Task Design for Language Learning in an Embodied Environment - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 263

Socialisation and Empowerment
Warschauer, Turbee & Roberts (1996) found that
much of the appeal of MOO lies in its social na-
ture and the “endless variety of human response”.
Among important factors are:

• Raise cultural awareness by working with

foreign partners

There is a much greater sense of presence
through increased socialisation, increased person-
alisation of appearance and immediately visible
co-creation. • Its relative anonymity.

• Learners with disabilities are empowered

by virtue of the anonymous environment
including visually impaired learners (us-
ing screen readers), aurally impaired learn-
ers. Pronunciation issues and reluctance
to speak are greatly eased in a text-based
environment.

Graphic Based Virtual
Worlds with Voice

From a language learning perspective, the virtual
world of Second Life added two key elements to
what has already been said about Active Worlds:
a much more sophisticated and flexible design
capability and synchronous voice.
The ability to design and build accurately and
to scale makes it possible to construct an environ-
ment similar in scope to a real small town and,
therefore, allows for the recreation of realistic real
life language usage scenarios.
However, it should be very clear that this is
not a case of digital ciphers i.e. avatars, exploring
a virtual landscape in a neutral and frictionless
manner. Even in the MOOs and MUDs there was
a sense of identity which increased with the first
major virtual world, Active Worlds .
In fact Yee et al. (2007) conducted a study
in Second Life that confirmed that social norms
of gender, interpersonal distance (IPD), and eye
gaze all transfer into virtual environments even
though the modality of movement is entirely
different from Real Life. Friedman, Steed and
Slater (2007) studied spatial social behaviour in
SL and found that SL users display distinct spatial
behaviour when interacting with other users and,
when approached by an automated avatar, tended
to respond by moving their avatar, further indicat-
ing the significance of proxemics in SL.
Cassell et al. (2001) describe the concept of
embodiment and avatars as embodied agents.
Embodiment is a key feature in MUVEs from the
point of view of supporting educational objec-
tives. The addition of voice brings two important

• The environment is persistent so 'always

on' and users have a reasonable chance
of happening on other users to interact
with depending on the popularity of the
environment.

• Socialisation and empowerment of learners

Graphic Based Virtual Worlds

Active Worlds , first made available to the public
in 1996, is an internet-based desktop 3D virtual
reality platform designed for synchronous com-
munication (Wikipedia, 2009). Users are 'present'
represented by an 'avatar'. Communication is via
various forms of synchronous text-based chat and
some visual gestures. Users can walk, run, fly
and teleport and are able to create content. Active
Worlds can link to virtual learning environments
such as Blackboard. Campbell (2003) described
a course for Japanese learners of English using
Active Worlds . The differentiation between the
text-based environments outlined in the previous
section and the potential of virtual worlds can be
seen in some of the course objectives:

• Foster collaboration through positive

interdependence and cooperative goal
structures

• Encourage co-construction of knowledge

through an interactive virtual environment