Foreign Language Instruction in a Virtual Environment: - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 320

ing it out loud. The most pedagogically sound
method (i.e. in the case of immediate feedback) is
to provide feedback in both an oral and a written
form. In this way students who learn better visu-
ally, as well as students who learn better through
listening, both profit from the feedback.

and relatively less expensive than traditional class-
room environments. We primarily consider: (1) SL
communication features; (2) SL logging features;
(3) Features used to ease activity preparation.

(1) Communication features of SL

[Th5] Potential inhibition . Conversations held
in Local Chat are public. This means that if
teachers opt for Local Chat, they must be
aware that revealing students' answers to the
rest of the class can be intimidating to some
students, especially those whose answers are
likely to be incorrect. Even though students
have avatars and use alternate names, it is
not unusual that at a point classmates would
know their peers' SL names as well.

Second Life allows for several modes of com-
munication: Local Chat, Instant Messaging, virtual
Gestures (non-verbal communication), and Voice
Chat. Each of the channels of communication
in SL can be valuable, depending on the type of
instruction intended. In a language class, where
communication is a core objective, the existence
of multiple methods of communication is of
particular benefit. Local Chat can be used when
general, public communication is intended. Instant
Messaging can be used for private communica-
tion between the instructor and a single student,
which is especially convenient for learners with
high levels of anxiety or inhibition. A major
benefit in using a virtual world is the possibility
of one-on-one personal communication between
the instructor and the student, without physically
removing the student from the classroom, as
would be required in a traditional setting. Ges-
tures can be used for non-verbal communication,
important in understanding cultural aspects of a
foreign language. Finally, Voice Chat can be used
to practice speaking, pronunciation, and listening
comprehension.
However, it is not only a foreign language
class that would benefit from the communica-
tion features that Second Life offers. In fact, any
field that demands high verbal skills would find
those features beneficial. For example, lawyers,
salesmen, negotiators, politicians, and teachers in
other subjects can practice expressing themselves
and “to be heard and be listened to” using virtual
worlds, with less inhibition than through traditional
public speaking. In addition, the communication
features can be a useful way to practice automatic-
ity-an important step for striving to proficiency
(Spolsky, 1989).

DISCUSSION

Having read the descriptions of the activities, a
representative reader might claim that many of
the sampled activities could be conducted in a
traditional classroom and that there is nothing
fundamentally different about these activities
when done in SL. Nevertheless, if that same reader
attempted to follow these (or similar) activities in
a traditional classroom, it is the author's experi-
ence that the task would be exceedingly difficult,
often impossible, and, most of all, less effective.
Subsequently, let us consider the characteristics
that allowed virtual environments to be so useful
and effective for us. More specifically, we would
like to present aspects that we found particularly
beneficial in our instruction. These aspects can
be grouped into two interrelated categories: tech-
nological tools and sound-pedagogy facilitators.

Technological Tools

Several technology features of Second Life , which
are common to some other online virtual environ-
ments, made our instruction considerably easier