ARTICLE REVIEW - GLEN - WEEK 6

SECOND LANGUAGE IN SECOND LIFE:
EXPLORING INTERACTION, IDENTITY AND PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE IN A VIRTUAL WORLD

Blasing, M.T., (2010) SECOND LANGUAGE IN SECOND LIFE: EXPLORING INTERACTION, IDENTITY AND PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE IN A VIRTUAL WORLD, Slavic & East European Journal, Vol. 54 Issue 1, page 96-117

This article is relatively early in the sequence of commentary on Second Life (“SL”). It serves to introduce readers to the online virtual world known as Second Life, and to encourage dialogue about the potential benefits and limitations of using SL for foreign language teaching and learning. The article suggests those online virtual interactions in SL offer learners opportunities to practice and perform in the language in ways that the traditional classroom setting does not allow. SL features highly compelling visual and immersive components, synchronous language interaction, and the opportunity for conversation and collaboration with native speakers of the target language.

Aim:

The article seeks to explore Second Life as a potential supplementary tool for instructors, which may help learners develop particular skills by creating a more contextualized language use experience in which learners practice in the virtual world what they learn in the real-world classroom.

Methods:

There were two stages of this case study:

1. The first one was a pilot indicative study on five participants. They were all third-year Russian students that had never been to Russia before.
2. The other inspection was done on five Intermediate to Advanced- level Russian language students. These participants had an initial orientation with a researcher, who helped with developing their operating skill in Second Life (e.g.  Movement skills and in-world chatting)

Data collection:

• Each participant spent 30-45 minutes per session in Second Life along with a researcher. The instructions of this research were open-ended, to communicate with native speakers and obtain as much information as possible about them. Each interaction was being recorded by researcher through screen capture video software - SNAPZ Pro X.
• The participants would then have an interview with the researcher and were asked about their intercommunication experience.
• Both groups were sent to ‘Moscow Island’ in SL to communicate with native Russian speakers.

Main Findings:

1.       One of the most interesting findings of this article is the uptake in learners’ vocabulary.The participants were able to understand new lexical items during their communication with native speakers. As conversations were made, a few unfamiliar words were pointed out by language learners; the native interlocutors would explain and also give reinforcement on those words in response. The learners were able to use those words later for their in-world chats. 

2.       Another interesting finding is the level of anxiety and tension in the virtual world was comparable to real world “face-to-face” communication. Individual interviews with participants had illustrated the emotional pressure and social anxiety of their first interactions with native speakers. There was no significant difference reported between learners who had been to Russia and those who hadn’t. All learners reported high levels of anxiety when communicating with native speakers.