ARTICLE REVIEW - GLEN - WEEK 5

Task-based teaching approaches of Chinese as a foreign language in Second Life through teachers’ perspectives 

Lin, T.J., Wang, S.Y., Grant, S., Chien, C.L., Lan, Y.J. (2014) Task-based teaching approaches of Chinese as a foreign language in Second Life through teachers’ perspectives, Procedia Technology, vol.13, pages 16 – 22 

In the past five years, the use of multi-user virtual environments (“MUVE”) in education has received considerable attention. Researches have shown that using virtual learning environments can effectively increase learning motivation and engagement, reduce learner anxiety, support the development of learner autonomy, and promote interactive and creative ways of teaching and learning.

Aim:
The purpose of this paper is to describe the integration of task-based language teaching (“TBLT”) approaches in the multi-user virtual environment (“MUVE”). Specifically, the article looks at Second Life (“SL”) to discuss the benefits and challenges from the perspectives of four language instructors (an expert user of SL in Australia and three novice users in Taiwan).

Methods:
A qualitative research methodology was conducted as the research design in the study. Participants included the four instructors from Australia and Taiwan, and 144 Chinese language undergraduate students at a major Australian university. Three activities based on information-gap and reasoning-gap teaching tasks were created.

One of the four instructors was an expert user of Second Life at the Australian university with more than 5 years teaching experience; the other three instructors were beginner users in Taiwan who had never taught courses in Second Life before.

 The class was divided into two lessons:

1. The first hour was taught by the instructor in Australia. In this session, learners mobilized language learned in the foreign language classroom during the semester to carry out authentic communicative tasks that simulate real life scenarios, engaging in Chinese character-based text chat with highly interactive non-player character (NPC) interlocutors.
2. The second hour was taught by the instructor in Taiwan with technical support from the Australian instructor. In the second hour there were three activity units.

Findings:

It was found that conducing TBLT in Second Life can help instructors provide opportunities for the students to set clear goals, ensure student- centred and authentic approaches to learning, and provide multiple opportunities for input, production, and feedback. Furthermore, the lesson configuration (with the expert taking care of technical issues in the physical classroom and the content instructors focusing on teaching virtually) helped reduce common technical issues in Second Life and thus promote a comfortable learning environment for both the instructors and students to solely focus on the learning content of the language class.

The main findings were:

1.       It provided opportunities to set clear goals.

2.       Ensured student-centred and authentic approaches to learning.

3.       Provided multiple opportunities for input, production, and feedback.

4.       Promoted a comfortable learning environment.