2. Virtual worlds for language learning:
Piccolo Mondo:
Virtual worlds for language learning:
a look at Second Life by
Kate Borthwick and Ann Jeffery,
University of Southampton

3. Session outline What is Second Life?
Our interest in Second Life for language learning
How we got started in SL
Benefits and barriers
Demo

4. What is Second Life? Virtual, 3-D world
More than 2,700,000 people registered
Social networking service
Rich environment
Free, but a cost for building/owning land

6. Our interest in SL for language learning
Users can create content for others to access and use
Over 100 ‘islands’ created for educational use
Research at an early stage
General potential for language learning

7. La mia seconda vita My perspective of the adult learner
2 main difficulties :
getting to classes
Practising Italian conversation
Wanted to explore SL community
What were SL communities actually like?
Were there other language learners?
Would it help me to learn Italian?
Short overview of my experience
I’m trying to learn Italian, but I’ve found it hard to attend classes and also hard to practice my conversation skills. I wanted to explore Second Life from a resident’s point of view, and to find out if Second Life could help me with my Italian.
I also wanted to find out what people were doing for myself, what they were interested in, whether you could actually use Second Life for languages, and if there was anyone else out there that was interested in languages too.
What follows is a brief biography of Annie Giovinazzo and her adventures in cyberspace.

8. Starting out Choose your name from: Create a basic avatar
A Linden surname and a personal forename
This affects how people respond to you
My Italian name means Italian people speak to me
Create a basic avatar
Learn the essential movement controls
You decide how you want to look.
Red hair because it often gets a ‘bad press’, green eyes because I could
Unusual combination in SL, gets attention!
Naming
Naming is quite important. It’s affected who talks to me, and how I interact with the world. I chose my name to reflect the fact I’m trying to learn Italian. This has lead to me attracting Spaniards and Italians in Second Life.
Being born
A bit like real life, being born is a bit traumatic. Although you’re fully grown, you’re not fully formed. It’s a bit like being a teenager and deciding whom you are and what you want to do.
Pimp my avatar…
One of the earliest things you do in Second Life is decide how you want to look. I started out being pretty much me, but I found that I was just as reserved as real life. Someone gave me the basic ingredients to improve my appearance, and I spent a fair while shopping for clothes, finding a hair style, and so on.

9. Growing up Overcome shyness, reserve, gain confidence
SL can be a real social leveller
I found friendly, helpful people who have actively helped out
Friends from across the world, across different time zones.
One of the major things I discovered you do, is to overcome fears and reservations. Second Life is a sociable place, so you become open and less shy. Second Life is a great leveller, I’ve found most people are there to make friends and help each other.
Annie has developed a life of her own. She’s definitely an extension of me, but she’s free from some of the things that I worry about. Annie seems to be a natural guide and confidante; she’s taking care of people. Annie has some caring friends in return, who have actively helped her out on her mission.

10. Learning Italian So how has Second Life helped me with my Italian?
I have an Italian friend, and we’re teaching each other. Acerola has been a very good teacher, and really helped me. We take it in turns to speak either English or Italian, and sometimes it’s a mixture of the two. Like with all chat there are typos, but it’s easy to tell them from mistakes.
So how has Second Life helped me with my Italian?

11. My experience In 4 days, I needed to extend my vocabulary etc.
Dictionaries, verb tables and grammar books.
Translating songs, making jokes, cultural concepts, phrases and sayings.
Now faster with fewer mistakes
I’m using supporting tools such as dictionaries, verb tables and grammar books as I surpassed my level in 4 days. I’ve translated songs, made jokes, explained cultural concepts, learned phrases and sayings. Already my language is much better and much faster and I can translate much quicker.
Second Life can also be used to actively explore the use of learning styles in language learning. Students can also acquire higher-level skills such as negotiation, intercultural communication, social skills and personal skills, and creative skills.

12. Teacher’s perspective Mettiamo i mobili? A learning activity
Uses the culture of SL
Having land and creating a home
Students create a personal space,
Choose and move their furniture
Could support language learning functions:
Learn directions, position and types of furniture.
Assessment
Screenshots
Recorded dialogues
Reflective diary
Finished house
Example of a learning activity…
I own a learning centre in Second Life, and was busy trying to arrange the furniture when Acerola arrived. Last week, we spent ages getting the house ready for today. Finding the right furniture and putting it in the right places. As a language beginner, this matches perfectly with some of the language functions. Directions, position, furniture related vocabulary. Rather than simply having a spoken role-play in the class, you can actually do the activity in Second Life Not only is it more engaging, you have somewhere to call your own at the end of the activity. Assessment could be formed from items such as recorded dialogues, screenshots, a reflective diary and the finished product.

13. Q: Dov’é metto il divano? A : La metta in salone. Vicino al fuori

14. Are there other benefits?
Learning styles can be explored
Visual and kinesthetic are fairly evident, but auditory styles could prove interesting.
Students acquire higher-level skills
such as negotiation, intercultural communication, social, personal and creative skills.

15. The environment Endless possibilities:
snowboarding, sailing, waterslides, dancing…
Exploring is one of the most fun things you can do in Second Life. You can do just about anything.
How does it benefit language learning?
I’ve been sailing, snowboarding, sat on a planet, had a go on a waterslide, been dancing…

16. Conversation Sailing in Nantucket - a themed sim
This is an image taken in Nantucket, one of the many themed places in Second Life, somewhere you can go sailing. We usually go exploring everyday, and talk about the world around us. This screen shows a conversation I was having with Acerola about boats and Venice. The small inset window shows a notecard I created to be able to include accents when I write.
Sailing in Nantucket - a themed sim
New environments promote new topics of conversation
The conversation turns to boats, and Venice.
Notecard on the bottom right shows how I include accents.

17. Benefits and barriers Definite cost in time and effort
Some investment of money
It takes time to get started
Technical issues
Interface issues
Yes it has involved an investment in terms of time and money, but both of these are small compared to the enjoyment. I’ve heard to learn a lot to get the most from the experience, and I had a point where I was quite lonely. I would say it’s difficult as a newbie, and that the Orientation Island at the beginning is both boring and confusing. You might meet the odd weirdo, but there are things you can do to overcome that. I would follow the example of the Ancient Roman island, which has its own localised orientation at the start. I’d also make sure that there were some friendly faces at the start for people. Second Life is definitely immersive, and you can spend hours in there. On the positive side, I’ve spent hours practising my language skills, something I’d never normally get to do. On the negative side, if you want to do something quick, log in when you’re friends aren’t online or set yourself to busy. Some of the educational places I’ve visited have been sterile, and empty. There can be a pedagogic focus on lectures and large-group discussion, which doesn’t fulfull the the richness and potential of Second Life.
Technical barriers involve bandwidth, specification of computers, Second Life is growing at rapid rate and sometimes it breaks the databases, the interface can be clunky and quirky, there are frequent updates during which you get logged out.
But then so was the World Wide Web in the beginning….

18. Benefits and barriers On the positive side: Immersive
Difficult to dip in (very sociable)
Hours spent practising Italian
The limit does appear to be your imagination
Friendly, sociable, collaborative
Rather like the www in the beginning…
Clunky, quirky but undeniably fun.

19. Overall learning experience
Immersive
Collaborative
Active learning
Role-play
Speed of learning
Importance of cultural knowledge
I have an Italian friend, and a Spanish friend even though I can’t speak Spanish. However, I speak Italian every day. in 4 days I have surpassed my level. I am now using a dictionary and a grammar book to keep up. My friend helps me, and I help him with his English. Last week, I was translating a song, learning expressions, phrases. The experience is immersive, and I’m finding I think in my mixture of Italian/English outside of Second Life. Cultural knowledge is really useful, it gives you ways to talk about things, common ground etc.We’ve even started making SL related jokes… In a break from lectures and public talks, which seem to be prevalent, there is a huge opportunity for role-play and active learning in Communities of Practice. Some examples…

20. Demo
A quick view of the environment, the ‘learning centre’, the informal space where we meet up.
Chat in-world with Glenn Hardaker, University of Huddersfield

21. Useful links and articles
Find out about Second Life at
Second Life: the official Guide (2007) by Rymaszewski, M., Wagner, J.A., Wallace, M., Winters, C., Ondrejka, C., Batstone-Cunningham, B., and Second Life residents. Pub: Wiley
A useful article about language learning with Second Life by Vance Stevens,
The University of California IT Guidance Committee provides a site of useful Second Life information links at: