Multi-User Virtual Environments - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 305

Non-Player Character (NPC): a simulated
character that is controlled by the computer and
not another player.
Pragmatics: the way in which meaning is
expressed and interpreted in language.
Social Virtuality: an open-ended, multiplayer
virtual world in which activity is entirely user-
driven.
Synthetic Immersive Environment (SIE):
engineered multiplayer virtual spaces that inte-
grate the many benefits of realistic interaction
and online gaming to produce explicitly, educa-
tionally-related outcomes in simulated, relevant,
interactional contexts.

4 http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/07/08/
second-life-virtual-world-expands-35-in-
q2/
5 See Thorne, Black, and Sykes (forthcom-
ing) for a detailed description of each type
of MUVE as related to language learning.
6 Sykes, Reinhardt, and Thorne (in press)
focus primarily on digital games.
7 See Sykes, Reinhardt, and Thorne (in press),
for a detailed explanation of how failure
states also play a key role in feedback given
via MMOGs.
8 For additional details related to the larger
study or other components see Sykes (2008,
2009).
9 One will note that the percentages presented
in this section total to 101% percent. This is
due to the rounding of the percentages to the
nearest whole number. When one decimal
place is included, the total returns to 100%.
10 In his interview explanations, this user
reported playing Halo (a console-based
MMOG) on a server with native speakers
of Spanish.
11 The studies referenced here refer to CMC
contexts. Nevertheless, the principles are
relevant to SIE contexts as well.
12 See Brown (2001), Cohen (2004), Hudson
et al (1995), Roever (2004), and Salaberry
& Cohen (2006) for further discussion on
assessment in L2 pragmatics.
13 See Purushotma, Thorne, and Wheatley
(2008) for a complete discussion of the im-
portance of failure states in gaming spaces.

eNDNOTeS

1

For a compilation of the, sometimes conflict-
ing, usage data see: http://www.nickburcher.
com/2009/03/twitter-demographics-and-
usage.html. While the specifics are not
clear, it is evident that the use of Twitter
from January 2008 to January of 2009 has
increased dramatically. At the time of writ-
ing, no official statistics from Twitter had
been published.

2

See Thorne and Payne (2005) for further
explanation of the “cultures of use” model
relevant to the use of mediated collaboration
tools in computer assisted language learning
(CALL).

3

Thorne (2008) describes the first case study
related to MMOGs and language learning.
It is not included here since there was no
design or educational intervention.