Reflection on week 4 "Language learner behavior in a virtual Environment"

This article by Jannie Roed throws light on behavior of second language learners in a virtual environment. He says that a virtual learning environment provides a more relaxed and stress free environment than a classroom. Students who might not speak-up because of being mocked at by others could be highly active when communicating online, which has been supported by the research that was undertaken by the author.

The research aimed at investigating the behavior of language learners communicating through computers. In this study, students have to interview each other to find out the identities of fellow students who were given identities of famous persons. The task was kept linguistically simple so that majority of students could communicate easily and freely. The findings of the research report that students who were rather shy during classroom discussions showed full control over the online communication.

Personally, I have also observed similar kinds of differences in learners’ behaviors when they are working with internet. Among my P3 students, I have seen that when I take my students to any online game, the faces of shy ones lighten up with excitement. They begin to show more interest in online activity than any text-book oriented activity. So we can say that integration of online communication in English language teaching could serve as a springboard for language learners who hesitate to open-up otherwise.

Contrary to it, I still have a doubt if online communication can help students overcome the fear of speaking in front of an audience. I think online communications are still written communication though the register is oral and shy students who may write online posts freely, would still be unable to present their viewpoints in oral negotiations.

Second Life

Second life is just a discovery of new world for me : a world that dazzled me at the first sight. The interface caught me by surprise as it was a very fine representative of real world. It attracted me like a magnet and on the top of it, I was overwhelmed to see my avatar and far more excited to see my classmates' avatars who started appearing from here and there. Since it was my first time on second life, I had to ask Robbie everytime, when I didn't understand what to do next. So beginners, like me, really need help otherwise they would give up sooner or later. Similar thing happened to me, when I lost tracks every now and then and soon that world which filled me with excitement started baffling me. So, I called Christoph in to ask "What am I supposed to do in Second Life?" because I was just flying here and there, doing nothing except chatting.
After that night's first trial, I have come to know more about second life. Well, second life is not only about chatting, it an endless world of discoveries and once you have learnt the skills to dive into this discoveries, you will dive deeper and deeper.
But, we have to be uterly careful while introducing this type of technology to students. First of all, we have to address the above question "What am I supposed to do in Second Life?" We should very clearly set out goals for students. They should be told in clear terms what they are expected to do. For my students, I will not use second life just for chatting with their classmates, but for something productive, creative and meaningful.
Besides, all these we need to remind them of netiquetes every now and then. Otherwise, it will mar the very purpose of using second life.