Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
come from the same country. There is currently
no obvious correspondence between textbook
approaches to programme design and the af-
fordances of a virtual environment. In MUVEs,
the input generally comes from the environment
itself, the educational objects, the teacher and
the other participants. In a MUVE context there
is a lot more room for sharing experiences in
an international, multicultural and multilingual
classroom. Furthermore, the language experience
is not confined to the teacher and classmates;
the learner has the possibility of interacting with
other users of the MUVE. Also, communication
in MUVEs is multimodal: there is a wide range
of communication tools with varying suitability
for different types of tasks or communications
needs (local chat, IMs- Instant Messages, voice
call, both for pair and group activities), hypertext,
visuals, audio. Students can interact with other
avatars, with objects in the virtual environment
and with the virtual environment itself.
When setting pair and group activities we need
to choose the tool that best suits our purposes from
the range available. Monitoring students when
working in groups or pairs is in fact easier in SL
than in real life because it is possible to individu-
ally adjust the volume of other participants. If
the activity involves a written product, students
can use private IM among their group (and the
teacher) or notecards.
to engage in negotiation of meaning, one of the
crucial elements for language acquisition.
Language Learning as a Social event
Any interaction where language is used to convey
meaning can be considered a social event. Class-
room language, however, is not always natural
and, arguably, does not lead to real interaction.
Classroom language may be restricted to predict-
able questions and answers (teacher-student), thus,
there is no negotiation of meaning. MUVEs are
especially suited to put into practice the concept
that learning occurs through social interaction.
In a MUVE, social events are continuously
being created and they are only limited by the
creator's imagination. Thus, students can take part
in real events such as quiz shows, treasure hunts,
concerts, etc. These social events do not only oc-
cur in informal learning contexts as students can
attend a language class at a restaurant to learn
how to order food, or go shopping to learn how
to buy clothes, etc. Students are learning through
interacting with others in situations similar to the
ones they will encounter in real life when visiting
a country where the target language is spoken.
Decentralized Role of Teachers
MUVEs are good arenas for task-based learning
and other student-centred approaches because of
what the environment has to offer (it is immer-
sive and dynamic). Saying that the teacher has a
decentralised role does not mean that the teacher
has a passive role. However, it does mean that the
students gain a central role in the learning process
and the teacher is there to monitor the process.
Students could be asked to write newspaper articles
interviewing native speakers inside the MUVE or
discuss the virtual environment. They could be
asked to decorate and style a restaurant as a group
or even take part in a soap opera. The teacher as a
facilitator may steer learners in different directions
Varied Input
MUVEs, more so than the traditional classroom,
can provide different sources of input: teachers,
peers, native and non native speakers who are
not learners, the environment itself, interactive
educational objects and even web-based resources
(videos, podcasts, etc.). This variety of input allows
the students to be exposed to different kinds of
accents and register which should stimulate them
to use the language in creative ways in order to
convey their meanings. That is, students will need
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