learning, where a stimulating interconnection between many different items
takes place. Instead of items, patterns will be stored.
“Collocational and co-ordinate links have been found to be the strongest,
as the results of a number of word association tests reveal. […] collocation
links are easy to activate since such words occur together frequently and the
presence of one calls for the other.” [4]
As the sources of errors are very complex, the methods of learning languages
have to be likewise versatile.
Online Search does not need to be realized when creating the flash cards. Via
the Administration Menu, these cards can be selected and edited afterwards.
A review with regard to an error analysis may bring along a considerable
progress: For example, the focus may be set on lexical sequences instead
of words, trying to find out which nouns are combined with which adjectives,
which verbs with which prepositions. So new items in relation to the old ones
may be added, information is steadily expanded, what brings about a better
retention. By delving into details, the users gain insight in the functionality
of the language. The result is a linguistic intuition which will improve style
considerably.
As far as grammar is concerned, the sentence search enhances the
understanding of grammar by using an inductive procedure. Awareness
about how language functions will raise. The main concern is that learners
will be able to apply words in many different ways and to take responsibility
for their own learning process.
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Herta Johansmeier
3.3. Translation comparison
A translation comparison via the website of Linguee may be used to detect
interferences. If an expression is transferred into a target language, false
friends may appear.
Screenshot 3: Online Search on Linguee.de (Translation comparison).
3.4. Creating semantic fields by using parallel texts
Semantic fields may either be created by copying the “significant
cooccurrences” of a word (see Screenshot 2) or by using the “term search”.
MemoStep6 displays texts from Wikipedia in a pop-up window. All relevant
words and expression may be extracted from the text. If the meaning is not
clear, it can be looked up in a dictionary. In a second step, a similar text
referring to the same topic in the target language can be loaded in order to
extract all relevant terms in this language.
4. Variety of multimedia elements for different learning styles
As learning styles can differ considerably, MemoStep6 aims at matching
the individual needs by multiple encoding. Apart from translations, lexical
sequences, phonetic transcriptions, the user can enhance his memory
by loading audio files or recording his own voice. Specific difficulties, for
example the pronunciation of a word, can be highlighted on the flash card to
point out where special attention is required.
Screenshot 4: Search for keyword
Screenshot 5: Input Window
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Herta Johansmeier
Screenshot 6: Repetition Mode Slide-Show
On the other hand suitable images or videos may be used. As soon as the
question or solution appears, the images will flash up on the screen. These
visual elements often activate a priming effect so that the associated words
can be retrieved much faster.
5. Details and Availability
The English Version will be available in 2012.
The German Version (free version: one user, maximum 150 flash cards / full
version without limitations) is available on www.memostep6.com.
References
[1] Pushpa Nagini Sripada: “Mental Lexicon” in: Journal of the Indian
Academy of Applied Psychology, January 2008, Vol, 34, No. 1, p. 183.
[2] All screenshots are taken from the software: Manfred Tasser: MemoStep6
– der multimediale Vokabeltrainer für Anspruchsvolle. Münster / Austria
2011, Version 1.3.2.9. www.memostep6.com.
[3] P. Nagini Sripada, art. cit., p. 184.
[4] Saskia Kersten: The mental lexicon and vocabulary learning. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr Verlag 2010, pp. 16f.
93
Additional Reading:
§ Altmann, Gerry T.M.: The Ascent of Babel. An exploration of
language, mind, and understanding. Oxford: University Press 2008.
§ Altmann, Gerry T.M.: Accessing the mental lexicon. Words, and how
we (eventually) find them. http://homepage.mac.com/gerry_altmann/
babel/assets/Chapter-6.pdf (November 2011)
§ Elman, Jeffrey L.: “An alternative view of the mental lexicon” in:
Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Vol. 8, No. 7, July 2004, pp. 301-306.
§ Pavicic Takac, Vija: Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Foreign
Language Acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters 2008.
§ Pavlenko, Aneta (ed.): The Bilingual Mental Lexicon. Interdisciplinary
Approaches. Bristol, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters 2009.
94
Military English (Intermediate) e-Project. Students
as English Teachers
Małgorzata Gawlik-Kobylińska, LtC Dariusz Poczekalewicz
National Defence University, Warsaw/Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
The current educational approach adapted by the National Defence
University (NDU) in delivering, developing, and managing learning on
a global scale is Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL). This approach
enhances the organization of educational process mainly through the
use of open-architecture standards and the convergence of computing,
communications, and information technologies. In order to familiarize
students with this approach and with new educational tools - mainly with the
ILIAS platform, to convince them to use new solutions, and also to enhance
their language skills, the ADL unit of NDU proposed to engage students in
voluntary “Apprenticeships with ILIAS. Military English (Intermediate)”.
The main goals of the project were to furnish students with basic skills related
to instructional and multimedia design and, at the same time, to build a
course which would give its participants opportunities to develop productive
and receptive language skills. During the apprenticeship four students
(two of them were Erasmus students) were asked to build mini-courses on
topics related to military issues. Before the start they were supported with a
theoretical training concerning e-methodology and how to use ILIAS SCORM
Editor (its tools and activities).
The results of the project were measured from two perspectives: the
organizer’s perspective concerned the product – the mini-courses on military
English, and the students’ perspective – the level of satisfaction from the
participation in the project. The analysis of the “Student apprenticeship
evaluation questionnaire” allowed to state that all participants gave a positive
feedback: they got familiar with designing courses on the ADL platform.
Moreover, they recognized themselves as more aware of new educational
solutions.
1. Introduction
In today’s society technology and education combined together undergo
constant changes. Tech savvy consumers-learners who need instantaneous
access to information or knowledge, as well as evolving paradigms of adult
pedagogy and teaching can be regarded as coercive for delivering new
Military English (Intermediate) e-Project. Students as English Teachers
95
solutions to higher education institutions. To fulfill expectations of learners,
who are more and more demanding, and to keep up with the pace of change,
the Polish National Defence University in Warsaw has included and adapted
the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) approach into its educational
system. The ADL is a product of the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative,
which a part of the US Department of Defense Office of the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense (Readiness), and its commonly abbreviated name
has a specific meaning. Advanced refers to the next generation learning
environment made possible through the systematic integration of computing,
communications, and information technologies. Distributed is defined as
the capability to use common standards and network technologies in order
to provide learning anywhere and anytime. Learning is described as the
acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Learning is accomplished
through the integration of education, training, and performance aiding
in a comprehensive, supportive system (ADL Initiative homepage, 2011).
Considering its scope, this approach becomes more and more popular
in military environment in countries such as Romania, Norway, Great Britain,
Canada or even Korea. In order to popularize Advanced Distributed Learning
among academia, the NDU ADL unit proposed to introduce the first edition
of student apprenticeship aiming at designing the course of Military English.
2. Assumptions and purpose
At the beginning of the project two assumptions were taken into
consideration: the first one concerned the choice of the topic of the student
apprenticeship and the second, the level of the taught course. It was
assumed that language learning can be an attractive topic both for future
course designers and participants of the course. Due to the high number
of students choosing English as a foreign language at their Matura Exam,
the level of English presented in the students’ course is B1 (according
to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages – CEFR).
What were the direct and indirect goals of the project? The first direct goal
concerned getting students familiar with the ILIAS platform and teaching
them new skills – e-methodology of teaching and multimedia design. Indirect
goal concerned improving language skills (mainly vocabulary, grammar and
writing) by the participants of the apprenticeship (due to the rule that when
we teach, we memorize things better), and finally, to create a new product –
Military English Intermediate ADL course.
3. Organization and background
The first edition of student apprenticeship began in July and finished in
November. The organization of the project included hiring four students from
the NDU (two of them were from Erasmus exchange programme), each for
a three-week period, and supporting them with a training on e-methodology
and multimedia design. All participants were asked to prepare mini-courses
on a chosen military topic aiming at improving productive and receptive
96
English language skills. They were also explained that the future mini-courses
needed to be for asynchronous learning purpose and the target group
would be other NDU student who “learn when they need and just-in-time”.
The working place was ILIAS platform and the activities would be prepared
in ILIAS SCORM Editor. Apart from a constant support of instructional
and multimedia designers, the participants of the apprenticeship had the
opportunity to cooperate with subject matter experts from the National
Defence University in order to consult their proposals of topics and content.
Their activities involved also gathering materials for the course, recording
narration, composing music in ADL studio, and learning how to deal with
copyrights.
3.1. The multi-dimensional aspect of student apprenticeship:
e-methodology
While students were engaged in the apprenticeship, they gradually became
familiar with different views on e-methodology. One of the presented views
focused on three important aspects of designing e-learning courses: cognitive
(the content), emotive (emotions, attitudes, feelings), psychomotorical
(do/make, create, find tasks) (Gagne,1997). Regarding all the aspects,
the course designers had to pay attention to specific rules such as giving an
appropriate set of examples to influence course participants’ imaginations;
learning through fun, which has to be supported by IT; experiential learning
(Merriam and Caffarella, 2007), which implies learning by mistakes thanks
to simulations, interactive elements, and applying control questions without
punishment; motivating multimedia design, vivid colorful teaching materials,
but with no fireworks effect; elimination of redundant information from the
content (Gagne, 1997); giving fixed rules of contact with a tutor; or possibility
of group learning due to the applications such as chat or discussion forums
(Gagne, 1997).
adult learning
As it was previously stated, at the beginning of the project students were
given the characteristic of the target group - adults. Students were presented
the issues on adult pedagogy and educational psychology, especially
approaches of Malcom Knowles and Kund Illeris, according to which adults
are characterized as autonomous and self-directed, experiential learners
who have “life experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning”
(Knowles, 1984, p.12; Illeris, 2009). Moreover, students were explained that
adults are goal-oriented and often successfully generate internal motivation
for their learning, which is related to notions of self-development, career
advancement or achievements (Knowles,1984); they also usually directly
apply their knowledge for problem-solving activities (Brookfield, 2000).
Another issue pointed out to students, closely related to the practical aspect
of learning, was relevancy-orientation: learning needs to be applicable
97
to work or other responsibilities to be of value to adult learners (Illeris,
2009). Therefore, students understood that the tasks of the course should
be designed in a way that will reflect the practical and relevant aspect of
acquired knowledge. Making them aware of the above mentioned issues,
resulted in greater carefulness in choosing topics, teaching materials and
structure of the course.
IT & multimedia design
What concerns students’ work on the structure and activities prepared in
SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) Editor, it was observed
that they design the course without any constrains. The explanation for this
is, at first, the fact that the National Defence University had chosen the open
source Learning Management System (which is free of charge) and authoring
tools compliant with SCORM standard. Secondly, the software used at the
NDU is ILIAS (Integrated Learning, Information and Work Cooperation
System), which offers a lot of features to design and run online-courses,
create learning content, offer assessments and exercises, run surveys
and support communication or even cooperation among users. Thirdly, the
ILIAS SCORM Editor was regarded as very intuitive - this feature allowed
individuals, who are not programmers, to build the course easily; as a result,
young designers did not need any knowledge on the programming. Students
started from building the structure and then they stored the content in the
chapter, assets, SCO’s and pages. The activities they used in the course
included different question types, such as multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks,
numerical, matching, ordering, hot spot, essay. As far as communication is
concerned, the most frequent activities chosen by the students were internal
messaging chat, forum, podcasting, question pools for re-using questions in
different tests. An activity that seemed to be liked by students-designers was
an interactive map.
4. Results
The results of the project can be presented from organizations’ and
participants’ perspectives. Regarding the first one, it can be stated that a new
product for self-studying has appeared: ADL unit gained five mini-courses
on the following topics: NATO’s Crisis Response Operations, Participation
of the Polish Armed Forces in International NATO Operations, Pistols and
Submachine Guns, Terrorism in Turkey, and Military Ranks. As far as the
second perspective is concerned, it has been observed that students got
familiar with the ILIAS platform – they acquired knowledge on multifarious
activities. Additionally, they got familiar with bases of e-methodology, improved
their English, and finally, due to the access to the wide range of e-learning
courses launched on the platform, they could compare and evaluate other
courses on the bases of what they have learned.
98
5. Evaluation of the project – students’ perspective
In order to gather information on students’ assessments of the apprenticeship,
at the end of their programme, they had to fill the evaluation questionnaire
consisted of agree-disagree scale for a series of statements (Likert scale) and
a sentence completion test. The examples of statements (the scale: strongly
disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, strongly agree) were:
I have a feeling that I learned e-methodological issues, I am familiar with the
ILIAS platform, I am fluent in the SCORM Editor activities I recognize the
purpose of the SCORM Editor activities. All four students having all positive
sentences circled the poles: agree, strongly agree. The answers allow for
a statement that the project has fulfilled its goals. Regarding the sentence
completion test, , the examplary question - characterize your apprenticeship
in three adjectives also showed satisfaction from participation in the project.
The answers provided by students included the following adjectives:
developing, interesting, not typical, creative. Overall, students’ perception of
the project was reported as positive.
6. Conclusions
The approach adapted by the National Defence University– Advanced
Distributed Learning, can be popularized in multifarious ways, such as
conducting the project involving students in preparing ALD courses of English
for their peers. This project, regarded as a case study, can be perceived
as an example of how to convince particular groups to attend or use new
educational solutions. Giving support and guidance to students by the
explanation of the issues concerning the role of instructional and multimedia
design learning theories, resulted in creating several different mini-courses
on military English. The project had also pedagogical implications: students
gained different roles – as teachers and multimedia designers they needed
to be aware of problems which could arise in e-teaching: layout of text, giving
examples, or the length of texts; they started to be intuitive on the issues
of how to create a good e-lesson and how to minimize the risk of failures.
The effects of the apprenticeship (products) and a positive feedback from
the participants prepared a ground for organization of the next edition of the
apprenticeship in 2012.
The inspiration for conducting the project was Małgorzata Gawlik-Kobylinska’s
participation (as a student) in innovative classes on Internet assisted ELT
conducted by Sylvia Maciaszczyk at the Warsaw School of Social Sciences
and Humanities in Warsaw.
99
References
[1] Gagne, R. M. (1992). Principles of Instructional Design. Fort Worth, TX:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
[2] Illeris, K. (2003). Three Dimensions of Learning: Contemporary Learning
Theory in the Tension Field Between the Cognitive, the Emotional and
the Social. Malabar, Florida: Krieger.
[3] Merriam S.B., Caffarella R.S. (1991). Learning in Adulthood:
A comprehensive Guide. Jossey Bass Publishers, San Francisco.
[4] Knowles M. S. & Associates (1984). Andragogy in Action. Jossey-Bass,
San Francisco.
[5] Brookfield S.D. (2000) Adult cognition as a dimension of lifelong
learning, (In) J. Field, M. Leicester (eds), Lifelong Learning – Education
Across the Lifespan. Routlege-Falmer, London.
[6] ADL Overview – the Internet homepage of ADL Initiative. Retrieved
from: http://www.adlnet.gov/overview, on 23/11/2011.
100
Webquests Revisited
Department of Modern Languages, Białystok University, Białystok/Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
The WebQuest concept and methodology developed by Bernie Dodge and
Tom March in 1995 as a vehicle for utilizing the vast information on the
Internet in an organized and meaningful manner has become increasingly
popular among educators all over the world. Also teachers of English as
a foreign language have found it an effective tool. Being one of the enthusiasts
of the concept, I have had the pleasure to conduct an innovative series of
on-line WebQuest workshops for Polish teachers of English sponsored by
the British Council. Ten years after that experience, I am still addressing
a question: Considering the dynamically developing IT for ELT reality, has the
WebQuest idea retained its educational potential and validity? Can it still be
an inspiring idea for both teachers of English as a foreign language and their
students? The paper introduces a blueprint/proposal for a B.A. (Licencjat)
Seminar at the English Philology (University of Białystok) centred on an
Information and Communication Technology - based project - a WebQuest
as an innovative formula equivalent to the B.A. (Licencjat) Dissertation.
Introduction
The WebQuest concept and methodology developed by Bernie Dodge and
Tom March in 1995 as a vehicle for utilizing the vast information on the
Internet in an organized and meaningful manner has become increasingly
popular among educators all over the world. Also teachers of English as
a foreign language have found it an effective tool. Centred on group work,
and focused on higher-order thinking skills, WebQuests “help students to
construct a deeper understanding and move through a crucial transition
phase toward a more autonomous, learning-centred education process”[1].
Especially in the Polish foreign language teaching environment dominated
by traditional forms of instruction WebQuests may introduce an element of
change.
WebQuests are valuable tools for various reasons. First, they have the ability
to contextualize learning in a variety of meaningful ways […] . WebQuests
also guide students’ understanding of knowledge by immersing them in
multiple resources that often have varying perspectives […] . Lastly, as
students take ownership during the WebQuest, they are likely to retain this
WebQuests Revisited
101
information because they have control over the information to which they are
exposed and presumably are interested in learning the information […] [2] .
A WebQuest provides a structured learning environment for students:
a series of steps for completing the task, a list of appropriate Web sites,
and instructions for compiling data for the research project. It supplies
students with efficient tools to conduct the research, compare and contrast,
and analyse a topic. WebQuests in general, stimulate both, the teacher’s
and students’ creativity as they demand designing engrossing tasks on the
teacher’s side and creating appealing products on the students’ side. The
WebQuest process involves various skills (higher-order thinking, critical
thinking, collaboration) and demands students’ active participation, turning
a traditional class into more student-centred one [3].
There are hundreds of WebQuests available for use or modification (see for
example collections at: questgarden.com or bestwebquests.com). They are
free to use and may be modified without breaking copyright laws. However,
most of the WebQuests were generated in a specific educational context
to meet local guidelines and requirements but what is most important, they
are addressed to native speakers and therefore do not always meet foreign
language teacher’s expectations as to the level, age or general context.
Therefore, the idea of generating WebQuests by teachers of English as
a foreign language for their own students seemed reasonable and this was
the basic motivating factor behind the initiative of running on-line WebQuest
workshops.
Being one of the enthusiasts of the concept, I have had the pleasure to
conduct an innovative series of on-line WebQuest workshops for Polish
teachers of English sponsored by the British Council. Why an on-line rather
than traditional face-to-face workshops? The reasons were financial and
connected with logistics: how to conduct a long-term (50 hour) workshop
whose participants come from distant locations (Szczecin, Sieradz,
Białystok)? The only solution was an on-line arrangement. In spite of the fact
that the idea of distance learning was still in its concept phase, the British
Council enthusiastically agreed on this innovative approach and sponsored
the project. Yahoo Groups platform and e-mail were used as the main means
of information transfer.
The effect of these workshops (in all three separate workshops took place)
were a number of WebQuests for Polish students of English of various
levels and contexts: starting with elementary through advanced primary and
secondary school students and students of academic institutions.
Here are some titles of the generated WebQuests:
102
Web Quest for:
Pre-Secondary
School Students
Secondary School
Students
Post Secondary
School Students
Title of the Web Quest

Animal Shelters

Bialystok on the Web

Humour Festival

Music Styles

Shrek’s Webquest

Summer Full of Adventures

Unexplained Phenomenon

Welcome to Ireland

A Week in New York City

Anti-Semitism

Around the World in 80 Days

Forrest Gump

Learn English in England

Let’s Travel to London

Limericks

Meet Einstein

National Stereotypes

Plan Your Holidays in Europe

Tolkien’s Fantasy

Trip to London

Visiting the South-West

Good Spirits in Well Bodies

My Perfect Computer

Phobias

Study Skills
Ten years after the experience of running WebQuest workshops sponsored
by the British Council, I am still addressing a question: Considering the
dynamically developing IT for ELT reality, has the WebQuest idea retained
its educational potential and validity? Can it still be an inspiring proposal for
both teachers of English as a foreign language and their students?
WebQuests Revisited
103
In the subsequent section of the paper I will introduce a blueprint/proposal for
a B.A. (Licencjat) Seminar at the English Philology (University of Białystok)
centred on an Information and Communication Technology - based project
(a WebQuest) as an innovative formula equivalent to the B.A. (Licencjat)
Dissertation.
Traditionally, the B.A. (Licencjat) Dissertation is a 30-50 page long thesis in
which students present an academic discussion of a given topic. In many
cases however, the results are discouraging due to inadequate language
and academic proficiency necessary for completing the dissertation. The
results are often below the expected standards and require considerable
intervention of the academic supervisor. Reasonable, I think is to propose
a project which would more realistically approach the task and be adequate
with the academic and language aptitude of students, at the same time giving
them the possibility to be more creative than is the case with the traditional
format. The proposal’s aim is to meet these requirements.
WebQuests will be developed during the Seminar and implemented in
a real-classroom context. Various aspects of American culture, contentbased learning, project work, and World Wide Web resources in ELT will be
the Seminar’s main focus.
The WebQuest Project Seminar will be conducted according to the following
general guidelines:
Theoretical Background
§ Readings in English Language Learning and Technology [4],
§ Background work on Project Based Learning[5], Content Based
Learning[6], Inquiry-oriented Learning and WebQuest Concepts [7]
(readings, tasks).
Planning and Introductory Work
§ Students select a Target Group and construct its characteristics:
level, needs, computer literacy level, computer access, problem
areas, etc.,
§ Consider what WEB-based materials connected with American
Culture could be used with this group and how to introduce them
into the syllabus (discussion).
Project Work
§ Building ELT based WebQuests using guidelines and templates
presented at questgarden.com,
§ Informing other students on the progress/problems,
§ Assistance and guidance from the Project Supervisor.
104
Implementation
§ Implementation of the WebQuest in Target Groups:
§ A diary of the process kept by students,
§ Informing other students on the progress of the project.
Final Activities
Presentation of the generated WebQuests,
Commenting on the Implementation Stage,
Sharing experiences with other students,
Modification of WebQuests considering feedback from other students
and Project Supervisor,
§ Publication of WebQuests on the Web Page of the Department of
Modern Languages.
§
§
§
§
The proposed programme is at the present moment in progress. Students of
the B.A. (Licencjat) WebQuest Seminar are working hard and are enthusiastic
about their projects. Prospects of high quality WebQuests which they are
generating look good. Returning now to the question formulated above:
“Has the WebQuest idea retained its educational potential and validity?”
Considering the positive progress of the Seminar so far, I am inclined to say
yes. However, the final results of the Seminar will show its ultimate validity.
References
[1] Tom March, “The Learning Power of WebQuests”, Educational
Leadership, December 2003 / January 2004, Volume 61, Number 4,
New Needs, New Curriculum, pages 42-47, also available at: http://
ozline.com/writings/ascdwebquests.
[2] Drew Polly, Leigh Ausband, “Developing Higher-Order Thinking Skills
through WebQuests”, Journal of Computing in Teacher Education
(2009), Volume: 26, Issue: 1, p. 29.
[3] Draft version of this paragraph was supplied by Paulina Młodzianowska,
WebQuest Seminar student.
[4] An extensive bibliography is given on the pages of The Teacher Tap Professional Development Resource for Educators and Librarians at:
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic4.htm#6, accessed 11.12.2011.
[5] A good start in readings in English Language Teaching/Learning and
Technology are:
§
Carol A. Chapelle, English Language Learning and Technology.
Lectures on applied linguistics in the age of information and
WebQuests Revisited
105
communication technology. Philadelphia, PA, USA: John Benjamins
Publishing Company, 2003.
§ Michael Evans, Education and Digital Technology: Foreign
Language Learning with Digital Technology, Continuum International
Publishing, 2009.
§ Robert J. Blake, Dorothy M. Chun, Brave New Digital Classroom:
Technology and Foreign Language Learning, Georgetown University
Press, 2008.
[6] Rich bibliography on the topic of Project-based learning is to be found at
the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Database: http://
www.eric.ed.gov.
[7] Ray Lyster, Learning and Teaching Languages Through Content:
A Counterbalanced Approach, John Benjamins Publishing Company,
2007.
[8] Bradley Horn, “The Future is Now: Preparing a New Generation of CBI
Teachers”, English Teaching Forum, Volume 49, Number 3, 2011, pages
2-9.
[9] Extensive information on the topic together with guidelines, ready-touse templates and a rich collection of WebQuests may be found at:
http://webquest.org and also at: http://questgarden.com.
106
CALL Software as an Alternative to Natural
Immersion in Adult SLA – a Remedy to the
Existing Problems?
Emilia Korczynska
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
[email protected]
Abstract
The aim of this article is to review briefly the arguments providing
counterevidence to the popular notion of the superiority of the ‘naturalistic
language acquisition’ in immersion settings. The paper will describe the main
problems of learning from naturalistic input encountered by adult learners,
stemming from the qualitative differences between childhood and adult
language acquisition – primarily the difference in the degree of attention
paid to different elements in the utterance and – effectively- the degree
of noticing, which according to the noticing hypothesis of Schmidt (1993)
[9] is a prerequisite for language acquisition. In view of these differences,
the present paper will discuss the disadvantage at which adults are put
in naturalistic immersion context, stemming from the intrinsic features of
natural speech. In addition, the present work will discuss the possible ways
of attenuating the effects of these constraints on adult SLA by means of
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Although the discussion
below is based on the example of English as a foreign language, the
arguments (with some moderation respective to different rhythm patterns)
are valid for other languages as well.
1. Introduction
The awareness that naturalistic learning in a target-language speaking country
may not be sufficient to acquire the target language to a highly proficient
level, both in terms of fluency and accuracy, should spare many unnecessary
disappointments to an eager learner. For - as it has been shown in empirical
studies of learners who, despite having spent years fully integrated in the
target language society, still failed to acquire certain phonological and
grammatical features of the L2 - the actual effects of naturalistic immersion
learning often fall short of the target. The persistent recurrence of the same
errors in the performance of adult L2 learners has been called fossilization
and is estimated to affect 95% of the learners (Selinker, 1972) [11].
This is not to say that immersion environment itself is not a valid way to
learn a foreign language. On the contrary, the author of the present article
CALL Software as an Alternative to Natural Immersion in Adult SLA – a ...
107
maintains that immersion, by virtue of stimulating short-term phonological
memory (Baddeley and Gathercole, 1990) [1], provides the best way of
acquiring a language. Nevertheless, the perfect immersion environment in
which the frequency of the learnt items in input and their phonological and
perceptual salience would be sufficient for the learner to notice and ‘pick up’
has not been as yet found in naturalistic context.
This article, for the reason of its limited scope, will first take a short run
through the factors that - in adults - inhibit the effortless language acquisition
that we can observe in children in immersion settings. Starting from the
fundamental question of the qualitative difference between child and adult
language acquisition, it will discuss the notions of noticing hypothesis,
salience for communication, frequency and perceptual salience. On top of
discussion the potential stumbling blocks in adult SLA, the article will briefly
address how the negative aspects present in naturalistic contexts can be
effectively attenuated in immersion contexts recreated by means of software
for computer assisted language learning (CALL).
2.Qualitative differences between child and adult
language learning
The appeal of naturalistic learning stems from the promise to learn
a language in the same way as a child would do – effortlessly, efficiently and
to a native-like level. The popularity of naturalistic methods was first fuelled
by Noam Chomsky, who in 1958 drew attention to the so-called ‘logical
problem of language learning’ (Saville-Troike, 2006) [8] – of how a child can
produce more language than it actually hears in the environmental input –
which is often truncated, not fully grammatical and utterly devoid of what we
like to term ‘formal instruction’ in SLA. The conclusion was that language
learning is an active hypothesis-building process governed by the rules of
the Universal Grammar (UG), common to every human being.
Chomsky’s views were subsequently extrapolated to foreign language
teaching, giving rise to many naturalistic methods e.g. Total Physical
Response, the Natural Approach or ‘The Monitor Model’ (Krashen, 1982)
[5]. They also triggered the ever-popular ‘language tourism’, promising quick
improvement of fluency and accuracy. Nevertheless, the many studies of
adults failing to reach native-like levels in SLA in naturalistic contexts (Han,
2004) [3] have cast doubts on whether the UG is still available to the adult
learner.
A less philosophical explanation has been offered by neurologists, who
posit the loss of brain plasticity at puberty as the cause for the phenomenon
(Schumann et al, 2004) [10]. According to Eubank and Gregg, in turn, (1999:
92 In:Han, 2004: 65), failure to master a FL in adulthood is ‘the price we pay
for successful L1 acquisition’, since the preexisting phonetic categories of L1
hamper our perception of L2 phonetic input.
108
Emilia Korczynska
This is only a small sample of the raft of explanations which have been
offered to account for the difference between child and adult language
learning. Nevertheless, the qualitative differences themselves are probably
more important than the reasons, for it is them that actually render learning
in naturalistic contexts much less effective than anticipated assuming that
recreating the ‘immersion context’ in which L1 acquisition takes place
suffices to arrive at similar results in L2. The main difference appears to lie in
the phonological perception capability (Kuhl et al, 2008) [6], which allegedly
influences the way in which children, as opposed to adults, notice grammatical
features of the spoken language. The ability to notice grammatical words
which carry little meaning themselves and which are not a prerequisite for
understanding the gist of the utterance (hence being ignored as redundant
for communication purposes by adults) has been purported to be the main
qualitative difference between child and adult language acquisition. This
may account for why recreating naturalistic L1 settings – the ‘immersion
environment’ does not automatically yield L1-acquisition-like results in SLA –
the adults simply fail to notice the phonologically (and thus perceptually) nonsalient and communicatively redundant morphemes. And since according
to the noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1993) [9] noticing is a prerequisite for
learning, the said morphemes are not acquired naturally by adults by simply
listening to natural speech. This has been implied also by fossilization studies
(Han, 2004) [3], which have shown that the risk of fossilization increases in
inverse proportion to the perceptual and communicative salience. Thus, for
instance, a language learner is more prone to commit persistent errors in the
bound than free morphemes.
The challenges that an adult learner is faced with in naturalistic immersion
context, leading to decreased efficiency of learning, may be nevertheless
addressed in computer-assisted learning situation aiming at recreation of the
naturalistic immersion settings. In order to enhance the naturalistic input so
as to facilitate the uptake and acquisition of morphosytax, it is necessary to
focus on the specific intrinsic features of naturalistic speech that inhibit the
acquisition of morphosyntax in an adult learner. The following sections will
address these features and briefly discuss the possibilities of adjusting input
to make the immersion situation better address the needs of an adult learner.
2. The problematic features of natural speech
In a stress-timed language such as English, the stress tends to fall on syllables
in the stem of content words rather than the grammatical words such as
articles, auxiliary verbs or prepositions. This, on top of the communication
salience of the lexical items, making the focus of the listener’s attention (Van
Patten, 1994) [12], renders the content words phonologically more salient
in an utterance than the grammatical words. This ‘twofold-advantage’ of
the content words in the competition for the learner’s attention is further
bolstered by the fact that the unstressed morphemes at the word boundaries
109
are subject to connected speech phenomena such as assimilation and
elision, which (respectively) cause the given sounds to be pronounced in
an articulation place closer to the neighboring sound and thus ‘assimilate’ to
the other sound or disappear in a fast, less careful speech (Field, 2003) [2].
The said phonological phenomena make it particularly difficult to extract the
grammatical features of the utterance from a natural speech in immersion
context, as it is the content words (predominately the word classes of nouns,
verbs and adjectives and adverbs) that receive the learner’s attention. In
controlled settings, however, it is possible to sidestep the connected speech
phenomena by ensuring that the recorded words are not truncated and
by providing additional (for instance visual) cues for drawing the learner’s
attention to inflectional morphemes or grammatical words.
3. Noticing hypothesis versus communication redundancy
According to Schmidt (1993) [9], deliberate attention to communicatively
redundant grammatical forms is necessary for adult SLA. The statement
‘attention to the redundant’ itself is somewhat counterintuitive, and for good
reason – the learner, having to run multiple cognitive operations in real time,
which imposes great constraints on the limited capacity of their working
memory (Baddeley & Gathercole, 1990) [1], is confined to focusing exclusively
on the elements of the utterance which are necessary for understanding
of the communicative message. This specific ‘economical adaptation’
allows for better comprehension of the semantics of the utterance, but is
nevertheless responsible for overlooking the communicatively-redundant
grammatical features of the language. A possible solution to this problem has
been proposed by Van Patten (1994) [12] in his Input Processing method,
which manipulates the utterance in such way as to render the grammatical
elements the only key to deciphering the message, thus forcing the learner
to first focus on form.
4. Frequency in input
The low frequency of different vocabulary items in natural speech is another
reason why naturalistic immersion may not be the most efficient way to
learn a L2. Nevertheless, since the impact of frequency on vocabulary
retention and retrieval does not follow along the lines of simple linear
correlation and depends on both linguistic factors (the word class and its
syntactic function in the utterance both influence perceptual salience) and
phonological prominence, the matter needs to be addressed in some detail.
As can be seen on the basis of the discussion from the previous section,
some word classes are more prominent than others in English in accordance
with the stress patterns, which promote noticing the meaningful content
words over the communicatively non-salient morphemes and grammatical
words (e.g. inflectional morphemes, articles, prepositions) (Field, 2003) [2].
Thus, although the frequency of grammatical words in naturalistic input is
110
Emilia Korczynska
much higher than content words (Harald-Baayen, 2002) [4] their lack of
communication and perceptual salience renders them transparent to the
learner in normal communication. Nevertheless, provided the learner actually
notices the more prominent elements of the utterance such as the content
words, meaningful repetition actually facilitates learning (Pimsleur, 1967) [7]
Hence the relatively lower frequency of certain vocabulary items, especially
words used rarely in informal spoken language in natural speech as opposed
to immersion-recreating software points to the higher effectiveness of the
latter in terms of vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, the computer-assisted
language programmes can take advantage of the principle of graduated
interval recall (Pimsleur, 1967) [7], which marshals spaced repetition of
the newly learnt items for the learner at intervals found to facilitate memory
formation best.
Conclusion
With few adults actually being able to afford going to a foreign country for
a sufficiently long period of time to learn a foreign language, the effectiveness
of naturalistic immersion settings remains a popular myth in mainstream
applied linguistics. However, given the findings of fossilization studies, which
show that even years of immersion rarely lead to a native-like phonological
and grammatical accuracy, the need to reshape our views on naturalistic
language acquisition seems well-justified. Knowing the difference in
attention focus directed to different elements of an utterance depending on
their communicative importance (or redundancy) and phonological salience,
it is possible to channel the learners attention to them by means of CALL
software, while recreating the beneficial aspects of an immersion situation.
Moreover, since computer-assisted immersion allows for the manipulation of
frequency of the chosen vocabulary items in input, it is the ‘recreated’ rather
than natural immersion situation that guarantees successful acquisition
of vocabulary and allows the learner to choose the thematic focus of their
immersion situation, depending on their professional interests and aims.
In the final analysis, given that learning in naturalistic immersion situations
is both time and cost-consuming, it is perhaps recommended not to leave
the outcomes of such language learning to chance and at least to combine
staying abroad with the use of some CALL software directing attention to the
less salient aspects of the target language.
References:
[1] Baddeley, A.; Gathercole, S. (1990). Working memory and Language.
Lea Publishers.
[2] Field, J. (2003). Promoting perception: lexical segmentation in L2
listening, ELT Journal, 57 (4), 325-334
111
[3] Han, Z. (2004). Fossilization in adult second language acquisition.
Multilingual Matters.
[4] Harald-Baayen, R. (2002). Word Frequency Distributions (Text, Speech
and Language Technology). Springer.
[5] Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language
Acquisition. Alemany Pr.
[6] Kuhl et al (2008). Phonetic learning as a pathway to language: New data
and native language magnet theory expanded (NLM-e). Philosophical
Transactions B.
[7] Pimsleur, P. (1967). A memory schedule, The Modern Language
Journal, 51 (2), 73-75
[8] Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language Acquisition.
Cambridge University Press.
[9] Richard Schmidt, R. (1993) Awareness and Second Language
Acquisition, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 206-226
[10] Schumann, J., Crowell, S., Jones, N. E., Namhee, L. (2004). The
Neurobiology of Learning: Perspectives from Second Language
Acquisition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[11] Selinker, L. (1972). INTERLANGUAGE. IRAL - International Review of
Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 10, 209-232. doi:10.1515/
iral.1972.10.1-4.209
[12] VanPatten, B. (1996). Input processing and grammar instruction in
second language acquisition. Greenwood Publishing Group.
112
Implementing Social Media in the Language
Classroom
Jarosław Krajka1, Sylvia Maciaszczyk2
1
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland; 2Warsaw School of
Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
1
Abstract
With ubiquitous access to the Internet and widespread use of computers in
education, assisting foreign language instruction with technology is a fact
that is to be taken for granted. However, with the development of technology
on the one hand and the changing perceptions and uses of computer tools
on the other hand, approaches to teaching languages with computers have
changed as well. The purpose of the present paper will be to consider how
Web 2.0 and social media applications enhance the context of foreign
language teaching. After a summary of definitions and characteristic features
of social media, a contemporary ‘Net Generation’ learner will be briefly
portrayed. Finally, examples of social media tools and activities will be given
together with classroom implementation criteria.
1. Introduction
The rapid expansion of state-of-the-art technologies and approaches in
the everyday lives of students, according to Thompson [1], means that the
preferences of newer generations of learners as regards more extensive
technology use by teachers will be even more pronounced. As Thompson
[1] notes, this means that both institutions of higher education and schools,
when confronted with the potentially disruptive technologies of the Web 2.0
era, need to allow for a change in the model of education “from the traditional
classroom framework to an asynchronous 24/7 mode” (p. 4). Thus, the
purpose of the present paper will be to consider language education in
the Web 2.0 and social media context, with a special focus on definitions,
characteristics, tools and implementation criteria.
2. Web 2.0 and social media in language education
The term ‘Web 2.0’ was first coined and conceptualised by Tim O’Reilly and
Dale Dougherty in 2004 to “describe the terms and business models that
survived the technology sector market crash of the 1990s” (para.8) [2]. The
early definition of Web 2.0 [3] emphasised the idea of the Web 2.0 network as
a platform with connected devices and software being continually updated as
Implementing Social Media in the Language Classroom
113
it becomes influenced by the increasing number of people who use it, with data
being consumed and remixed from multiple sources according to personal
criteria reflecting one’s own purposes. A new and compact definition of Web
2.0 formulated by O’Reilly [4] is that “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in
the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as a platform, and
an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform”.
Being a part of the Web 2.0 movement, social media is “a kind of software that
users can contribute their content to, and therefore this content gets richer,
or more accurate and more people can use it” (p.68) [5]. Social software
enables mentoring, building a community, meeting people, seeking personal
learning assistance or working collaboratively on projects or problems. The
concept of social software encompasses a number of communication tools:
§ Web 1.0 (Internet messaging, text chat and Internet forums);
§ pre-Web 2.0 (blogs, weblogs and wikis);
§ purely Web 2.0 developments (social network search engines, social
network services, social guides, social bookmarking, social libraries,
and peer-to-peer social networks).
There are some additional features that computer applications need to meet
to clearly represent the social media movement. Thus, according to Molina
[6], Web 2.0 applications (p. 114):
§ “are collaborative,” with sharing/tagging collectives, blogs, wikis,
online word processors taking collaboration as a central theme;
§ “use thin, cross-platform technology on the client side,” with the only
requirement for a user being a Web browser;
§ “think big,” providing functionality comparable to commercially
available office applications and operating systems, all accessible
online;
§ “are free,” free to choose and free to change, tailored to the
circumstances;
§ “are constantly upgraded,” with upgrades conducted continually in
small increments, often unnoticeably in the interface;
§ “are highly interwoven,” drawing on other Web 2.0 applications to
create new mash-up tools.
Examples of Web 2.0 developments in different areas can be found in Web
2.0 tools directories such as All Things Web 2.0, http://www.allthingsweb2.
com/; Sacred Cow Dung, http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/
all_things_web.html; Go2Web20.net, http://www.go2web20.net/; Everything
Web 2.0 Directory, http://www.listio.com/web20/; and 2.0 Websites, http://
www.listio.com/web20/.
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Jarosław Krajka, Sylvia Maciaszczyk
3. Language learners in the social media era
Contemporary students have been described as the first generation which
has grown up with computers as an ordinary part of their lives, rather than
as an extraordinary add-on [7]. Mark Prensky [7] claims that present-day
students, known as ‘Digital Natives’ because they are “’native speakers’ of
the digital language of computers” (p. 1), have been functioning in a digital
environment for most of their lives and the technologies that faculty and
staff see as revolutionary are standard and routine elements for today’s
new students. Barnes, Marateo and Ferris [8] define contemporary students
as the ‘Net Generation’, unique in the sense they are not only acculturated
to the use of technology, but they are even saturated with it. To give an
example, the technology use of an average ‘Net Gener’ by the age of 21 can
be summarised as follows [9]:
§
§
§
§
§
10,000 hours playing video games;
200,000 e-mails;
20,000 hours watching TV;
10,000 hours on cell phones;
under 5,000 hours reading.
By contrast, their teachers, who were usually not born into the digital world
but rather have become fascinated by technology at a certain point in their
lives, are labelled by Prensky [7] as ‘Digital Immigrants.’ Prensky continues
that “the single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital
Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the predigital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new
language” (p. 2).
In his later writings, Prensky [10] develops the concept of Digital Natives,
showing how contemporary students take a different approach to a number
of operations involved in the learning process:
§ Digital Natives are communicating differently (e-mail, IM, chat).
§ Digital Natives are sharing differently (blogs, webcams, camera
phones).
§ Digital Natives are buying and selling differently (eBay, schoolwork).
§ Digital Natives are exchanging differently (music, movies, humour).
§ Digital Natives are creating differently (sites, avatars, mods).
§ Digital Natives are coordinating differently (projects, workgroups,
MMORPGs).
§ Digital Natives are evaluating differently (reputation systems –
Epinions, Amazon, Slashdot).
§ Digital Natives are gaming differently (multiplayer, online mode).
§ Digital Natives are learning differently (exploring in-depth what
interests them).
115
§ Digital Natives are searching differently (preferring raw information
so that they can filter for themselves).
§ Digital Natives are analyzing differently (volunteering in screen
saver projects like SETI).
§ Digital Natives are reporting differently (mobile blogging, digital
photos).
§ Digital Natives are programming differently (using Open Source
systems, programming using Flash).
§ Digital Natives are socializing, evolving and growing up differently.
Social media are usually credited to have great educational potential.
The characteristics which are promising for language learning are easy
collaboration, possibility for working at a distance, and the fact that every
user (even one without expert ICT knowledge and skills) can author and
publish a text or a multimedia artefact on the Internet. However, the mere
use of those tools in education does not automatically mean that students
will willingly collaborate or co-author and publish online.
In finding the right ways to motivate students, it might be helpful to look at
language learners motivations that lie behind their willingness to use social
media in their out-of-school life. As was evidenced in a recent study [11],
learners are willing to contribute to social media when
§ their unique and well-defined interests take them to the online space,
§ they look for other people with similar interests,
§ they want to share with a bigger audience the artefacts that they
produced as part of their hobby,
§ they need the Internet to keep in touch with family and friends,
§ they want to and need to be in touch with their schoolmates to help
one another with their homework tasks.
4. Implementing social media in the language classroom
The most commonly known tools which are built in the Web 2.0 paradigm are
wiki sites (Wikipedia or Wiktionary), blogs, videoblogs, social networking sites
(Facebook, Linkedin, Nasza-Klasa). Others include tools for collaborative
story writing and online publishing (Storybird), platforms for the exchange
of photos and videos (Flickr); tools with which one can collaboratively
write multimedia presentations (Prezi), tools for storing and sharing online
resources (Diigo). Three of the tools will be discussed below.
Storybird allows for online story writing. The tool is free and can be used online.
When writing a story one is presented with a series of pages, which s/he fills
in with text and illustrations. The author first picks an illustration, drags it onto
the page and then fills in the remaining space with own text. The procedure is
repeated with every page. To help authors choose illustrations, the latter are
grouped by themes, key words or graphic designers. All illustrations available
116
in the Storybird database are in fact the work of professional illustrators who
donate their work as part of their promotional activities. Undoubtedly, the fact
that one can write text to professional illustrations holds great motivational
power for Internet users and language learners.
Storybird allows for several task types. For example, a teacher can set up
a classroom space for his/her students, within which s/he can send messages
and assignment instructions collectively to all students. Storybird stories can
be written individually, in pairs or in groups cooperating at a distance. Since
Storybird has been designed to a large extent for young learners, it has
appropriate security settings: the author can decide whether his/her stories
can be viewed by all Internet users or only by invited guests. Certainly the
latter option is especially useful when authors are young children who may
easily fall prey to Internet bullies.
Rather than being an online tool only, Flickr is a database which stores
very big numbers of pictures, photos and videos. The usefulness of Flickr
for education comes from its two features. Firstly, teachers and students
can choose from among millions of pictures. A great advantage is that most
pictures on Flickr are stored there in several sizes, which means that one
can choose a size to suit all kinds of purposes: writing in a Word document,
creating an online presentation or designing a big poster. Secondly, when
using Flickr one is not necessarily limited by very strict copyright laws, as
many contributors to Flickr database contribute their work under Creative
Commons licenses which grant much more freedom than the usual “all rights
reserved”.
Another tool, Prezi, allows for collaborative authoring of multimedia
presentations. In writing the presentations, authors can get connected online
to see and work on the same content synchronously, i.e., at the same time
or asynchronously, i.e., at different times. The presentations can include text,
pictures (taken from Flickr, for example), videos (uploaded from You Tube).
The traditional division of a presentation into slides does not exist in Prezi
presentations. Instead, the whole presentation is created on one limitless
page which grows as more content is added. Viewers of such a presentation
are guided to focus on consecutive parts of the same page (rather than
between separate slides), thanks to which they never lose sight of the
presentation as a whole. This helps to understand the relation of details to
the whole and facilitates remembering the content.
Alongside building students’ motivation to create online, there are other criteria
which can facilitate or hinder effective social media integration in learning
and teaching. Such criteria have been identified in a recent forum discussion
conducted as part of activities within the European network Social Media
and Language learning: 6 Key Dialogues [11]. Participants in the discussion
suggested that the first necessary step towards effective use of social media
in schools is, unsurprisingly, access to computers and the Internet at school
117
and at home. Although the situation in that respect is constantly improving,
there are still schools where computers are only available in computer labs
dedicated to IT classes and are not available for language teachers.
The second criterion which is a barrier to effective use of social media in
schools is learners’ behavior. Teachers often note that students using the
Internet in class can easily wander off to online activities that are not part of
their classroom task. The teacher then has a very unpleasant role of getting
students back on track. In such a case, time pressure is very much visible,
as the traditional 45-minute lesson time is very often not enough for students
who will multitask once put online.
The third criterion is the teacher’s attitude to technologies. The right attitude
encompasses teachers’ openness to technologies, the belief that s/he can
learn to use new technologies, his/her willingness to learn and also to want
to collaborate with other teachers in the learning process.
The fourth criterion is the teacher’s preparation to work with the Internet.
That preparation covers both preparing individual classes and learning about
what online technologies the particular group of students already know and
use (so that the teacher does not invest time in tools and websites that are
considered boring or unfashionable).
5. Conclusion
With social media used by more than a half of Polish Internet users, and much
more than the EU 27 average [12], it is inevitable that Polish educators need
to seek ways to use the powerful influence of Web 2.0 to enhance foreign
language instruction. As the two quotes from learner interviews below show
[11], social media implementation will only be effective if learners develop
intrinsic motivation to use social networking tools, be it in Polish or in English.
(...) When something intrigues me, interests me or I dislike something very
much, then I post comments. (PL-19-ED-19)
I use social media a lot, especially in my studies. We (the students from my
group) have created a wiki where we store useful materials, links to important
articles and other things we want to share. In this way we help one another
to learn better. (PL-01-AC-28)
(pp. 32-33)
References
[1] Thompson, J. (2007). Is Education 1.0 ready for Web 2.0 students?
Innovate 3 (4). Retrieved October 2, 2011, from http://www.
innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393.
118
[2] Aharony, N. (2008). Web 2.0 in U.S. LIS schools: are they missing the
boat? Ariadne, 54, January 2008. Retrieved October 2, 2011, from
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue54/aharony/.
[3] O’Reilly, T. (2005). Web 2.0: Compact definition? [Weblog entry, October
1.] Retrieved October 2, 2011, from O’Reilly Radar, http://radar.oreilly.
com/archives/2005/10/web_20_compact_definition.html.
[4] O’Reilly, T. (2006). Web 2.0 compact definition: trying again. Retrieved
October 2, 2011, from http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/
web_20_compact.html.
[5] Kesim, E., & Agaoglu, E., (2007). A paradigm shift in distance education:
Web 2.0 and social software. Turkish Online Journal of Distance
Education – TOJDE, 8 (3), 66-75.
[6] Molina, P.G. (2006). Pioneering new territory and technologies.
EDUCAUSE Review, 41 (5), 112-35.
[7] Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon,
9 (5), October 2001. Retrieved October 2, 2011, from http://www.
marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20
Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
[8] Barnes, K., Marateo, R., & Ferris, S. (2007). Teaching and learning with
the net generation. Innovate, 3 (4). Retrieved October 2, 2011, from
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=382.
[9] Bonamici, A., Hutto, D., Smith, D., & Ward, J. (2005). The “Net
Generation”: Implications for libraries and higher education. Retrieved
October 2, 2011, from http://www.orbiscascade.org/council/c0510/Frye.
ppt.
[10] Prensky, M. (2004). The emerging online life of the digital native.
Retrieved October 2, 2011, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/
Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf.
[11] Krajka, J., Kurek, M., Maciaszczyk, S., Savlovska, D., Vlad, M., & Zourou,
K. (2010). Social Media and Language Learning: Beliefs, Attitudes
and Uses in Latvia, Poland and Romania. Luxembourg: University of
Luxembourg/European Commission. Study operated by the network
“Language learning and social media: 6 key dialogues”. Also available
at
http://www.elearningeuropa.info/en/directory/Social-media-andlanguage-learning%3A-beliefs,-attitudes-and-uses-in-Latvia,-Polandand-Romania.
[12] Eurobarometer Flash 241. 2008. Information society as seen by EU
citizens. Brussels: TNS Opinion & Social/European Commission.
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L10N in Poland - Open Source as a Solution for
Computer Game Translation Training
Erik-Jan Kuipers
UNESCO Chair for Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication
Jagiellonian University, Krakow /Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
In spite of the global crisis, computer games are a booming business on the
Polish market and the entertainment software industry, mostly from abroad,
requires an enormous amount of linguistic expertise not only to help sell their
products more effectively, but also to establish their brands on the Polish
market for the years to come. The majority of professional translators in the
game localization industry have had to learn these new skills in their jobs,
because there were no training possibilities in Polish institutions of higher
education. In this paper, I will try to determine the main stumbling blocks in
the implementation of computer game translation training in centres of higher
education. I will also plea for systematic teaching of these new skills and
offer different modi operandi of its incorporation in translation departments’
curricula on the basis of Open Source applications.
Introduction
In the computer game localisation industry translators perform a very
important role in the localisation process. The Polish computer game market
depends fully on mostly well-localised computer games and the potential
clients – the gamers – are a very demanding group of customers, not very
willing to spend their money on ill-localised games. The game localisation
industry very well knows that gamers expect the localised game to be exactly
as good as the original version. In other words: the gameplay experience
cannot differ from the original one. Translators working in this line of business
must have basic knowledge about the genres, the main structure and
elements the different kinds of games are made of. They should have some
game experience as to be able to know what the term gameplay is about. As
translators they should be familiar with the register, specific terminology and
the translation of comical scenes and wordplay. Computer games are often
based on literature, films or comics, so here intertextuality plays an important
role. And last but not least, they should be able to work under time pressure,
because in the entire process from the idea of a game to selling the game
on global markets which takes approximately 3 years [1], the localisation
process is roughly indicated to take only 3 months and sometimes less.
120
Erik-Jan Kuipers
And to make the translators life even more complicated: due to copyright
issues computer games are mostly localised in-house and a very seldom
rendered by freelance translators, but in both cases the lack of context (the
translator gets a minimum of information about the gameplay) and of co-text
(sometimes sentences or text fragments are isolated from earlier and/or later
statements in the in-game text). There is a lot of guessing to do in translating
for the localisation industry.
The importance of the translator’s role isn’t of any influence on their payment
and or the client’s gratefulness for their achievements. In most cases
localisation is regarded as something which has to be done, because not
everyone has a good command of English. In this case the localisation
was forced upon the game industry, because – for instance in Poland –
non-localised computer games just don’t sell. Due to a rise in sale figures
localisation is tolerated, but is always seen as a side-effect not as a main part
in the entire process [2].
Stumbling blocks in computer game translation training
In the same way institutions of higher education all over the world seem to
ignore the existence of this specific professional field within the translation
industry. In Europe the institutions of higher education, where one can
get acquainted with this kind of translation is very limited. In Poland since
2008 only the UNESCO Chair for Translation Studies and Intercultural
Communication in Krakow offers a 60 hours course on the topic of computer
game localisation. But apart from the scarce practical training in this field the
scientific study of this phenomenon is still in its infancy. The lack of scientific
interest comes mainly from the fact that within translation studies not many
people are involved in this kind of translation. Even when translators work in
academia within the field of translation studies, they aren’t very familiar with
computer game localisation. A computer game localiser is rather an in-house
translator and bound to severe rules and contracts as not to reveal anything
about his or her work in public. And even freelance translators live by the
same restrictions. So it is obvious, that only very few people have real inside
knowledge and are able to give students some idea of this line of work.
Besides from this lack of knowledge and the impossibility of revealing all
details of working in the computer game localisation industry, there are many
other stumbling stones one has to overcome, before being able to transfer
the minimum of knowledge to train the skills necessary in localizing computer
games. There are mainly four kinds of obstacles to tackle: technical, legal,
linguistic and cultural hurdles have to be taken.
The technical part concerns not only the appropriate hard- and software, but
mainly the knowledge of implementing these in the right way as to simulate
as good as possible the future situation of a computer game localiser. The
legal issue is a more difficult one: most games are under copyright law and
L10N in Poland – Open Source as a Solution for Computer Game Translation... 121
even if this were not the case most computer games producers and ventures
are unwilling to train students or cooperate with academia, because they
mostly don’t see, what interest they might have in training localisers outside
their company. Linguistic hurdles are the least difficult to handle, but may
cause problems for students in choosing the right strategies in translating
sometimes ‘untranslatable’ parts of texts. And closely connected to this is the
cultural issue – the foreignness of the other culture(s) may cause troubles in
finding equivalent terms to express the same (or almost the same) thing in
the other language. And of course one should bear in mind, that unlike other
kinds of translation the texts in computer games are mostly as well written
and spoken, what demands for other translation techniques. Certain accents
in the original game (an English, Scottish, Irish, French, American accent)
demand a lot of invention from a Polish translator as to find appropriate
solutions in the Polish version of that specific game.
Other stumbling stones are more specifically connected with the situation in
Polish academia. University lecturers have their standard didactical duties
within the curriculum of their studies. Next to that there are lots of administrative
duties consuming more time than necessary, because university budgets are
tight and the amount of staff rather limited. And of course university staff has
to specialize in some kind of field, because of the research they often are
supposed to conduct. All this is not in favour of a brand new specialization
like computer game localisation. In short: there is a lack of time to specialize
in this field and there are no financial incentives to do so.
Fortunately the necessary hardware (PC) is getting cheaper, but unfortunately
the software isn’t. And there is a tendency to produce special software
working only on the newest kind of hardware. Or better: new versions of
software work only on new versions of hardware and vice versa. In regard
to this situation the hard- and software bought today is already out of date.
Training translators for the game localisation industry means teaching
them the basics and the transfer of basis knowledge and skills to survive in
professional surroundings.
Legal issues
A first and logical step for a translator trainer with some experience in
computer game localisation would be to contact local game producers and
vendors asking them for support, because it is obviously also in their interest
to have well trained translators without having to cover the cost of training
them in-house. Mostly these attempts do not succeed, because without
connections within such organizations it is quite difficult getting through to
those people, who might be interested in this kind of cooperation.
Another option is making use of hacked or reverse-engineered games, but
although it sounds interesting and it would offer the possibility to work with
the newest games of all possible platforms, it is illegal and not executable in
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academia (or elsewhere).
The last and best option are open source games, which are not yet localised.
And there is another problem. Although open source games are mostly
freeware localisations into Polish are very often rendered by volunteers –
mostly not translators but mainly gamers with no special translation skills.
Once the first localisation process into Polish (or into any other language)
is finished the game creators are satisfied until a next updated version of
the game needs to be localised. In those cases university lecturers have the
disadvantage of not being able to respond immediately to these demands,
because they need to prepare their materials in advance and cannot plan to
localise an open source game ad hoc.
But sometimes a little luck is needed to find out that slow and steady can
also win the race. In our case the producer of the freeware flash game “Nick
Bounty 2 – The Goat in the Grey Fedora” responded after a period of 3
months to our request and gave us the permission to localise his game and
website into Polish [3].
(Fig.1. Original website of Pinhead Games)
Technical issues
After completing this first step and having leaped the legal hurdle, there
were still three obstacles to remove. The next issue concerned the technical
part of our academic localisation project. Flash games are a specific kind of
software, which require special software to decompile the source files in order
to localise them and to recompile them afterwards. Little mistakes during the
decompiling and recompiling process may cause damage to source code
of the flash game, which could make it impossible to play it in the localised
version. Here inevitably the translator trainer has to get acquainted with the
basics (and not only) of programming games in flash. And has of course
to invest time and money in flash decompiler and recompiler software.
Depending on the kind of localisation project different additional technical
skills have to be attained. To name just a few kinds of translation types:
subtitling, dubbing and the localisation of websites, which forces translator
trainers to skill themselves in using subtitling, voice-recording software or
even to learn how to work with source codes of HTML- and PHP-based
websites at the least [4].
What other technical issues are at stake? In the computer game localisation
industry games are localised in teams, where every team member has
a clear task to fulfil within the objective of the localisation process. This kind
of team work is something which is rather unusual in an academic setting,
but is crucial for working on this kind of project. The team needs to be in
touch also outside the translation classroom, which makes it necessary to
create a learning environment with a 24/7 accessibility. Nowadays e-learning
or mostly blended learning is common sense, but often reduced to a platform
for distance homework-preparation and/or doing tests of some kind. In
a localisation project simulating a real localisation process there is a need for
more interaction between the team members including the translator trainer
as the initiator of the localisation project [5]. Our regular academic e-learning
platform on the basis of Moodle didn’t allow us to use all the necessary
possibilities which nowadays e-learning has to offer. For this reason
a special e-learning platform administered by the translator trainer himself
was implemented to be able to interact more like team members in a real life
localisation project. In other words the workflow within a regular localisation
process could be maintained by having full control over the e-learning
platform with the possibility to send direct messages to team members and
even to chat with them when necessary[6].
(Fig. 2. E-learning platform Claroline)
Didactical issues
Another technical or rather didactical problem is the fact that students have
to be assessed. During and after finishing the localisation project students
normally have to be graded and/or awarded for their work within the project.
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They also need to receive feedback on their progress in reaching certain
goals as foreseen in the curriculum. In a real life localisation project no one is
interested in the way a team member renders a translation as long as it lives
up to the quality standards set out by the localisation manager of the project.
In an academic setting these quality standards also have to be met, but
firstly they have to be determined and defined as for students to understand
what they mean and what they are for. Secondly students are still learning
how to translate and are developing these skills by practicing. This leads to
the conclusion that an academic localisation project has to take into account
that the time spent on the project should be balanced with the time spent
on explaining and discussing translation strategies and translation problems
during the project. From our experience at least 1/3 of the time is used for
instruction and explanation and 2/3 of the time can be actually spent on the
localisation project itself.
Localisation process issues
Depending on the time available one can decide for one of the three
possible modi operandi as practiced in real life localisation projects: minimal
localisation, partial localisation and full localisation [7].
The minimal localisation option is concerned with translation the box and
the docs, i.e. the cover box of the game and all the documentation about
the game like the game manual and the game guide. This option is least
satisfactory for students, because they actually do not have the feeling of
working on the game, rather dealing with side issues.
The partial localisation is more demanding and more rewarding. Students
actually change the in game text and transfer the game from one culture
into their native one, i.e. they localise the game to an important extent. Most
games in Poland are localised this way, which give students the feeling like
working in a real life environment striving for the same results as professional
translators in the game localisation industry.
Full localisation gives an extra dimension to the localisation project, because
only the most successful computer games are fully localised, i.e. have
dubbing and where necessary voice-over comments.
Localising Nick Bounty - The Goat with the Grey Fedora
In our localisation project the students as team member could decide in what
way the flash game should be localised. They unanimously decided to try
a full localisation project, which meant a lot of extra work involved for the
translator trainer in preparing:
§ - a cover box and a CD label for the flash game;
§ - a game manual;
§ - the decompilation of the flash game and extracting the in game
text;
§ - the extraction of the dubbing and voice-over text from cut-scenes;
§ - the extraction of the audio files;
§ - a cms-based multilingual website;
§ - the decompilation of the trailer and extracting the dubbing and
voice-over text;
§ - the decompilation of the trailer and extracting the audio files.
(Fig.3. Cover box of the Polish version of Nick Bounty – The Goat in the
Grey Fedora)
Translatable Assets
The translation of cover texts, in-game texts, voice-over and dubbing for
cut-scenes, manuals and guides requires different translation strategies,
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because these texts belong to different genres: literature, instructions,
technical texts, subtitles, dubbing texts etc. All these texts ask for different
approaches and students have to be made aware of the differences as to
adopt the most appropriate translation strategy[8].
Translation Quality Assessment
The translation quality stands or falls with the quality of the work of every
individual team member. This is the reason why team work, peer reviewing
and the final review by the project manager – mostly the translator trainer –
are basic elements of every localisation project.
Every team member has to translate, review others and test the game as
a whole in different stages of the project. Due to the limited time of the project
(15 weeks) and the vast amount of work that has to be done good coordination
is crucial to meet the deadline. The testing is done by writing so-called bug
reports, i.e. translations that for some reason have to be revised. Most of the
terminology (names, places, events) were put together in a project glossary
to prevent the usage of different translations in different parts of the game.
The project glossary was used as a reference guide in the CAT-tools the
students used to translate their part of the text of the in-game, the website
and the manual.
After the 2nd revision of the entire in-game text most mistakes were corrected.
The website and the manual occurred to be less difficult to translate, i.e.
only one review was necessary. Mostly the mistakes were connected with
a wrong interpretation of the cultural context in which the events took place
(there is a part in the game where the end of the movie “Casablanca” is cited
literally, so the translator has to find the Polish version of this text or he/she
at least has to know what the movie is about). And a major difficulty in the ingame text was the humour – mostly puns and other kind of wordplay, but the
students did not make many mistakes here, it just forced them to use their
imagination to find (or create) good Polish equivalents.
Conclusion
This project is at the time of writing still in progress. Until the end of 2011 all
the in-game texts have to be finished and sent via the e-learning platform.
The website is already localised, but not yet updated [9]. The manual is
finished and the only part missing are the voice-recordings, which are going
to take more time than expected due to technical difficulties. All in all the
game will be made available as freeware (online and offline) in March 2012.
(Fig.4. The bilingual website of the localisation project in progress)
Working in real-time forces students to plan their activities within the given
period of time. It is this kind of pressure that they have to put up with being
a translator in the localisation industry. The teamwork has proven to be very
successful, although the project has not yet been completed and evaluated.
And what is maybe of equal importance: the students did (and do) not only
learn a lot of practical skills based on their former rather theoretical training,
but they enjoyed every stage of the process. Unlike other translation classes
in this case their work is visible for anyone to see. Every member of the team
is going to be mentioned on the website, in the game and in the manual.
These separate parts of the localisation project are noted down in a so-called
translation portfolio, which serves to assess them individually, but also helps
them to document their achievements in translation with regard to future
employers and/or clients.
I am convinced that computer game translator training is profitable not only for
future translators, translator training - by offering a new and attractive area of
specialisation – or translation studies - contributing to a better understanding
of the complexity of language transfer in the localisation process [10] - but
also the computer game industry.
References
[1] Chandler, H. (2005). The Game Localisation Handbook. Hingham,
Massachusetts: Charles River Media, p. 63-65.
[2] Kuipers, E-J. (2010). Lokalizacja gier komputerowych – czyżby
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dziecinnie proste? Nowe perspektywy w szkoleniu tłumaczy pisemnych
[Computer Game Localization – Child’s Play? New perspectives
on Translator Training]. Homo Ludens. Czasopismo ludologiczne
Polskiego Towarzystwa Badania Gier Numer 1(2)/2010. Wydawnictwo
UAM, Poznań 2010, p. 77 - 86. Online: http://www. http://ptbg.org.pl/
HomoLudens/vol/2/. Date: 1 December 2011.
[3] http://www.otterarchives.com/bounty2/index.html
[4] Dietz, F. (2006). Issues in Localizing Computer Games. W: K.J. Dunne
(red.), Perspectives on Localisation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins, p. 121-134.
[5] Kiraly, D. (2005). Project-Based Learning: A Case for Situated
Translation. Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal,
50(4), 1098-1111. Online: http://www.erudit.org/revue/ meta/2005/v50/
n4/012063ar.pdf. Date: 15 December 2011.
[6] http://www.claroline.net
[7] Bernal-Merino, M. (2006). On the Translation of Video Games. The
Journal of Specialised Translation, 6, p. 22-36. Online: http://www.
jostrans.org/issue06/art_bernal.php. Date: 10 December 2011.
[8] Mangiron, C., O’Hagan, M. (2006). Game Localisation: unleashing
imagination with ‘restricted’ translation. The Journal of Specialised
Translation, 6, 10-21. Online: <http://www.jostrans.org/ issue06/art_
ohagan.php>. Date: 15 December 2011.
[9] http://www.unesco.uj.edu.pl/game
[10] O’Hagan, M. (2007). Video games as a new domain for translation
research: From translating text to translating experience. Revista
Tradumŕtica, 5. Online: http://www.fti.uab.es/ tradumatica/revista/num5/
articles/09/09art.htm. Date: 13 December 2011.
129
Internet Platforms in EFL Teaching
Paweł D. Madej
Warsaw University, Warsaw/Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
The use of the Internet in education is a requirement of civilization. However,
it seems that after the enthusiasm of the e-learning it is time to reflect on
the real possibilities of applications of the Internet in the teaching process.
Solutions on how to use online tools may vary, but should be subordinated to
the achievement of learning objectives and ensuring the quality of teaching
over the Internet.
The process of learning and teaching a foreign language
Learning a foreign language is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional
phenomenon. Ways to conceptualize reflect the views of the dominant
historical periods in the data derived fields such as linguistics, psychology,
pedagogy. Thanks to the progress that has been made in these areas in the
twentieth century, as well as by the constitution of an independent scientific
discipline dealing with the processes of learning and teaching foreign
language, or language teaching, it became possible to obtain a more rational
perception of the complex phenomena of language learning.
The current way of looking at learning a foreign language stems from the
understanding of the functioning of human communication in the environment
in the context of the group and society. Such a personal perspective of
linguistic communication presupposes that the language in its essence is
non-transferable. It is transferable only to the products of communication
activities.
More and better understanding of the correctness of the learning process,
including the process of learning a foreign language, led to a weakening
relationship between the language and the learning process, assigning the
latter a more limited role and directing research interests to the learner, and
not, as it was before, to the teacher.
Knowledge becomes a reasonable award of two different processes –
teaching and learning. Teaching is associated with the activity of the teacher.
It does not cause learning directly, because the teacher does not have such
power over the “mental environment” of a student to produce the desired
learning processes. Student can only be offered specific tasks, which are
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assumed to improve their communication skills in general, especially in the
target language community.
While learning is associated with the activity of the student, who himself must
make an effort to understand the information, the restructuring of knowledge
and experience is a a problem associated with cognitive performance of
a specific job. In this context, the learning process can be seen as a jobled self-education, which aims to prepare students for independence in the
acquisition of communication skills - both during and after completion of
study in an organized form.
Internet in the process of foreign language learning and
teaching
The Internet is not just another sign of progress but also the “invention”,
which has realized a new, hitherto unknown dimension of interpersonal
communication. Internet firms the realization of human communication
activities in relation to the number of participants, time and place of its
execution and the ability to use various online channels of communication
offering new ways to transmit video, audio or text.
Treating the Internet as a site for human communication activities can present
it as a communication environment of human functioning.
For the successful operation of man in this expanded space efficient
communication is to master computer skills, use of utilities, as well as
implementation of the knowledge forms of communication through various
channels on the Internet. The channels are as follows:
§ Technology literacy – the ability to use new media, primarily the
Internet, in order to have efficient access to information and possible
transmission;
§ Information literacy – the ability for acquiring, organizing, selecting
and evaluating relevant information and forming opinions based on
them;
§ creating messages in the media – an increasing number of people
around the world produces and transmits content to many customers;
§ social competence and responsibility – particularly important in
communicating online and for young audiences.
Online Learning Platform
Nowadays, information technologies allow the creation of content management
systems and educational processes. In this context, terms such as: virtual
learning environment (virtual learning environment, VLE), environment,
learning process management (managed learning environment, MLE), the
educational processes management system (learning management system,
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LMC), the educational content management system (learning content
management system LCMS) appear in the literature.
Internet platform is a computer system with specific properties, integrating
the available communication channels in computer networks, as well as
offering other tools, for example, search engines for exploration of network
resources, etc. A particular type of an educational platform can be used to
support teaching with the Internet.
Educational platform (LMS / VLE) is an infrastructure system-tool, intended for
the work in the electronic environment. Class System LMS / VLE is primarily
used to manage students (creating groups, adding to teachers’ groups, etc.)
and courses (information about available courses, conditions, provisions,
methods of marking etc.) and to collect data on student progress. However
LCMS - is used to prepare course materials, deliver them to customers and
record the activity of students in the digital environment (eg how they move
around the course materials, time spent on each task, test results, etc.).
Educational platforms are characterized by fairly similar base functions,
therefore, the fundamental question when choosing a system is the extent to
which it corresponds to the current and future needs of users and how can it
be used in the learning process and (or) foreign language teaching.
The use of educational platforms in the process of foreign
language learning and teaching
The use of educational platforms in the process of foreign language learning
and teaching is now a challenge for teaching, as it causes a lot of problems
for which no solutions have been found so far.
At this point it is worth paying attention to two issues: first - in most cases,
the platforms are being developed without the support of foreign language
educators, second, the plan design reflects the traditional way of thinking
about learning the language. Meanwhile, the fundamental issues that need
rethinking before starting work on the platform, are strictly didactic and
technical issues, such as: the organization of teaching process, teacherstudent communication, educational materials, skills of teachers and
students in the use of new technologies.
Organization of educational process
In order to use online educational platforms effectively in the process of
foreign language learning and teaching , it is necessary to decide on the
volume and quality of educational materials and tasks that can beperformed
on the platform, and those which should be implemented stationary.
Educational platforms and various tools available within this framework
identify many features. When planning the educational process one must
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be aware of the benefits arising from their use, but also recognize their
shortcomings. The circumstances, in which educational platforms are
introduced in the teaching process, may in fact be very diverse, depending
on the number and quality of the tools used and the accepted model.
Today you will find that institutions offering online courses or studies in Poland
usually do not provide students with information about the ways to organize
the teaching process, materials used, online communication channels and
the associated technical requirements (hardware and software), etc. before
enrolling to the course. The lack of such information may significantly affect
resignation of participants from courses that may not meet their expectations
and needs.
Teacher-student communication
Using a computer to execute language communication in the digital
environment inherently imposes certain restrictions on the frequency and
quality. In most cases, communication in the digital environment is done with
the text, as opposed to the methods of interpersonal communication in the
real environment and society. Also, the types of human activity in the digital
environment are closely linked with the capabilities of currently available
information technology.
In the implementation of online teaching the process of student - teacher
communication is realized via asynchronous communication tools (e-mail,
discussion forum) or synchronous ones (text - chat, Voice - Voice over Internet
Protocol). Due to the fact that participation in synchronous communication
requires simultaneous access to computers for both the teacher and the
student, the asynchronous communication is used more often, which entails
certain psychological consequences for the participants.
Implementing an asynchronous communication method has its advantages
and disadvantages. On the one hand, it gives the students an opportunity
to think about and prepare its response, which is undoubtedly beneficial in
the case of learning a foreign language. On the other hand - waiting too long
for a response from the teacher can raise student’s frustration, loneliness
and discouragement. But it is very absorbing occupation for the teacher to
respond to students’ e-mails received around the clock,.
Skills of teachers and students in the use of new
technologies
While getting started with internet platform it should be taken into account
that students’ skills in handling hardware and software can often exceed
the skills of teachers. On the other hand, the technical skills of students
are often not sufficient for successful learning through the Internet, because
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many important skills that appear to be necessary for learning in the difficult
conditions of communication, such as independence, ability to plan own
work and time and regularity are often insufficient.
Therefore, it is necessary to properly prepare students and teachers to
work in new conditions and to conduct educational and technical training in
teaching and learning via the Internet.
Summary
Widespread use of the Internet necessitates reflection on the transformation
of the teaching process and the role of information technology in this process.
Particular attention should be paid to the relationship between the Internet
(and its resources) and educational platform as part of a separate and limited
Internet environment (and educational materials located on the platform).
The reason to use educational platforms is not only the previously known
environmental restoration of the traditional class known in the electronic
space, but also to provide learners with new communication channels and
use them to support the learning process and group work. It seems that in
the future design and use of online learning platforms will include individual
information needs of individual learners. It will also have to include ways of
acquiring information from various sources.
References
[1] Gajek, E. 2002. „Komputery w nauczaniu języków obcych”. Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN
[2] Kurek, M. 2004. „Webquests – projekty internetowe na lekcjach języka
angielskiego”. Języki Obce w Szkole 2/2004: 72-76
[3] Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej i Sportu z dnia 26 lutego
2002 r. w sprawie podstawy programowej wychowania przedszkolnego
oraz kształcenia ogólnego w poszczególnych typach szkół (Dz. U.
z 2002 r. Nr 51, poz. 458)
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The Use of ICT Tools in Teaching Foreign
Languages
Paweł D. Madej
Warsaw University, Warsaw/Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
The education system sets itself as one of the purposes preparing students
for life in the modern world. Education must therefore adapt to changing
conditions – it can not operate in isolation from reality, so also can not
operate without modern technology. Dissemination of information and
telecommunication technologies, in short ICT, stands for Information and
Communication Technology; it changes the way people communicate with
each other, acquire information, they spend their free time, as well as gain
knowledge. Computers, MP3 players, DVD, radio, television and the Internet
used to transfer various types of information including text, graphics, audio
or video can greatly assist students at every level of education. The use of
these devices and technology in schools is changing the learning process.
The intelligent use of ICT allows you to change the current concept of school
teaching, and thus change itsquality. Nowadays it is an inevitable process.
This publication outlines the possibilities and advantages of the Internet
as a technology assisting traditional teaching. Its purpose is to provide an
overwiev of tools and effects of ICT use in schools and yet still very popular
in Poland, teaching methods, such as ”blended learning”, which is a mix of
modern tools and traditional teaching methods.
The formation of modern communication technologies, rapidly increasing
layers of information stored on computer servers, increasing the technical
capacity of its processing and use, make an ever greater impact on society. At
the moment it is difficult to imagine a sphere of life without access to computer
networks. The dynamic development of ICT undoubtedly contributed to the
development of knowledge-based society whose primary feature is the
permanent education (LLL - called Life-Long Learning). Since the computer
is used specifically Education took on meaning and became more efficient.
The first use of computers in education took place in the U.S. at the turn of
the 50s and 60. Their dissemination in schools was in the 70s and 80s. At
that time in the U.S. already 96% were in computer assisted instruction (CAI
Computer Assisted Instruction in English). However, the rest of the world
remained in the field far behind the United States. The Open University of the
United Kingdom is the first institution (founded in 1969), whose activity was
entirely devoted to teaching at a distance, based on the active use of materials
The Use of ICT Tools in Teaching Foreign Languages
135
from the Internet, radio and television. The first attempt to use a computer for
educational purposes in Poland was undertaken in 1966, and later proceeded
in stages, over the years gaining more and more widespread use. In Poland,
first, a few computers connected to the Internet were launched in 1991
(Warsaw-Copenhagen). Their number increased until 1995, initially only at
universities. The obstacle to wider deployment of technical infrastructure
were Poles, unadapted to use the latest technology. With time the lifestyle
has been gradually modernized, allowing the introduction of new solutions.
It increasingly gained in popularity. Promoting the use of computers with
Internet access in education has become undoubtedly the cause of many
projects initiated nationwide - Internet for schools, Interkl @ sa, Internet
in schools, etc., thanks to propagating the use of the Internet as a tool for
learning. The last years of the twentieth century are the beginning of a new
trend in education using computers and the Internet, which is e-learning. It
allowed the dissemination of distance education - studying, learning foreign
languages, participation in courses, or learning at school gained another
dimension, many barriers have disappeared. In most European countries
ICT is gaining wider popularity. In many countries, ICT is self-taught.
Teaching methods - ICT tools used in teaching
In the twenty-first century a “digital” generation grows up, for whom new
technology is a natural thing, because they are in contact with it since the
first years of their life. This generation is difficult to reach without using any,
multimedia tools, which are natural for them. Considering that customized forms
and methods of teaching that the student uses in everyday life (computers,
Internet) are widely available, the teacher should be the inspiration for the
student, an academic advisor and a guide to available online information
structures. ICT - Information and Communication Technology is based on the
use of so-called Blended learning. The use of ICT lessons and tools is related
to the active inclusion of wider information and communication technology
into the teaching process. An example might be the language classes,
offering traditional language teaching methods supplemented by distance
learning (eg e-learning, m-learning, blended learning), which contains
a variety of teaching methods, enabling to practice all language skills based
on different exercises and tasks that undoubtedly prejudice substantially the
effective teaching and learning of a foreign language, as well as its quality
and attractiveness. One possibility is to vary the use of language classes to
learn from foreign language interactive computer games, so the introduction
of elements of learning through fun takes place. Below there are a few tools
worth using in the classroom.
Blended learning
Blended learning is a modern and flexible technique for teaching and
learning. It is based on combining and mixing of two or more simultaneously
educational strategies, such as e-learning and direct instruction. This use of
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modern methods of learning, i.e. multi-media work program, mostly online and
with the support of traditional teacher. Computer technology stimulates and
gives it momentum, the teacher leads the way, is a motivator and continues
to monitor progress. But the whole process could take place without the
participation of the teacher-examiner. Especially in those situations where
e-learning methods do not fit the educational goals. Blended learning is
a mix of teaching methodologies. It uses several channels simultaneously,
depending on the needs of students.
Podcasts
Podcast (podcasting) is a form of web publishing of multimedia content
- audio, or film, usually in the form of regular segments, which can be
automatically subscribed using RSS (the latest “episodes” can be downloaded
automatically). There are many sites with podcasts to download. Podcasts are
often created by radio broadcasters (eg www.bbc.co.uk), television, portals
dedicated to specific topics. We also can create our own podcasts. We can
record them with Audacity (a useful, free program for creating podcasts) and
then use in the classroom. Podcasts can be played on any computer or MP3
player, so they do not have too high hardware requirements. They are an
invaluable tool both for language courses (recorded in the original language)
and non-linguistic ones.
Screencasts
If we wish to present the act or process of looking at something with individual
steps, we reach for a tool called screencast. A screencast is nothing but
a movie that records the events presented on a computer screen - an image
seen by the computer user. The film with a commentary of the person who
performs these activities, functions or instructional presentation - is a kind
of instructional video. It is a more modern version of the screenshots and
allows for a simple explanation of complex tasks. This is a practical tool
to use such information in class (illustrating the operation of the program).
Screencasts are typically published in SWF (Macromedia Flash), AVI or
QuickTime format.
Vodcasts
Vodcast (Video-On-Demand broadcast) is a technology transfer in the form
of video files available on the Internet and cataloged in RSS technology.
Vodcasts are a form of Internet TV, podcasts are similar to the type of
radio broadcast and services provided by the stretches. Due to the small
difference in the technical issues, vodcasts are sometimes considered a type
of podcast. Very often vodcasts are used by portals, including educational
and media portals. Other names of vodcast tools are met: Videocast, vidcast,
vcast.
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VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and e-learning
The Internet is used in education in different ways: it can be the “only” source
of information (and a tool to search for it), supporting traditional teaching, it
can also be an intermediary between students and the teacher in the learning
process (e-learning, where communication between the actors of teaching
is realized only through the Internet. VLE (Virtual Learning Environment)
is a training technique that uses all available electronic media, including
the Internet, audio/video, interactive TV, multimedia and e-learning. It is
a kind and attractive complement to traditional teaching methods. Learning
through the use of e-learning platforms has many advantages. Unlimited
access to the course content, the ability to return to a lot of material in any
time convenient for the student, to choose the pace of learning, participants
can use many electronic materials placed on the e-learning platform. The
e-Menor or e-Coach controls the login process, the time devoted to learning
and monitors progress. If necessary, their job is to remind the student of
the lack of systematicity. You can consult, comment, rate the work. The
student is able to communicate not only with the teacher, but also with other
members of their group, or class. For communication he/she uses their own
account on the e-learning platform, e-mail, Internet forums and chat. It is very
important that e-learning platform can be a complement of classes – part of
the work can take place over the Internet and be constantly monitored by the
e-mentor. E-learning also creates an opportunity to use innovative teaching
methods, such as interactive games. The most common tool for creating
e-learning platform is Moodle. This is a package designed to create courses
on the Internet, distributed for free as an “open source” software. This is
a comprehensive tool for learning using the latest technology to communicate
both the teacher-student and student-student, the non-verbal presentation
of the material when using all the opportunities e-learning platform help to
enrich their knowledge and gain new practical skills. The simultaneous use
of several senses is particularly important toeffectiveness of learning via the
Internet and e-learning platforms.
The use of interactive on-line dictionaries
Despite the convenience of paper books, electronic editions of books and
dictionaries seem to be more pragmatic and what is very important today,
much faster to use. There are many dictionaries on the market. More
frequent use of electronic dictionaries allowes us for a quick word search,
transcription, pronunciation - the possibility to listen to a word, numerous
examples of the use of the word. There are other advantages as well. When
using good and reputable on-line dictionaries, we can be confident that we
will use the latest terminology. Attractive graphics of on-line dictionaries is
also a strong asset. In interactive dictionaries we can also find plenty of links
to other useful sites.
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Paweł D. Madej
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an international, multilingual, widely known and recognized free
encyclopedia. Wikipedia is a very convenient source of knowledge. Wikipedia
is linked to similar network projects, using wikitext, a special type of language.
The first of these was a site devoted to attacks of September 11, 2001 in New
York and Washington. In 2003 Wikiquote, Wikibooks and Wikisource were
created. Then Wikispecies (base of living organisms), Wikinews (citizen
journalism site), and Wikimedia Commons (directory of multimedia). The
youngest sister project of Wikipedia is Wikiversity (since 2006). It collects
materials for science, conducts its own educational projects. In this way,
Wikipedia is transformed into a multidimensional repository of knowledge
that not only provides the necessary data, but also helps to understand them.
There are PBWikis, where anyone can create their own pbwiki of multimedia,
using available “wikifarms”. Today we have many services that help to build
a private Wiki.
Interactive exercises and games on the Internet
Edutainment - (entertainment-education - learning through fun) is the concept
of knowledge transfer by electronic means with the simultaneous use of the
elements of fun and entertainment.
We have the following options of virtual learning:
§ Virtual Trips – an exercise based on visits to web sites to visit places
and view objects in virtual reality.
§ Ask-an-expert – an exercise is based on gathering information from
professionals and experts in the field.
§ Information Gap – an exercise based on searching for information
needed to complete a task, text or audio exercises.
Educational video game combines the fun of a game form with educational
content, it is focused on clearly defined educational purposes, its use supports
and facilitates the learning process. Games also provide an interactive
solution for diverse tasks such as crossword puzzles, charades, riddles,
puzzles, quiz, dominoes, etc. They increase the degree of concentration
and attention of students, significantly contribute to sustaining interest in
educational content, and improve the motivation of the learner.
Blogs
A blog (Weblog - Web diaries, memoirs) is a type of website on which the
author places the dated entries, displayed in a sequence. However, not only
individuals can lead their own blog. Using the blog, we can obtain a larger
amount of information on the subject. Bloggers usually follow other blogs,
link them and make contact with their authors, which starts blogging network
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to function as a larger, connected whole, ie. blogosphere. In the case of
blogs devoted to specific topics exchange of ideas between authors can
contribute to a given field of knowledge. Popularity of blogs has led to the
formation of different mutations of traditional blogs: photoblog, video blog,
mobile blog (supplemented by portable devices and mobile phones PDAs),
audioblog (acting as podcasting).
WebQuests
WebQuests use the Internet as a source of information and as a tool for
learning based on purposeful and wise use of resources of the virtual world.
It is a model of inquiry and exploration of knowledge based on the Internet.
Students are asked to find the information on a specific topic themselves.
Because students have to analyze the material in the specified range and
draw conclusions, use of WebQuests in the classroom helps students to
think of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
RSS
If we have any favorite periodically updated thematic services, portals,
podcasts from the field, we can seize the opportunity to be informed of
any news interesting for us. RSS feeds are supplied in the form of headers
and resemble e-mail – have a title, abbreviation, and a link that leads to
full information on the website. There are special programs to read RSS
feeds (the readers) that are similar to e-mail programs. There is no need
to download all headers – you can download only the ones that you find
interesting. Using RSS technology allows us to be “on the fly” with the chosen
theme. Free Readers – eg RssReader, News Cafe, Cliper or strap.
Interactive whiteboards
As mentioned earlier, traditional ways are not as efficient and attractive to
the audience – the youth of today, waiting for attractive tools. So let’s turn
to new technologies and equipment that radically changed the importance
of the concept of “school activities”. Touch-sensitive boards connected to
a computer are a whole new dimension to teaching and the easiest way
to interest students. Interactive presentations affect on the mind of the
recipient more than plain text or video. The departure from the traditional
way of teaching in favor of interactive education greatly increases efficiency,
stimulates activity of a group and reduces distance between the teacher and
class participants. And that’s regardless of age. Attractive graphics provides
a dynamic environment.
Educational portals on the Internet
Educational portals include lessons on-line, knowledge tests, give the ability
to ask questions to experts from different languages.
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Paweł D. Madej
http://www.interklasa.pl/
http://www.edu.com.pl/.
Virtual training organizations
Macmillan English Virtual Campus is a comprehensive system of education
created by the publishing company Macmillan.
Address:
http://www.macmillanenglishcampus.com/
Summary
Interactive education using ICT is a modern and effective form of education. It
maximizes students’ engagement and activity, and gives them the opportunity
to choose their own paths of knowledge and development, tailored to their
abilities.
References
[1] Gajek, E. 2002. „Komputery w nauczaniu języków obcych”. Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN
[2] Kurek, M. 2004. „Webquests – projekty internetowe na lekcjach języka
angielskiego”. Języki Obce w Szkole 2/2004: 72-76
[3] Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej i Sportu z dnia 26 lutego
2002 r. w sprawie podstawy programowej wychowania przedszkolnego
oraz kształcenia ogólnego w poszczególnych typach szkół (Dz. U.
z 2002 r. Nr 51, poz. 458)
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Learning Online for Middle-Aged People – Why
Not?
Learning Systems Poland Sp. z o.o., Warsaw/Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
Contemporary education encourages learning flexibility for students and
allows them to take charge of their educational experience. It’s no longer the
exclusive domain of eighteen year olds, though. Many students today are
middle-aged. They are more goal- and task-oriented. They want and need to
learn. Adult learners desire a high degree of flexibility due to the competing
priorities of work, home, and school. The improved access and availability
of information technology has enabled more adult students to participate in
the learning process. Distance learning is the easiest and most affordable
way for middle-aged people to ameliorate their skills. It’s a great way to start
a new career or advance within a field. The structure of distance learning
gives adults the greatest possible control over the time, place, and pace of
education. Furthermore, it allows them to study independently while earning
a living. For employers, distance education is cost-effective, maintains staff
productivity, and increases skills.
Today I would like to describe my experiences connected with teaching
English online to middle-aged people. But before I do that, I would like to
introduce shortly the roots of our school, to make it more understandable.
Empikschool is the largest and oldest (over 40 years of tradition) language
schools in Poland. In 34 schools we educate over 50 thousand people
each year. Moreover empikschool is an authorised examination centre for
examinations such as CITY&GUILDS, LCCI or TELC. The school is not
only constantly responding to changes on the market, but also creates new
trends.
An example of such activity, realized 2 years ago, was an introduction of
a totally new product to the market - live language learning online in groups
with a tutor – empik school online. What are the roots of the idea? There were
several reasons to create empik school online. First of all, empik school has
always struggled with a fact that despite of a great number of schools it was
not possible to teach all those, who were willing to attend the courses. Some
of the learners were simply living or working to far from the school and were
not able to commute to attend the classes at a stationary school. Another
large group of people was unable to learn foreign languages because of
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other duties. Schools closing at 8 p.m. or at the latest 9 p.m. cannot provide
education for the most occupied ones, or those, whose everyday duties do
not allow for learning during the school’s working hours.
Another important factor, which resulted in creation of empik school online,
was a rapid development of the Internet observed within a few last years
and a growing number of mainly young people, for whom it became a way
of living.
All the above mentioned elements resulted in development of empik school
online – the first fully professional Internet based school, teaching English as
a foreign language. The school was meant to be an alternative for stationary
courses, addressed mainly to young, active people, who are not afraid of
modern technologies. What does learning in our school consist in? There
are English language courses „moved” to the Internet. We teach with the
same quality and methods as the stationary empik school, but the difference
is, that our students do not have to commute to school. They usually attend
the classes at home and all they need to learn with us is a computer with an
Internet connection. Just like at stationary schools, classes are held twice
a week at time specified by a learner during the enrolment procedure. The
learning hours are very flexible, as we teach from Monday till Saturday from
8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Another difference between our school and stationary
schools is, that our classes are recorded and the recordings are available
24/7. Moreover, the teaching groups are usually smaller compared to the
groups at stationary schools, as they usually consist of 5-6 people. That
makes our teaching highly efficient and the results are very good. Apart from
live group classes with a tutor we also offer individual classes, enabling our
students to consolidate knowledge previously acquired during group classes
with different kinds of exercises and interactive tasks. What is important - the
learner can see the results on his computer as soon as the task is completed.
One does not need to wait long for the results and can correct any mistakes
on the spot. One can also go back to the previously completed exercises and
improve the results.
While preparing the offer of empik school online we were expecting to address
the demand of young people, keen on novelties and the Internet. We were
quite surprised when it turned out that elder people, with a more „traditional”
attitude liked the offer. Below, there are results of a research carried out
among our learners. As it is shown on the figure, majority of learners of the
empik school online are people aged between 30 and 50 (56%), only 11% of
them are less than 30 years old. It is quite interesting that as many as 33%
of our students are more than 50 years old and our oldest student was 92
years old!
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Learning Online for Middle-Aged People – Why Not?
11%
33%
below age 30
age 30-50
above age 50
56%
Table nr 1 – The age of empik school online students
Source: empik school online
Why is it so? It shows that our offer perfectly fits the needs of the most
demanding customers, who appreciate the high quality and standard of
teaching. There are several reasons for that. I will try to discuss all of them
below.
The students of empik school online pay most attention to the comfort of
learning. They do not need to travel anywhere after work in order to learn
a language effectively. Instead they can seat comfortably in their privacy
and attend classes in the most convenient conditions. Moreover the learning
days and hours are adjusted to their time-schedule. What more can one
expect?
It is also comfortable to stay anonymous, which means that students do
not have to feel ashamed, even if they cannot cope with a particular topic
or issue. At a stationary school they would be exposed to critical looks from
other learners. This does not happen at empik school online. That is why
many middle-aged people decide to learn online. They are not confronted
with younger ones. Moreover, the students of empik school online do not
miss any classes as everything is recorded. Even if numerous responsibilities
prevent a student from participation in a particular lesson it is possible to
listen to all the materials in any time and as many times as necessary. It
is also a good solution to revise the materials from lessons that one has
attended.
Another important aspect, appreciated by middle-aged people is quality.
Those people are aware that only well-educated teachers, with regard to
both the merits and the pedagogical aspect, are able to make learning
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effective. Empik school online guarantees high quality. It is supported by
40 years of experience of Empik schools and a brand recognised on the
market. It is also important that innovative technology used for teaching at
empik school online is user friendly. Our middle-aged students appreciate
the fact that advanced IT skills are not necessary to learn with us. Moreover
the technology is introduced in detail during initial classes. In case of any
technical problems there is a team of professionals working at the Helpdesk, who can provide necessary assistance.
Middle-aged people learning at empik school online appreciate the innovative
teaching methods. They want to follow the spirit of their age, improve and
develop their skills. We provide them with such an opportunity through
constant monitoring of the progress of learning, as well as additional activities
adjusted to individual weaknesses, which improves their engagement into
the process of language learning.
To sum up, innovative teaching methods are very well adjusted to the needs
of middle-aged people as innovation is not equal to complexity or difficulty.
On the contrary, learning in an innovative environment can be an easy and
convenient solutions for those who value comfort, time and quality.
145
An Analysis of the Potential of a ComputerMediated Learning Course for Vocabulary
Learning in L2
Christine Rodrigues
Clermont Université, Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Langage, ClermontFerrand, France
[email protected]
Abstract
This paper focuses on the contributions a computer-mediated blended course
can make for learning vocabulary in French as a Foreign Language (FFL).
This course included class and on-line sessions, using Computer Mediated
Communication (CMC) tools (forum and chat), for a written macro-task by
French-learning Cypriot students accompanied in distance learning by FFL
tutors. In the first part we present difficulties in vocabulary learning as well
as in written production. We also tackle two central notions for this study: the
task in an action-oriented approach, and scaffolding to support the process
of learning. In the second part we describe the blended learning course, the
participants and the task involved. In the third part, we identify tutors’ support
for frequent lexical errors occurring during chat sessions and in some of the
forum messages. Furthermore, we analyse traces of the tutoring activity in
the final written production (which consists of a travel guide to Cyprus). We
proceed by comparing the content of the guide and online interaction between
learners and tutors in both synchronous (chat) and asynchronous (forum)
sessions. The study shows that tutors mainly give no feedback for the most
frequent lexical errors (written form and lexical units used in English instead
of French), both in chat sessions and in the forum messages. We believe
this might be a strategy intended to encourage students to communicate.
The support provided for the use of an inappropriate lexical unit is varied in
chat sessions, while no feedback has been given for this problematic point
in forums. The research also reveals that effective support strategies vary,
and are mostly delivered with the same CMC tool that the learner used in
his/her error.
1. Introduction
Vocabulary learning and written production are usual and complex activities
when learning a foreign language (L2). This study intends to identify the
opportunities Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) can present
for these processes. Our research is based upon a blended course held in
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Christine Rodrigues
2009, using chat sessions and forums for a written macro-task. The paper
first exposes lexical and writing difficulties, and discusses the notion of the
task in an action-oriented approach and scaffolding. Tutors’ support during
the experiment is investigated, in order to identify effective support strategies
for vocabulary in written production, in order to show the potential and the
limitations of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tools.
1.1. Problematic Vocabulary Points
L2 Learning involves meeting, understanding, memorizing and being able to
use vocabulary items. Thus, the learning procedure follows several steps;
each of them may represent a difficulty for the learner. In addition, vocabulary
items, that is to say, lexical units [1] or LUs, have many characteristics that
might be problematic in L2 learning, and have to be taken in consideration
to support learners in an appropriate manner. We refer to many studies that
specify LUs characteristics [2] [3] [4]. Figure 1 represents these points in the
L2 learning process: the meaning of the LU, the meaning links between LUs
of a language, as well as links between two languages, the context, oral and
written forms, syntax, derived LUs, culture, language register and theme. We
name these characteristics Problematic Vocabulary Points (PVPs).
Oral form
Links of
meaning
between 2
languages
Written
form
Syntax
Context
understand
memorize
Lexical unit
Links of
meaning in
a language
Derivative
lexical units
use
Meaning
Theme
Culture
Language
register
Fig. 1. Typology of PVPs in L2 Learning
An Analysis of the Potential of a Computer-Mediated Learning Course for...
147
1.2. Difficulties related to written production
According to researchers and educators [5], [6], the writing process involves
several steps (see Figure 2), both in mother tongue and in a L2. In both
cases, a support is needed to help learners in each step of the writing activity.
Any PVP may indeed emerge during these steps. In L2, for example, the prewriting phase includes a brainstorming activity, in which learners must think
about LUs linked to the topic (theme PVP), while in the drafting phase, LUs
have to be written (written form PVP).
Pre-writing
• explore a topic, brainstorming
Drafting
• put on paper
Sharing
• get some advice
Revising
• take another look
(organization, unity...)
Editing
• make corrections (sentences,
word choice & spelling...)
Publishing
• polish for presentation
Assessing
• reflect on the work
The writing
process
Fig.Fig.
2.2.The
writing
process
1.3. Action-oriented approach and task
In 2001 the Council of Europe produced a document of recommendations
for L2 learning, named The Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages (CEFRL) [7]. It presents an action-oriented approach, based
on the notion of a task, still used by many institutions in Europe as a base
for teaching, testing, and distant L2 learning. As explained in this report,
action-oriented approach “considers that learners are social actors with
tasks to accomplish as a social agent, each individual forms relationships
with a widening cluster of overlapping social groups, which together define
identity.” (CEFRL, p.1).
For Ellis [8], “a task is intended to result in language use that bears
a resemblance, direct or indirect, to the way language is used in the real
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Christine Rodrigues
world” (p.16). He also distinguishes outcome (which may consist in a written
production, for example) and aim of the task (its pedagogical objective):
“It is useful to distinguish between the ‘outcome’ and the ‘aim’ of a task.
‘Outcome’ refers to what the learners arrive at when they have completed
the task, for example, a story, a list of differences, etc. ‘Aim’ refers to the
pedagogic purpose of the task, which is to elicit meaning-focused language
use, receptive and/or productive. This distinction is important. It is possible
to achieve a successfully outcome without achieving the aim of a task” (p.8).
Nunan [9] states that a task can be modified: “means would be established
for deciding whether the content has been learned and the goals achieved.
This final evaluative step would allow us to decide whether our goals, content
and tasks need to be modified” (p.16).
Another distinction exists between micro-task (limited, self-consistent) and
macro-task (wider) [10]. Micro-tasks can contribute to the achievement of
a macro-task.
1.4. Scaffolding
According to social-constructivism, a tutorial process – scaffolding consists in the relationship between an expert helping a novice: “This
scaffolding consists essentially of the adult “controlling” those elements of
the task that are initially beyond the learner’s capacity, thus permitting him
to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his
range of competence” ([11], p.90). This support is provided in the zone of
proximal development [12], where the learner can’t complete a task without
assistance.
Lepper et al. [13] also identify various types of effective scaffolding: ignoring
(not taking minor errors into account), forestalling (be attentive to errors
that might occur and let it happen if it allows the learner to discover a rule),
intervening (correct immediately if the error impedes problem solving), and
debugging (lead the learner to a correction through general and more and
more specific questions if needed).
2. The study
The study presented in this paper concerns the learning of French as
a Foreign Language (FFL) in a blended course using chat sessions and
forums, for a written macro-task.
2.1. Participants
Participants in the experiment were 13 FFL learners, studying at the Middle
East Technical University in Güzelyurt (Cyprus) to become English teachers,
21 would-be teachers enrolled in the second year of a Didactics of Languages
and Cultures (DLC) Master’s programme at Blaise Pascal University (BPU,
149
Clermont-Ferrand, France), a researcher in France supervising the project
and a Cypriot teacher. Figure 3 shows the organization of the participants
and their roles in the experiment.
FFL learners had to elaborate a travel guide to Cyprus (which was the
written macro-task). Their interest in the project concerned the possibility to
communicate with French speakers that might help them with their learning.
BPU students’ participation helped them to gain experience in distant tutoring
(as an accompaniment of the written macro-task through synchronous and
asynchronous interaction).
Fig. 3. Participants and roles in the project
2.2. The course design
The blended course consisted of six face-to-face sessions between the
French teacher and FFL learners, as well as six chat sessions between
learners and tutors, and a forum. The system used for synchronous and
asynchronous communication was BPU’s version of the Claroline platform
(a Learning Management System).
The intention was to create interaction between experts and novices to lead
to scaffolding situations. Also, the use of CMC tools for distant communication
was chosen as they appear to be interesting for L2 and collaborative work:
“The research literature on foreign and second language learning reports
that this type of electronic discussion encourages learners to construct
knowledge collaboratively” ([14], p.83).
Both synchronous and asynchronous communication intended to support
the writing process. For example, discussions about the topic during a chat
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Christine Rodrigues
session would help in the pre-writing step, posting the draft on the forum
could be useful during the sharing phase.
Each learner had to write a text intended to be one part of the guide (about
traditions, restaurants, sports, tourism, music, towns, language, receipts,
transports, shopping and weather). Face-to-face sessions were dedicated to
pre-writing (explore topics, brainstorming) and publishing (putting together
all text to form the final written production). Distant sessions concerned prewriting, sharing, revising and editing the text. The chat was used to discuss
themes and writing problems, the forum was utilised for the presentation of
participants, to post draft productions and for assessment (tutors and learners
giving their opinion about the final written production and the experiment).
For these distant sessions, groups were organized (one, two or three tutors
for one or more learners), but tutors could interact with other learners than
those from their initial group, as the number of students in each of the two
classes was different and some learners were sometimes absent.
2.3. Task and course design
The project’s macro-task was intended to be a collaborative activity, based
on recommendations of the CEFR: FFL learners had thus to realize written
production but also to communicate with other learners and with tutors
(asking questions, presenting Cyprus for instance). This guide represents
the outcome of the task. The aim was to allow students to acquire cultural,
grammatical lexical and writing skills. The final written production is
a slideshow, composed of 97 slides containing various texts and illustrations
(Figure 4 represents two pages of the document).
Fig.4. Slides from the travel guide to Cyprus realized by FFL learners
Category of errors
Type of PVP
Supposed cause
error in the order of letters
Examples
Incorrect LU
sturctures
Correct form
in French
structure
151
2.4. Data collection and analysis
The corpus analysed for this study is composed of the content of the guide,
and the content of the interactions between participants using CMC tools
(chat sessions and forum messages).
3. Results
3.1 Type and number of PVPs
Our analysis of the PVPs encountered by students shows that most problems
are related to the written form and LUs used in English instead of French,
during chat sessions, in the forum and in the guide (see Figure 5). This may
not be surprising: communication and macro-task were in written form, and
learners master and study English language in order to teach it. We also
noticed some reaction when a learner uses an inappropriate LU.
Fig. 5. Type and number of PVPs in distant communication and in the
guide.
3.2 Categorization of most frequent PVPs collected in the
corpus
We systematically noted frequent errors in order to categorize them and
make assumptions about the reasons which caused them (see Table 1).
Some of the errors in the written form may be typos, as the learner didn’t take
time for editing his text before publishing it. It is interesting to notice learners
use English LUs whether their form is similar or not to the equivalent French
LUs. The inappropriate use of a LU shows the importance of the context (for
example, “lourd” in French can be used for weather, not for clothes).
3.3 Tutors’ support in asynchronous and synchronous
sessions
Table 2 shows that tutors’ support could be explicit or implicit, and didn’t take
into account some lexical errors: we suppose it was a scaffolding strategy
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Christine Rodrigues
to motivate learners (for example, ignoring an error by answering “Cool”
intends to continue the conversation).
Category of errors
Type of PVP
Examples
Incorrect LU
Supposed cause
Incorrect written
form
LU in English
instead of French
Inappropriate use
of a LU
Correct form
in French
error in the order of letters
sturctures
structure
A missing letter in the word
Ma
Mai
A letter is used instead of another
abondontes
abondantes
Confusion in the writing form because of
the spelling of a proximate word
Fraid
= fresh, analogy with frais
froid (= cold)
Error in the writing transcription of a sound
excellante
excellente
LU in English similar to the LU in French
complicated
compliqué
No similarity between English and French
british
anglais
Error coming from an incorrect translation
Peine
(translation of
sentence
Sentence =peine in
a juridical sens
phrase
Use of a LU inappropriate in the context
(vêtements) lourds
(= warm clothes)
chauds
TableTable
1. Typology
of most frequent errors
1. Typology of most frequent errors
Type of support
Support from the tutor/examples
Explicit
Explains/corrects
Il y a quelques mots en anglais dans ton texte mais nous
comprenons ton idée. Pour t’aider, « because » = parce que
[There are a few words in English in your text but we
understand your idea. To help you, “because” = because
Asks for an explanation
Je n’ai jamais entendu parler du pradigling (…), tu peux nous
expliquer ce que c’est ?
[I’ve never heard about pradigling (…), can you explain what it
is?]
Uses the LU in his/her answer
Vous conduisez comme en Angleterre, alors
[You drive like in England then]
Implicit
Help
with
(motivation,
production)
No help
another
problem
written
or
oral
Doesn’t take into account the PVP
Cool
No feedback
Table 2. Type of support for PVPs and examples
153
3.4 Tutors support for most frequent PVPs
We focused on the three most frequent PVPs and identified for each the
strategies used by tutor during chat sessions (see Figure 6) and in the forum
messages (see Figure 7). Table 3 shows examples of tutors’ support for most
frequent PVPs.
The results displayed in Figure 6 show frequent feedback in chat sessions
when the learner doesn’t use the appropriate item. The support of tutors for
these three major problems vary.
Fig. 6. Tutors’ support for most frequent PVPs in chat sessions
Fig. 7. Tutors’ support for most frequent PVPs in the forum messages
154
Christine Rodrigues
Tutors’ scaffolding
Form
CMC
tool
used
Traces in the
final written
production
PVP: written form (chat)
Passaport
(Passeport)
La barre
(Le bar)
Langle
(l’anglais)
on a le choix : faire un passeport
[We can choose to make a passport]
à la barre ? je ne comprends pas, tu
peux m'expliquer ?
[at the bar? I don’t understand, can you
explain it to me?]
Doesn't take into account
cool
Assertion
Forum
Question
Chat
Correct LU
PVP: LU in English instead of French
Vous conduisez comme en Angleterre,
alors
[You drive like in england, then]
Je n’ai jamais entendu parler du
pradigling (…), tu peux nous expliquer ce
que c’est ?
[I’ve never heard about pradagling (…),
can you explain what it is?]
Explains/corrects
Il y a quelques mots en anglais dans ton
texte mais nous comprenons ton idée.
Pour t’aider, « because » = parce que
driving
Chat
pragliding
forum
Because
forum
Assertion
Chat
Question
forum
parapente
Assertion
forum
LU supressed
PVP: inappropriate LU (chat)
Exécuter
(courir)
Courir dans une forêt
[to run in a forest]
Assertion
Chat
Matériel
(ingrédients)
Peines
(phrases)
Euh qu’est-ce que vous voulez dire par
« matériel » ?
[What do you mean by material?]
C’est quoi les « peines » ?
[What are the pains?]
Explains/corrects
Chez nous, quelqu’un qui est à droite,
c’est quand on parle de politique
[Here when someone is on the right, it
concerns politics]
Question
Chat
Assertion
Chat
Est à droite
(a raison)
Ingrédients
LU not
corrected
3. Examples
tutors’ support
support forfor
most
current
PVPs PVPs
Table 3.Table
Examples
of of
tutors’
most
current
Results show that tutors used the same CMC tool to deliver feedback, except for the written form PVP,
for which the articulation of chat and forum has also been employed. Our analysis also indicates that
tutors provide support randomly with questions or assertions.
3.5 Effective support strategies using CMC tools for the
editing step
Although these results can’t be generalized (the evidence supporting these results being limited within
to
one corpus),
they give
for reflection
and investigation
the text
articulation
of
Table
4 presents
ourinteresting
analysisleads
of effective
support
strategiesabout
for the
editing
means of communication and CMC tools used.
step. For this analysis, we selected PVPs occurring during chat sessions and
in the forum messages, that were corrected in the final text published in the
guide, and compared them with answers displayed by tutors in synchronous
or asynchronous sessions.
155
Results show that tutors used the same CMC tool to deliver feedback, except
for the written form PVP, for which the articulation of chat and forum has
also been employed. Our analysis also indicates that tutors provide support
randomly with questions or assertions.
Although these results can’t be generalized (the evidence supporting these
results being limited within to one corpus), they give interesting leads for
reflection and investigation about the articulation of means of communication
and CMC tools used.
PVP occurring in chat sessions or in
the forum
Strategy
Type
CMC tool
Written form
Chat
Use the lexical unity in an
answer
Question or
assertion
Forum or
chat
Chat
Explain/correct
Name the problem
Question
Chat
Explain/correct
Name the problem
Assertion
Forum
Ask for an explanation
Question
Forum
Ask for an explanation
Question
Chat
Lexical units in English
Meaning: inadequate use of a
lexical unity
Forum
Chat
Table 4. Effective support strategies for PVPs (corrections made in the
Table 4. Effective support strategies
for PVPs
made in the guide) in the case study
guide)
in the(corrections
case study
4. Perspectives
The results presented in this paper could be furthered by extending this study
to another experiment, in order to compare results when another macro-task
is proposed (with the use for example of other tools to include oral macrotasks), as well as for the identification of other or recurrent PVPs. It would
also be interesting to focus on specific problematic points to propose microtasks in order to solve those problems.
References
[1] Boggards, P. (2001). Lexical units and the learning of foreign language
vocabulary. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23, Cambridge
University Press: 321-34
[2]
Martinet, A. (1973). Éléments de linguistique générale. Paris: Armand
Colin
[3] Boyer, H., Butzbach, M. & Pendanx, M. (1990). Nouvelle introduction
à la didactique du Français Langue Étrangère. Paris, France: Clé
International.
156
Christine Rodrigues
[4] Galisson, R. (1989). Enseignement et apprentissage des langues et
des cultures, “évolution” ou “révolution” pour demain ? Le Français
dans le monde, 227, Paris: Hachette Edicef: 40-50.
[5] Flower, L.S., & Hayes, J.R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing.
College Composition and Communication, 32(4): 365-387.
[6] Peha, S. (2003). The writing teachers’ strategy guide. Teaching That
Makes Sense, Inc. http://www.ttms.org/PDFs/01%20Writing%20
Strategy%20Guide%20v001%20(Full).pdf
[7] Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge University
Press ISBN HB 0521803136 - PB 0521005310. http://www.coe.int/t/
dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf
[8] Ellis, R. (2003). Task based language learning and-teaching. Oxford
University Press.
[9] Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom.
Cambridge University Press.
[10] Guichon, N. (2006). Langues et TICE- Méthodologie de conception
multimedia. Paris: Ophrys.
[11] Wood, D., Bruner, J. et Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem
solving. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 17(2): 89-100.
[12] Vygotski, L.S. (1962). Thought and language (1934). E. Hanfmann, &
G. Vakar (eds. & trad.), The MIT Press.
[13] Lepper, M.R., Drake, M.F. & O’Donnell-Johnson, T. (1997). Scaffolding
techniques of expert human tutors. In K. Hogan & M. Pressley (eds.).
Scaffolding Student Learning, instructional approaches and issues,
Advances in learning and teaching. State University of New York: The
University of Albany: 108-144.
[14] Sotillo, S.M. (2000). Discourse functions and syntactic complexity in
synchronous and asynchronous communication. Language & Learning
Technology, 4(1): 82-119. http://llt.msu.edu/vol4num1/sotillo/default.
html
157
A Few Words about Video Games and Foreign
Language Acquisition
University of Bielsko-Biala, Bielsko-Biala / Poland
Abstract
The aim of this article is to familiarize a reader with a topic of video games
and their role in foreign language acquisition. The article presents relations
between games and other elements of mass culture placing them in an
informative set. Moreover, it characterizes them, highlighting the innovative
features which enable foreign language acquisition. Among the issues
described in this article there are also specific qualities of communication
between players, the phenomenon of some phrases entering the everyday
language and classification of the language used by players. Yet another
important element of this paper is a topic of educational games and their
influence on foreign language acquisition. The purpose of this article is to
present video games not as a virtual entertainment, but as a new tool helping
in foreign language acquisition.
1. Introduction
Modern computer games very rarely resemble their protoplasts from years
ago. Thanks to the rapid development of electronic market and IT systems
as well as the invention of their makes (which should not be omitted),
games throughout their short history have undergone many transformations.
Currently, video games are considered as a part of mass culture and this
trend is a result of culture’s computerisation. As Jan Stasieńko mentions:
“Gry komputerowe są niewątpliwie fascynującą sferą kultury sytuującą
się na styku obszaru skomplikowanej techniki informatycznej, bardzo
obecnie rozbudowanego rynku komercyjnego, w którym zyski sięgają setek
milionów dolarów, oraz przestrzeni estetycznej.”[1] [Computer games are an
undeniably fascinating part of culture balancing on the edge of complicated
IT, extremely developed commercial market in which profits reach
hundreds of millions dollars, and aesthetic sphere.] Małgorzata WieczorekTomaszkiewicz has a very similar concept: „Obiektami (dziełami) nowych
mediów są: obraz cyfrowy, cyfrowo zmontowany film, środowisko 3D, gra
komputerowa, witryna WWW, hipermedialna witryna. Wszystkie one tkwią
głęboko w kulturze wizualnej społeczeństwa informacyjnego, mogą być
analizowane w kontekście innych sztuk i ich języków wizualnych, sposobów
organizowania informacji, ikonografii, ikonologii czy indywidualnych
158
doświadczeń percepcyjnych odbiorcy.”[2] [Objects (works) of new media
are: a digital picture, digital film, 3D environment, computer game, WWW
website, hipermedia website. All of them are deeply rooted in visual culture of
information society and can be analysed in the context of other arts and their
visual languages, ways of information organisation, iconography, iconology
or recipient’s individual perceptive experiences.] Unquestionably, video
games create new inspirations for development of other art sectors (mainly
commercial ones). As an example, there are high budget film adaptations
of such games as Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Mortal Combat or
Prince of Persia. Actually, it works both ways as video games’ producers are
very often inspired by other forms of art, like in the cases of games based on
The Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter or Polish The Witcher.
Because of its attractiveness, innovation and variety a video game gets to
a very broad group of people. As Mirosław Filiciak mentions: „Gry wideo
są medium interaktywnym, oferującym użytkownikowi możliwość rozległej
ingerencji w przekaz i współtworzenie go.”[3] [Video games are an
interactive medium which offers its players wide interference in broadcast
and its creation.] Thanks to this the video game can offer players innovative
methods of learning a foreign language. It is necessary to highlight
that most games are not methodology-oriented (apart from educational
games), but entertainment-oriented. However, a player who takes part in
this entertainment in a foreign language, subconsciously acquires words in
a foreign language which are essential for playing.
2. A video game and specific qualities of communication
At the very beginning it is crucial to omit all the continuous discussions
about demoralisation, addiction or other pathological behaviours which are
identified with video games’ influence, and focus on the methodological
options, practice of perceptiveness and reflex, gaining historical facts
and, what is the most important in the context of this article, on language
acquisition. Undeniably, a computer game is interactive, moreover, it affects
and induces a player to have different reactions. Trying to describe briefly
the way of communication between a player and game it can be said that
there is a kind of two-way communication; at one side there is a human being
who uses a computer to communicate with an algorithm artificially created
by programmers. This is the case in traditional single-player games. The
situation is completely different when it comes to multi-player games (for
example MMO). This difference occurs in communication – not only is there
one with programme’s algorithm, but also there is communication between
a player and other players. It is important that both ways of communication
happen at the same (or almost the same) time through a computer. Because
of the international character of network games participants communicate
with one another mostly in English using abbreviations and emoticons (which
is important considering the quick pace of a game).
A Few Words about Video Games and Foreign Language Acquisition
159
2. A video game and language
Legendary games, the breakthroughs, are very well remembered by players.
They have become the icons of mass culture. Therefore, some phrases
have entered the everyday language, not only among players. Similarly, it
happens with other forms of art like cinematography or literature. They have
become often repeated phrases and only a few users realize where these
phrases come from. For example, there are phrases from times when games
were not located yet, therefore they entered Polish language in their original,
English form: Thank you, Mario (Super Mario Bros. Year of production:
1985), few sayings of main character from the game Duke Nukem 3D (Year
of production: 1996), like Damn. I`m good, Come Get some, Yes, piece of
cake. Other phrases from the Mortal Combat game (Year of production:
1992): Finish him or Fatality, and an unforgettable Butcher’s saying from the
first part of Diablo: Ahhh, fresh meat.
Artur Urbaniak mentions that: „[…] osoby grające w gry komputerowe z dużą
łatwością przyswajają słowa w języku obcym.”[4] [[...] people who play computer
games acquire foreign language vocabulary very easily .] Actually, everyone
who has ever had an opportunity to play a video game knows the meanings
of words like play, settings, load, save or exit. This is only a tip of an iceberg.
Players tend to introduce words from video games to their mother tongues;
among other examples there are lexemes like level, boss, war, point or quest.
It is problematic to classify this phenomenon as a positive one, for such words
“pollute” a native language; however, it cannot be considered as a negative one
either, because it teaches a player new foreign lexemes. Artur Urbaniak notices
yet another important issue connected with it: „W kolejnym pytaniu respondenci
zostali poproszeni o podanie pięciu słów, które kojarzą im się z ich ulubioną
grą komputerową. Odpowiedzi, pozornie rozbieżne, dały się ostatecznie
uszeregować według kilku istotnych kategorii tematycznych. […] Co ciekawe,
słowa bezpośrednio związane z przemocą, brutalnością, wojną i zabijaniem
stanowią blisko jedną drugą wszystkich zebranych.” [4] [In the next question
respondents were asked to list five words which they associate with their
favourite computer game. The answers, though seeming divergent, eventually
were arranged according to a few thematic categories. […] Interestingly, words
directly connected with violence, brutality, war and killing represented almost
a half of the collected words.] It is not all, however. Players often use lexemes
which are invented exclusively for the purpose of a game and exist only in its
universe. Examples are such places like Villain Camp, Tristram from the first
part of Diablo as well as Saradush or Sendai’s Enclave from Baldur`s Gate
II. Even so, it is necessary to distinguish foreign language acquisition from
artificial (i.e. created specifically for a given production) language acquisition.
Extremely popular are MMO games, for example, World of Warcraft, Lineage
2, Runes of Magic etc. As it was already mentioned, during the game
(because of its pace) players use many abbreviations and acronyms such
160
as lvl (level), CU (see you), GJ (good job), N1 (presenting admiration), W8
(wait). Other examples come from a specific and really popular video games’
genre which is MMORPG: AG (agility), CRT (critical), Con (condition), EQ
(equipment), HP (health points). Unfamiliarity with at least basic abbreviations
makes playing practically impossible. These abbreviations very often
function in native languages. For example, in Poland an RPG player is
called “eRPeGowiec”. Most of these words can be difficult to understand
by others. And it should not be thought that it only applies to people who do
not play computer games. Because of genre variety, depending on the type
of game there are other lexemes and abbreviations; therefore, for example
RPG (Role-Playing Games) players can have difficulties with understanding
RTS (Real-time Simulation) or FPP (First Person Perspective) players.
Apart from that, it should not be forgotten that there exist abbreviations
which are commonly used between the players in most productions. What
is interesting, these differences are created by players themselves, they
introduce and standardise them during the game. When unified the language
used by players is repeatedly classified as a slang (or rather slangs). It is
not entirely true as video games are not hermetic entertainment for selected
social groups anymore, since a few years ago they have become completely
commercial art/entertainment for masses. (Of course, there are noncommercial games for devotees, nonetheless, they are only a background
for commercial character of this phenomenon). Moreover, already mentioned
communication through abbreviations and emoticons can be evidence
of constantly changing, worldwide, non-tendentious linguistic-cultural
phenomenon. Therefore, it may be inappropriate to call it a slang, dialect
or even language. It is impossible to explicitly classify this phenomenon (or
phenomena), especially because with almost every newly made production
which gains popularity it takes different form and hence should be classified
differently.
As it was already mentioned, the market of computer games has gone through
many, sometimes really spectacular changes. A few years ago hardly any
games were located in Polish language. Very often there were subtitles with
foreign dubbing (mostly English) and thanks to that a player was “assailed”
with foreign lexemes which he or she had to assimilate . In spite of the
fact that the market has undergone a huge change and nowadays most of
productions are localised, there exists a possibility to play a game in many
chosen languages. It creates new possibilities of foreign language acquisition.
Players, according to their involvement and language competence, can for
example run a game in their native language and then repeat it in a foreign
language. If a player’s language competence is sufficient enough, he or she
can play a game in a foreign language from the very beginning at the same
time learning new lexemes and phrases. However, it is strictly connected
with a type of a game. In feature (cRPG), strategic and adventure games
there is more spoken or written language than in simple arcade, sport or
racing games. The degree of foreign language acquisition also depends on
A Few Words about Video Games and Foreign Language Acquisition
161
a player’s individual abilities, level of concentration, perceptive and mental
abilities.
However, more and more popularity has been gained by so called browser
games (often used within social networks) which mostly are not localised
(similarly to non-commercial games which is connected with very limited
budgets).
3. Teaching foreign languages with video games
There exist and still are being created productions which are made particularly
for teaching foreign languages. They allow to learn a new language in an
interactive, interesting and effective way.. Depending on a type of production,
a game influences a player in various ways; some of them are supposed to
develop the vocabulary, others to broaden knowledge about grammar and
others put together both these spheres. They also differ in form as there
are for instance 3D, textual, web or single-player games. A description of
this great variety is not necessary in this article. However, it is important
to highlight that thanks to common computerisation and IT development
language education has become more effective. Still, there exists a problem
of motivation which did not occur when commercial games were not localised.
The essential difference between a video game and an educational video
game is that the former is chosen by a player for entertainment and the later
is chosen out of the need of learning. That is why educational games are not
as popular as commercial ones. It would be ideal to create an educational
game which perfectly imitates a high budget commercial game. Constant
trails and tests are conducted to make the process of learning more and
more attractive and they become more and more fruitful (see The V-Lang
Project or Pulitzer game).
4. Summary
„Nowoczesne technologie komunikowania odmieniły niemal wszystkie sfery
ludzkiej aktywności. Upowszechnienie mediów elektronicznych sprawiło, że
zmianom uległ sposób, w jaki pracujemy, uczymy się, wreszcie – spędzamy
wolny czas.”[5] [Modern communication technologies have changed almost
all spheres of human activity. Dissemination of electronic media has caused
changes in the way we work, learn, finally – spend our free time.] That is why
using a computer game as a tool of acquiring or learning a foreign language
is so important. It is a new, mass and attractive medium which has a huge
influence on a user and gives a very wide spectrum of possibilities (depending
on intentions of game creators). However, straightforward classification in
positive-negative categories is impossible. As Artur Urbaniak mentions: „ […]
język, którym posługują się współcześni młodzi ludzie. Często może on być
postrzegany jako negatywny, gdy zwrócić uwagę choćby na wspomniane
[…] zanieczyszczenia, kalki językowe i neologizmy powstające w grach.”[4]
162
[...] the language used by contemporary young people. It can be often
seen as a negative one when the above mentioned […] impurities, loan
translations and neologisms created in games are considered.”] However,
an opinion should not be so critical, mainly because borrowings from other
languages as well as loan translations or even language vulgarisation and
shocking with violence are not merely a domain of computer games, but
with great intensity they occur in media such as television or the Internet,
at the same time being a sign of their tabloidization. Therefore, productions
called virtual entertainment should not be blamed for that. The same applies
to abbreviations which are neither a specific domain of games ; people use
them while using other platforms of communication like chats, SMS-es, MMSes, social networks or web forums. Commercial video games, depending on
a genre, can be a good tool supporting foreign language education. Because
of the fact that acquisition takes place independently and involuntarily this
form is definitely more attractive than traditional language teaching methods.
References
[1] Stasienko J. „Gry komputerowe – jestem na „tak”, jestem na „nie”.
Zagrożenia, szanse i wyzwania rozrywki komputerowej”, available
on the Internet: http://www.wns.dsw.edu.pl/fileadmin/user_upload/
wszechnica/07.pdf
[2] Wieczorek-Tomaszewicz M. „Nowe media. Komunikacyjna funkcja
obrazu” available on the Internet: http://www.up.krakow.pl/ktime/
ref2007/Wieczorek.pdf
[3] Filiciak M., „Wirtualny plac zabaw. Gry sieciowe i przemiany kultury
współczesnej”, Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne, Warszawa
2006, p. 49
[4] Urbaniak A., „Kultura a język. Rola gier w rozwoju językowym
współczesnego człowieka w świetle hipotezy Sapira - Whorfa.” [in:]
„Homo Ludens 1 (2009)”, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań, p. 274
[5] „Nowe media i gry komputerowe” [in:] red. M. Filipiak “Wirtualny plac
zabaw”, Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne, Warszawa, 2006 r.
translation: Krystyna Wasilewska
163
Pulitzer. Learn English with a Social Game
Eduardo Valencia
Playing for Learning SL, Pamplona/Spain
[email protected]
Abstract
PULITZER. LEARN ENGLISH WITH A SOCIAL GAME, is an innovative
method that helps to learn English the fun way. In the game Joe Pulitzer is a journalist working for a news agency called
GCN. Pulitzer has to travel to over 18 cities (London, San Francisco, New
York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Dublin, Las Vegas…) to write reports. Users need
to help Joe by completing challenges, exercises, and conversations with
other characters.
As well as being an entertaining adventure, Pulitzer contains all the grammar
needed to reach levels B1 and B2 on the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages.
The pedagogy of the game is based on Content Based Instruction- realistic
problems that you have to solve through language use.
The 18 episodes of Pulitzer require close to 100 hours of learning. There
are over 8,000 questions in 1,000 exercises, and several hours of recorded
dialogues from real native speakers to help you improve your listening skills.
PULITZER. LEARN ENGLISH WITH A SOCIAL GAME, is an innovative
method that helps to learn English the fun way.
This game is cloud based and can be played both on http://pulitzerenglish.
com and on Facebook, as an application.
Pulitzer is a commercial game. Each episode costs $3.95 (about €2.95).
Users can play the game for as long as one year. By December 2012 Pulitzer
will be also released as one single game made up of 18 episodes.
164
Eduardo Valencia
fig 1. Splash page of the game
The story
In the game Joe Pulitzer is a journalist working for a news agency called
GCN (Global Citizen News) tyrannically managed by Bill Hearst. Pulitzer
has to travel to over 18 cities (London, San Francisco, New York, Sydney,
Hong Kong, Dublin, Las Vegas…) to write reports. Users need to help by
completing challenges, exercises, and conversations with other characters.
The first episode is called “The Mysterious Secret of Hugh Grand”, and has
been available since November 2011. It’s set in Camden Town, London and
takes over 5 hours to complete.
Playing for Learning is releasing episode 2 “Sabotage in Silicon Valley in
January 2012. The whole story of Pulitzer contains 18 episodes and will be
finished by December 2012.
165
Fig 2. Introductory video to Episode 1.
How to play?
Pulitzer is an adventure game. Users need to help Joe by discovering hidden
clues and completing challenges, exercises, and conversations with other
characters.
Completing one episode takes over 5 hours. Once they complete one episode
users can play it again. Their score and achievements in that episode go
back to zero again.
What does Pulitzer teach and how?
Pulitzer is unique because of the way users need to use English to solve
problems.
To help Joe get ahead, users need to communicate with other characters in
the game, and complete the jobs they give them.
As well as being an entertaining adventure, Pulitzer contains all the grammar
needed to reach levels B1 and B2 on the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages. The grammar is divided into short exercises that
are all part of the story of the game.
166
Eduardo Valencia
If users have trouble with an exercise, they can ask for a hint. Pulitzer also
helps with vocabulary: every difficult word in the dialogue is explained in the
Pulitzer Dictionary and there are several vocabulary exercises in the game.
The pedagogy of the game is based on Content Based Instruction- realistic
problems that you have to solve through language use.
The 18 episodes of Pulitzer require close to 100 hours of learning. There
are over 8,000 questions in 1,000 exercises, and several hours of recorded
dialogues from real native speakers to help you improve your listening skills.
Pulitzer rewards both game achievements and learning progress. At the end
of each part, the game offers complete statistics about the performance of
users in the game (fig 3).
Fig 3. Statistics at the end of part 1 of Episode 1
Types of exercises
Pulitzer includes a number of different types of exercises. A special effort has
been made not to separate gaming and learning. There is no interruption of
gaming in Pulitzer, because exercises are part of the adventure game, they
are closely linked to the development of the story.
1. Fill in the gaps – multiple choice
Clicking on the gap offers a number of options to choose from. This type of
167
exercise is often found inside dialogues. They are the most frequent type of
exercise in the game (Fig 4).
Fig. 4. Multiple choice exercise inside a dialogue.
2. Fill in the gaps – writing.
In this exercise, the player must fill in the gap by typing the correct word
using the keyboard. Users always have a hint available (fig 5).
Fig. 5. Fill in the gaps by typing. “H” marks the hint.
168
Eduardo Valencia
3. Fill in the gaps – drag and drop
The player is presented with a paragraph and a list of words to be dragged
and dropped into the text (fig 6)
Fig 6. Drag and Drop Exercise.
4. Multiple Choice-Sentences
The player is presented with a number of choices. It is compulsory to choose
one of them (fig. 7)
Fig. 7. Example of Multiple choice exercise with sentences.
169
6. True or False?
The player must decide if a sentence is true or false.
Joe is a journalist. True / False
Joe is in San Francisco. True / False
Joe is a doctor. True / False
7. Vocabulary:
The player must match a sentence to either (a) a picture or (b) a word (Fig. 8)
Fig. 8. Vocabulary exercise with words.
A social game
PULITZER is a self-learning method. It needs no teachers online.
But PULITZER is a social game. In order to obtain better results, users are
encouraged to collaborate with other game users that are also playing the
game.
Due to the success of social networks, these collaborative games have
grown dramatically. One Half of Facebook users (i.e. 400 out of the 800
million social network users) are registered in social games.
One of every two times a person logs into Facebook, it is to play a game.
Pulitzer makes the most of social strategies inside the game.
170
Eduardo Valencia
Colleagues
Friends on Pulitzer are called colleagues. Users can add colleagues in the
game even if they are not their friends on Facebook. They can also add
colleagues both from users playing Pulitzer on Facebook and the ones
playing on PulitzerEnglish.com.
Teaming
Some tasks are best accomplished when helped by friends. For example, an
interview in which one friend takes pictures and a second friend records it.
The three of them are obtaining benefits out of their collaboration.
Leader-boards
Users can see their ranking in each episode and in the whole game (adding
the results of all the episodes that they have played).
By default Leader-boards are shown by groups of colleagues, but it is also
possible to see the absolute ranking of a user, i.e. by taking into account all
the players of Pulitzer.
Share it on social networks
Users can also publish news about their achievements in the game. They can
share their achievements with their friends on different networks (Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn). The game rewards these networking activities with extra
points.
Real profiles on Facebook
The main characters of the game (Joe, Bill…) are having their own real
profiles on Facebook. The staff of PLAYING FOR LEARNING will maintain
these profiles so that they can be used as a way to interact wit players and
especially prospect users on Facebook.
Pulitzer Corporate
In addition to Pulitzer on Facebook, we are creating a corporate version of
the game. It targets medium or large companies and institutions.
CORPORATE Pulitzer is the same social game in terms of educational
content and gaming, but the social network is made up of persons of the
same organization. In Pulitzer users will play in a social environment of
learning where their colleagues are their friends.
In Pulitzer CORPORATE we are reinforcing the frequency of social gaming
171
mechanisms, so that cooperation between players is much more important
to move forward in the game.
Pulitzer CORPORATE adds optional modules of internal mailing and real
time chat.
There are also several control tests so that their progress can be often
measured.
Moreover, each user has complete statistics on their progress in the game:
time spent, areas of expertise, results, overall progress in English, etc.
These statistics are useful for users and, of course, for those responsible for
overseeing their training progress.
Pulitzer Spanish
We are releasing PULITZER, JUEGA Y APRENDE ESPAÑOL, in 2013. This
new version, which retains the name of the game and its protagonist (JOE
PULITZER) is benefiting from the brand awareness of PULITZER, especially
in territories such as France and Brazil where there is a big demand for
learning both languages: English and Spanish.
The game takes place in Spanish speaking cities like Madrid, Barcelona,
Buenos Aires or Mexico City.
The list of cities is not closed yet. We don’t rule out trade agreements with
cities provided that we include them in the game.
The story of PULITZER, JUEGA Y APRENDE ESPAÑOL will be different
from the one in English, so that a person who has played with the English is
also having fun with the Spanish version.
The platform makes it easy to add other languages later (Chinese, German,
etc.).
Iphone-Ipad
In November 2012 we are releasing commercial versions of Pulitzer for
Iphone and Ipad, because among a number of competing mobile platforms,
the APP STORE by Apple is clearly winning the battle for monetizing the
applications. IPHONE-IPAD are expected to maintain its sales leadership for
a few years, although the terminals with the Android operating system are
more numerous.
172
Eduardo Valencia
Fig 9. Scenario
173
The Psychological Influence of Music on Adults
Learning English at Elementary Level
National Defence University, Warsaw/Poland
[email protected]
Abstract
Music and language share several features: both stem from the processing
of sounds, and both are used to convey messages. They also have some
features in common: pitch, volume, prominence, stress, tone, rhythm, and
pauses. Finally, music and language are learned through exposure. These
basic facets are inspiring for teachers who want to apply music in foreign
languages teaching.
This paper aims to analyze the issues concerning the role of music in foreign
language learning (memorization, motivation and social communication);
it also attempts to answer the question whether music can be used in
adult teaching. Finally, it presents results of the experiment conducted
among adults who were taught with the help of jazz chants and program
music. The results revealed that despite the fact jazz chants are commonly
used in teaching young learners, together with program music, they can be
didactical tools of great value.
1. Music in language learning
The use of music in psychology, pedagogy, or medicine have been
encouraging for applying music in other fields, inter alia, in foreign language
methodology. Numerous observations and research indicate that the
use of music and songs in teaching English offers advantages related to
three issues: memorization of words, sounds, and grammatical structures;
motivation to learn; and communication. These aspects are closely related
to each other and some rules that describe a particular process can be used
for explanation of another one.
1.1. Music in Memorizing and Recalling
One of the well-known contemporary researchers who stressed the
significance of calmness for mental readiness for learning was Bulgarian
psychiatrist-educator G. Lozanov (in 70s of 19th century). He claimed that
a relaxed state of mind allows for maximal retention of material. According
to his findings, music properly adjusted for learning is Baroque music with
174
sixty beats per minute and a specific rhythm (Huy Le, 1999). This view has
been reflected in Suggestopaedia, a language teaching method developed
by Lozanov, which relies on attentiveness manipulation to optimize learning
and recalling information. What is more, Suggestopaedia has been claimed
to develop hypermnesia, an excellent memory that is immensely helpful in
new information acquisition (Murphey, 2002).
The second significant issue connected with memorization is stress.
H. Seyle’s theory (1963) on positive stress (where all activities of an individual
are highly mobilized) and negative stress (where too much pressure stops
learners from performing efficiently and creatively) was used in Krashen’s
Affective Filter Hypothesis (Krashen, 1982). The affective filter, similarly
to the negative stress, hindrances spontaneous and natural performance.
Hence, teachers are obliged to maintain such a classroom atmosphere
which is conducive for affective filter reduction; they can do this through
musical activities. The reduction of tension allows the learners to regain their
power to concentrate, think logically, and finally, to memorize things better
(Luk, 2002-2003).
An additional argument for the fact that using music in the classroom
corresponds with high potential for memorization, is a repetitive character
of music. After long exposure to a song, listeners tend to repeat its lyrics
without deeper thinking (Brown, 2006). Such song singing resembles what
Piaget (1923) described as ‘egocentric language’, when children talk with
little concern for an addressee, simply enjoying hearing themselves repeat
(Brown, 2006). When it comes to foreign language learning, songs can
activate the mechanism of repetition. This view is shared by W. Wallace,
who claims that text is better recalled when it is heard as a song rather than
a speech; it is because of a melody line and frequent musical repetitions
(Wallace, 1994).
A Canadian educator, E. Jensen, states that music increases both the brain’s
efficiency and effectiveness leading to an enhancement in cognition (Jensen,
2000). He adds that music has also an impact on perceptual-motor skills,
memory, and emotional intelligence.
J. Asher finds another point: he claims that songs, where emotion and
language are united, are able to stimulate both hemispheres. This stimulation
allows for better learning for both left and right dominant personalities. On the
basis of ‘brain switching’ he developed his own language learning method
called Total Physical Response (Asher, 1993).
1.2. The Motivational Aspect of Music
Primarily, the motivational aspect of music is related to repetitive character of
music and human’s liking for listening to music, or singing songs. According
to the ‘Mere Exposure Effect,’ first studied by R. Zajonc in 1968, people tend
The Psychological Influence of Music on Adults Learning English at...
175
to like things they know much more than those which are unknown to them.
The reason for the tenet is related to the similarity of the message to human
experience (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2007).
Secondly, music shapes learning environment. In the method called the
Natural Approach, Terrell (1977) stresses the importance of external factors
in learning. Here, not only music, but also other issues like “the precise
way of using voice quality, intonation, and timing” create the learning
environment (Stevick, 1976; cited after: Richards and Rodgers 1986,
p. 142). In this approach, creating learning environment aims at stimulating
learners’ curiosity and intends to ground their engagement in studying.
A positive classroom atmosphere, using communicative techniques,
and using music, are elements which make teaching friendlier and more
interesting. A similar view is represented by Halpern, who confirms that it is
sounds and music that enrich educational environment (Halpern, 1991). The
creation of specific stimuli influences our emotional states and consequently
regulates our motivation to act (LeDoux, 2001).
Finally, with the help of music, teachers are able to regulate tension of
a lesson. It is especially helpful for teachers who have problems with classroom
discipline. A Vietnamese case study showed that when music interweaves
various activities like speaking, reading, writing, and listening, it soothes
students’ minds and arises their readiness for learning (Huy Le, 1999).
1.3. The Socio-Cultural Aspect of Music
Apart from psychological and motivational aspects, it is vital to say that
education can be considered as a part of great communication at different
levels and dimensions, which involves processes of exchanging information
between a sender and a receiver (Biesta, 1995). In a classroom, this
communication can be enhanced with music. By doing tasks connected with
singing or chanting, members of the group get closer. Commitment to learn,
feelings of togetherness and social harmony, highly motivate students to
learn. Such changes were noticed by D. James, who stated that activities
with music strengthen group bonds and set a particular mood. Participation
in one binding activity based on music builds a constructive and friendly
classroom atmosphere (James, 2004).
One of the advantages of collective participation in musical activities is
breaking the barriers, for example, of age, social status, or culture. The
barriers are regarded as disturbing peer relationships and knowledge
acquisition (Lake, 2002-2003). The stress and anxiety feelings can also be
regarded as previously mentioned affective filter.
Music as a powerful mean of communication can be shared and enjoyed by
people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It is crucial especially in
a class of adults where people have different, already fixed, life experiences.
176
What music does is helping students to encode cultural meaning. A sample
experiment was led by Carlos R. Abril (2003) in a class of Hispanic children.
The author observed that “most children who were learning English as
a second language were not only acquiring a new language, but also
adjusting to a new culture” (Abril, 2003, p. 38).
On the other hand, results of an experiment conducted in Vietnam by M.
Huy Le showed that some English pop songs may seem to be invaluable
in integrating learners with new cultures or attitudes. According to the
author, “American pop songs are so enthusiastically accepted by young
people, while the meaning of their messages (about individual freedom,
social hostility, sexual liberation) are at odds or in a great conflict with the
Vietnamese cultural context (with treasure of the mind, love, and share)”
(Huy Le, 1999, p. 9). The reason for the ‘educational failure’ is connected
with deeply rooted differences between Vietnamese and American systems
of values. The finding shows that teaching materials should be evaluated
carefully before the lessons according to students’ convictions and feelings.
2. The Research
2.1. Objectives & Research Organization
The aim of the research, conducted in one of the Continuing Education
Centre in Masovian Voivodeship (Poland), was to prove that teaching adults
with music allows them to achieve better results than those who are taught
with traditional methods. There was also a concern which language skills can
be undoubtedly improved.
The research method was a pedagogical experiment in which two comparative
groups participated: control and experimental; each group consisted of 18
learners at elementary level of English. To gather more data about students’
performance, the additional method applied was participant observation
and gathering school documentation, mainly class tests and short quizzes.
The instruments used to measure students’ progress were integrated skills
tests.
2.2. Experimental Group Teaching (As Independent Variable)
While one group was taught in a traditional way, the experimental group
had their lessons enriched with jazz chants composed by C. Graham and
program music by L. van Beethoven, E. Grieg, A. Vivaldi.
Jazz chants, snappy poems presented in American English that can be said
or sung with a jazz rhythm, are based on a combination of repetitions and
learned responses. Hence they are regarded as highly conducive especially
to memorizing (Graham, 2006). Unlike popular songs, they contain good
grammar and are good for those who do not like singing or are not musical
The Psychological Influence of Music on Adults Learning English at...
177
(or, for those who have difficulties with an extreme pitch of a sound). In the
experiment jazz chants were used for practicing all language competences;
they also allowed for designing a broad range of activities and exercises
such as gap filling, dictation, focus questions, error correction based on
listening, or even putting the lines into the correct sequence. Additionally,
they punctuated the flow of a lesson: its opening and closing.
Another type of music applied in the experimental class, the program music
(the term introduced in the 19th century by F. Liszt as used for description
of nonmusical subject, such as a story, object, or scene), was applied for
improving mainly productive skills. The particular facet of program music
(releases emotions, tension, or anxiety) allowed for triggering students’
activities by visualization (understood as the ability to form images in a human
mind in response to a musical stimulus) (Szulc-Kurpaska, 2006). One of the
form of visualization applied in the experimental group was Guided Imagery,
which was a pre-writing technique relying on students’ self-expression (Kirk,
n.d.). With the help of the programme music and visualization students were
also presented new vocabulary and structures.
2.3. Results
The analyses of observation notes, school documents and integrated skills
tests indicated that using music as a teaching tool significantly improved
adult language learning. To be specific, it is possible to state the following:
§ it was possible to overcome psychological barriers connected with
too extreme inhibitions in adults’ active participation in the lesson
(main reason for inhibitions: no decent language background due to
their initial stage of learning),
§ adult students’ productive and receptive skills were noticeably
developed.
Singing jazz chants and songs enhanced EFL learners’ awareness of
sounds, rhythms, pauses and intonations. Consequently, such enhancement
had a great impact on students pronunciation, speaking and reading skills.
Moreover, the repetitions provided by jazz chants consolidated knowledge
mainly on grammar structures, vocabulary, listening, and pronunciation.
3. Further Implications
For adult learners nothing brought more joy than participation in musical
activities. The positive results of the research are important arguments for
enriching foreign language teaching with musical elements. If music is a viable
tool for second language acquisition, then songs, chants, or instrumental
music, can no longer be regarded as recreational devices of little value.
Therefore, educators should consider giving music a more prominent role in
the second language curriculum.
178
Inevitably, new ideas and applying modern solutions in foreign language
methodology foster teacher’s imagination and lead to other paths and
new qualities. Nowadays, as society becomes more technologically
advanced, regarding different innovative approaches in foreign language
teaching, it could be valuable to combine music with new information and
communication technologies (ICTs). As far as teachers consider their work
as art, the number of variations is unlimited.
References
[1] Abril, C. R. (2003). No Hablo Ingles: Breaking the Language Barrier in
Music Instruction. Music Educators Journal, 89, (5), pp. 38-43.
[2] Aronson E., Wilson T. D., Akert R. M. (2007). Psychologia społeczna.
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN: Zysk i s-ka.
[3] Asher, J (1993). Imagination in Second Language Acquisition. The
Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning, 1.
[4] Biesta, G. (1995). Education/Communication: The Two Faces of
Communicative Pedagogy. The Yearbook. A Publication of the
Philosophy of Education. Retrieved: http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PESYearbook/95_docs/biesta.html, date: 2010/05/24.
[5] Brown, H. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New
York: Pearson Education.
[6] Graham, C. (2006, June). Grammar chants and Grammar songs.
Outline presented at a conference workshop during English Teaching
Market, Stare Jabłonki.
[7] Halpern, S. (1999). Sound Education: Creating the Optimal Learning
Environment. Cited after: Huy Le, M. (1999). The Role of Music in
Second Language Learning: A Vietnamese Perspective. Presentation
at Combined 1999 Conference of the Australian Association for
Research in Education and the New Zealand Association for Research
in Education. University of Tasmania. Retrieved from: http://www.aare.
edu.au/99pap/le 99034.htm, date: 2010/05/30.
[8] Huy Le, M. (1999). The Role of Music in Second Language Learning:
A Vietnamese Perspective. Presentation at Combined 1999 Conference
of the Australian Association for Research in Education and the New
Zealand Association for Research in Education. University of Tasmania.
Retrieved from: http://www.aare.edu.au/99pap/le 99034.htm, date:
2010/05/30.
[9] James, D. (2004) Bringing Back Old Technology: How and Why I Use
Music in the Classroom. Teaching English in the Two Year College, 31
(3), pp. 311-315.
The Psychological Influence of Music in Learning English by Adults at...
179
[10] Jensen, E. (2000). Music with the Brain in Mind. The Brain Store, Inc.:
San Diego, CA.
[11] Kirk, P. (n.d.). Pre-writing: Guided Imagery. Teaching English Language
Arts: Home Page.
[12] Krashen, S. D. (2009). Principles and Practice in Second Language
Acquisition. Oxford:
[13] Pergamon. First internet edition.
[14] Lake, R. (2002-03). Enhancing Acquisition Through Music. Journal of
the Imagination
[15] for Language Learning. 7, 2002-2003.
[16] LeDoux, J. (2001). Mózg emocjonalny. Poznań: Media Rodzina.
[17] Luk, N. (2002-2003). The Role of Emotion in Language Teaching. The
Journal of Imagination
[18] in Language Learning and Teaching (7), 2002-2003.
[19] Murphey, T. (2002). Music and Song. Resource Book For Teachers.
Oxford: Oxford University
[20] Press.
[21] Richards, J. C., Rodgers, T. S (1986). Approaches and Methods in
Language Teaching.
[22] A Description and Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[23] Seyle, H. (1963). Stres życia. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
[24] Szulc-Kurpaska, M. (2006, June). Using Music in the Classroom. Outline
presented
[25] at a conference workshop during English Teaching Market, Stare
Jabłonki.
[26] Wallace, W. T. (1994). Memory for Music: Effect of Melody on Recall
of Text. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and
Cognition. Vol. 20 (6).
180
The Best Way to Learn Languages
Vicente Alapont
Dexway European Headquarters
[email protected]
Abstract
The dexway Method offers all of the advantages of online training along with
the constant support and guidance of native speaking tutors.
Training employees in foreign languages is one of the greatest challenges
faced by Human Resources Managers in large companies. Where can they
find permanent training that is not dependant on issues of physical location,
schedules or commutes, and which also offers the human element that only
an experienced native speaking teacher can provide?
Choosing a multi-media solution, as it is often done, might provide solutions
to some of these challenges, but will not meet all the needs of a Human
Resources Department, and will leave some issues unaddressed.
The employee’s lack of time, uneven levels of knowledge, the timing, the
cost, their different profiles and nationalities and the cost of commuting or
travelling to different locations are some of the issues…
With our solution, however, these aspects are addressed through a
methodology that has succeeded in bringing together the most advanced
eLearning technology and the best and most customized service both for the
employee being trained and the company that wishes to train its team.
Through its perfect integration of Linguistic Immersion lessons and both
visual and verbal access to a dedicated Tutoring Team at any time of day
or night, the dexway language method represents the most successful
development in foreign language training to date, offering the advantages of
several types of solutions all in a user-friendly platform.
Introduction
The human element is provided by dexway through the personal attention of
our team of native speaking tutors whenever the user needs it. At no extra
cost and without having to exit the learning platform, the student can speak
to a dedicated tutor face to face at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
and just with a click of the mouse.
The Best Way to Leam Languages
181
Impersonal training is a thing of the past. Our tutors use a tool that keeps
track of each of the student’s learning process, knowing at all times the
identity of the student and all about the student’s learning progress.
An online and active community of students, the most advanced speech
recognition system in the market, fun learning games and lots of other
activities like karaoke, videos and radio podcasts are only some of the extras
we offer to the student to make the learning process a pleasant and vibrating
experience.
182
Vicente Alapont
365º Tutoring Support
The 365º tutoring provided by dexway greatly facilitates the organization’s
Human Resource Department’s training activities and provides them with
customized reports on a regular basis.
183
Through a series of proactive contacts on the part of the tutors during the
training period, tracking reports are generated and sent to the person in
charge of training in real time or at predetermined intervals.
This is in addition to the reactive tracking that is performed through the
method’s integrated personalized Learning Management System (LMS)
platform. The native tutors create “one-to-one” rooms that they leave open
during the entire session in order to attend to the student’s needs at the
moment they have any questions or concerns.
“A customized solution to every client”
Every department and every industry has different requirements when it
comes to language, specific expressions and specialized vocabulary.
For this reason, dexway provides customized solutions that offer all the
benefits of the dexway methodology. Our portfolio ranges from solutions
100% focused on the business world to solutions specifically design to
match the needs of sectors such as pharmacy, restaurants, shops, hotels
and many others.
“Always innovating”
At dexway we are constantly innovating and trying to find ways to improve
our service.
When a new trend comes up, we keep up with the times.
184
Vicente Alapont
185
iPads are on everybody’s hands right now and we couldn’t do less but to put
all our efforts in finding a way to provide the market with solution suitable for
such demand, giving birth to dexway tablet.
Our Linguistic Immersion Lessons have been specially designed for this type
of portable device (iPad, Android Tablets, etc.…) making videos, audio and
a feature that keeps track of the user’s progress available to our users, all
through a comfortable tactile screen.
We are the first company reaching this level of technology and we have done
it because we would do anything to improve our user’s learning process.
Now dexway is more portable than ever!
“The guarantee of an industry expert”
Dexway is guaranteed to offer all of the necessary tools for learning
a language, through a structure that has been successfully applied for
decades in classroom training as well as in eLearning. All our solutions
are fully compliant with the Common European Framework of Reference
(CEFR) for the corresponding languages and will prepare students to pass
international language competency exams.
We also offer special courses dedicated to prepare International Language
Competence Certifications such as the TOEFL and the First.
The dexway solution is available for learning British English, American
English, Spanish, French and German. All of these courses are available for
every skill level and include placement tests.
186

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