Foreign Language Instruction in a Virtual Environment: - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 306

Chapter 17
Foreign Language Instruction
in a Virtual Environment:
An Examination of Potential Activities

Regina Kaplan-Rakowski
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA

ABSTRACT

The chapter conveys the experiences of using the virtual world Second Life (SL) to supplement classroom-
based instruction of an introductory foreign language class. With attention given to the needs of educa-
tors and instructional designers, as well as students, the author presents selected activities, along with
detailed practical plans and theoretical justifications for those activities. She follows by discussing the
technological characteristics of SL (communication features, logging features, and features used to ease
activity preparation) that the author found to be of particular pedagogical value in her instruction. The
importance of situated cognition, cultural relevance, self-pacing, students' autonomy, and interactivity
with diminished inhibition is examined as well.

INTRODUCTION

create innovative, dynamic and pedagogically-
sound activities. The option of building or, in
virtual lingo, “rezzing,” allows instructors to tailor
material to specific pedagogical needs (Kaplan-
Rakowski & Loh, 2010).
The existing literature displays the growing in-
terest of educators in employing multi-user virtual
environments to supplement, or even replace, the
classroom (Roussou, 2004; Foreman & Borkman,
2007; Lim, Nonis, & Hedberg, 2006; Dickey, 2005;
Dieterle & Clarke, 2008). Seeing SL as a paradise
for dynamic instruction, teachers of many fields
have been using this virtual world. Those fields

Virtual worlds increasingly provide instructional
tools that allow students and teachers to create
a dynamic learning environment. These three-
dimensional virtual spaces, entirely created by
their residents, form highly collaborative and
authentic contexts that can allow for more mean-
ingful learning than traditional classrooms. One
of the most popular virtual worlds, Second Life
(SL), provides tools which make it possible to

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61692-822-3.ch017