Teaching EFL in SL Wodzimierz Sobkowiak School of

Teaching EFL in SL Włodzimierz Sobkowiak (School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) Wlodek Barbosa (Virtlantis, the island of Knowingly in Second Life)

Abstract As Wlodek Barbosa I've been teaching EFL pronunciation in Second Life now for over three years as a free and open service to the community of language students and teachers called Virtlantis, currently located on the island of Knowingly in-world. This is a talk about this experience. I focus on: • The added value of SL in language teaching • The dynamics and social networking of the learner community More info: http: //ifa. amu. edu. pl/~swlodek/Second_Life. html

My teaching in SL (1) • March 21 st 2007 - born in SL as Wlodek Barbosa • Started teaching pronunciation regularly in the community on Sep 10 th 2008 • 133 weekly meetings of [Pronunciation with Wlodek Barbosa] so far • 166 unique students over the 133 meetings, average students per meeting: 6. 2 • Students from all over the world, e. g. German, Israeli, Italian, Russian, French, Korean, Pakistani, Roumanian, Brazilian, Finnish, UAE, Turkish, and Polish (of course) • No syllabus, no textbook, no homework

My teaching in SL (2) • Practically all EFL phonetic areas covered: segments, juncture, prosody, graphophonemics • Various resources in SL: word-lists, texts, PAVed objects, sound files, problem notecards • Various resources on 2 d web: dictionaries, videos, recordings, charts, animations • Various techniques: lecture, drill, projects, guided tours, treasure hunts, conversation, pair-work, group-work • SL community support: in-world group for info notices and IM • 2 d web community support: Ning, Elgg, Facebook (blogging, resources, records)

The added value of SL in language teaching Better than RL AND 2 d web ? 2 d web

Better than 2 d web (1) Some examples of added value of SL vis-à-vis 2 d web (LMS, VLE such as e. g. Moodle) have been discussed widely: • immersion, embodied (co-)presence • 3 d, holodecks • construction/building • geospacial replicas of RL places • self-creation (avatar persona)

Better than 2 d web (2) Communication outside of the classroom in-world; Dolce Vita in SL on Feb 5 th 2011, WB as his female alt One_Avatar: salut One_Avatar: ca va? WB: Ca va, merci : -) Et vous? One_Avatar: merci aussi One_Avatar: tu veux dancer ? WB: Non, merci : -) One_Avatar: uhh dommage WB: Un autre fois, peut-etre? One_Avatar: ok One_Avatar: pas probleme

Better than RL (1) Multitasking and multichanneling: environment, visuals, voice chat, text chat, IM (private and group), notecards, profile-reading. This is a pedagogically excellent affordance, making for intense, authentic, immediate communication.

Better than RL (2) Example: text chat log of a Virtlantis lesson on phrasal verbs, 13 July 2007; contribution of one avatar extracted from chat log and alphabetized. aaaaaaah, ok hm, i`m not sure ok see you kip, and thank you thanks : ) to call someone? to leave something, a taxi for example

Better than RL AND 2 d web (1) Phonetically Augmented Virtuality (PAV) refers to enhancing a 3 d virtual world with phonetic information in the form of sound files, text-to-speech synthesis, phonetic transcription, explanatory text, as well as exercises and tasks of all kinds. This phonetic information is built directly into objects in the virtual environment and can be interactively accessed by the student's avatar.

Better than RL AND 2 d web (2) I have presented and discussed PAV in other places: • Phonetic Affordances of Second Life for EFL, a Pres. To presentation on You. Tube and on blip. tv • Phonetically Augmented Virtuality in Second Life (a plenary presentation at the 3 rd International Accents Conference in 2009; Power. Point intro here)

The dynamics and social networking of the learner community • Fluidity of the student population: regulars, strangers, observers, mutes, trolls, griefers, lost avies, non-humans • Gartner's hype cycle dynamics of SL; community promotion • The founder, facilitator & spiritus movens : Kip Yellowjacket • Environment: various sims in-world and 2 d websites

The pedagogical role of presence/ immersion in the virtual world (1) The Resident is an individual who lives a percentage of their life online. The web supports the projection of their identity and facilitates relationships. [. . . ] The Visitor is an individual who uses the web as a tool in an organised manner whenever the need arises. [. . . ] They [. . . ] don't feel the need to express themselves by participating in online culture in the same manner as a Resident.

The pedagogical role of presence/ immersion in the virtual world (2) If your learners are mainly Visitors, [. . . ] they are unlikely to blog or comment as part of a course. The Resident will expect to have the opportunity to offer opinions on topics and to socialise around a programme of study. David White: Not Digital 'Natives' & 'Immigrants' but 'Visitors' & 'Residents’ (http: //oupeltglobalblog. com/2011/06/14/ not-digital-natives-immigrants-butvisitors-residents/)

Virtlantis learner community: resident's reflections Facebook interview with MZ, an active Virtlantis student of English, native German: the changes of the community we followed the learners where they are - on FB we interact with each other help each other - off the class - online - not ONLY in-world in posting i discover new vocab. . . investigate idioms try to phrase my native language into english I met there lots of Gleichgesinnte people who want to learn a language we know. . . we are not always right the co-community members they are all open minded not pointing on a mistake or failure

Conclusions The keys to success in foreign language teaching & learning in SL are: • exploiting of the added value of SL vis-à-vis RL and 2 d web • stimulating immersion, presence, ‘flow’ • leveraging the learner community

Thank you!