Foreign Language Instruction in a Virtual Environment: - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 312

the achievement in learning a language is strongly
influenced by, and dependent on, the cultural
contexts in which people learn it (Gardner, 2007).
Cultural connection #2 : The Aldi store was
designed to be small in order to demonstrate the
fact that European stores are relatively smaller and
more crowded than a typical American store. The
crowdedness of the store was intended to give a
more accurate “feel” of being in a European-style
of building.
Situated Cognition . According to the edu-
cational theory of constructivism, physical and
social contexts assist with better learning and
thinking (Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1996;
Cobb & Bowers, 1999; Schunk, 2008). Situated
cognition, which is closely related to this theory,
emphasizes the importance of physical, as well
as social and cultural, contexts in effective learn-
ing. Our situating of students in an Aldi (cultural)
store (physical) with interlocutors (social) is an
example of an activity that fosters learning that
agrees with situated cognition (Lave & Wenger,
1991; Schunk, 2008).

students were made to create a conversation
using those new words.
[Th5] Interaction . Being able to actively partici-
pate in activities by interacting with the other
learners, as well as with objects, creates a
more involving, interesting and important
setting for learners (Swan, 2002; Sherry,
1996). Social processes, engagement and
active participation provide opportunities
in contextualized settings that allow both
for constructing learners' self-learning and
peer-teaching (Lave, 1999).
[Th6] Physical freedom . According to constructiv-
ism, restraining learners to a physical artifact
(e.g. a chair, a classroom, etc.) might have a
negative effect on his/her learning. Physical
freedom, on the other hand, provides a lower-
anxiety environment, which fosters learning.

Activity #3 : SLIDeSHOW QUIZ

Material practiced: any previously introduced
vocabulary or grammatical concepts.

[Th2] Color-coding . (see Color-coding; Activity
#1, Theoretical Underpinnings [Th2])
[Th3] Role Playing . In role playing, students model
various roles and, consequently, they practice
being someone else. Such experience in a
virtual world may be of particular value,
especially when in real-life role play could
be too dangerous, too costly, or too complex.
Further, role play invigorates learners' atten-
tion and motivation, which leads to higher
emotional engagement (Schunk, 2008).
[Th4] Memory . According to cognitive theory, it
is necessary to make mental connections in
order for new information to be moved from
short-term memory to long-term memory.
In our case, the new vocabulary that the
students were exposed to in the Aldi store
was potentially first placed only in short-term
memory. To enhance the chances of mov-
ing that vocabulary to long-term memory,

Description
The teacher asked the students to stand in front of a
massive TV screen placed on a part of the island far
away from the usual activities. She then informed
them that on the TV screen a slideshow of pictures
would appear, representing vocabulary items that
were introduced in previous classes [Th1]. The
slideshow would display a different picture every
10 seconds, during which the students would need
to type an IM to the teacher with the name of the
displayed thing, in German, represented by each
picture (see Figure 2). A set of 20 pictures was
presented in the slideshow.
After the slideshow was over, students were
encouraged to return to the part of the island where
the vocabulary from the slideshow was origi-
nally displayed. The students had five minutes to
review the vocabulary on their own, and thereby
also form their own personal feedback [Th2].