Language Learning in Virtual Worlds

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Comment by Iffaf on May 14, 2008 at 4:50am

I was just reading through the comments from April the 23rd to May the 9th.
Mark's is a familiar name in EFL (through the distribution list 'techteach' perhaps)? Welcome, Mark.
Dennis asked about other EFL-based language learning sims. No, I don't believe that is the case. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that the British Council-based sim is more of a self-access environment.
Nergiz, the presentation sounds very interesting. The HUD sounds great but another way to collect these Landmarks is to actually go into 'search' which is a lot better these days. I've heard about the Salamander Project and it's work in indexing everything that exists. I agree that it's important to collate and collect but I suspect that sometimes, not the Salamander team of course, it is a means of getting more people to contact you. You are, in effect, saying 'come to my search engine.' It's definitive and very long. Second Life itself, in particular Onrez, has a very good search engine. I recently did a group search and found 3 pages of Landmarks. I'm slowly going from sim to sim to see what's happening.
Sabine, I've seen the audio-based prim for the Tibetan Lessons and do want to learn how to do that. Is there some way to make that prim more activity efficient? What I mean is, it's great for whole-class activities and for self-access. What else have you used it for?
Well I hope to bump into everyone very soon.
Thanks again, Baldric. You are tireless.

Comment by Mark Osborne on May 9, 2008 at 12:50pm

Hello All. Not currently involved in SL - but looking to find out more and explore possibilities.

Comment by Sabine Reljic / Willow Shenlin on April 25, 2008 at 8:05pm

I modified a SL Glossary prim a while back into a bilingual dictionary. My dictionary is a notecard-based and chat-triggered prim for the Lakhota Language. Anyone can take a copy and use this object for any other languages. Since it is notecard-based, instructors can even use it as a student-project or a project-based lesson plan with scaffolding possibilities. I linked mp3 files to a lot of words for those who wish to hear the words pronounced. Other more script-skilled can create an audio-based prim like wam7c did for his Tibetan Lessons. You can find my bilingual dictionary at the Lakhota Book on Info Island International, the International Plaza. If there is any problem copying the dictionary, IM me in world at Willow Shenlin and I'll drop a copy on your profile in my next SL visit.

Comment by Dennis Newson on April 25, 2008 at 5:57am

I don't think this really the place for this message, but just to say I will be away from Second Life for about 10 days in real world Prague, Bratislava and Vienna. I'll be in touch when I get back.

Comment by Nergiz Kern on April 24, 2008 at 4:06pm

I've just attended a presentation by Dr. J. Richter from University of Oregon at the vBusiness Expo in SL (24-27 April). He explained his Salamander Project and gave us a free Salamander HUD. This is a tool with which we can collect Landmarks of places in SL that are related to education. The links will be published here: http://www.sloog.org/. There is also a wiki with more info: http://www.eduisland.net/salamanderwiki/

Comment by Howard Vickers on April 24, 2008 at 12:23pm

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Comment by Howard Vickers on April 24, 2008 at 12:22pm

Excellent idea to set this group up.

Thanks for the mention Nergiz. More information about Avatar Languages (and Avatar English) can be found on the website (www.avatarlanguages.com).

There are many more who are active in virtual world language learning and this year has seen a lot of interest by universities especially.

I think SLanguages 2008 - the virtual conference for language education in virtual worlds - will be an excellent opportunity to see how much is going on in this field now. More information on the conference at www.SLanguages.net.

The Call for Papers is still open for another week or so. Details at www.slanguages.net/callforpapers.php.

I hope to see you all there.
Howard

Comment by Vance Stevens on April 23, 2008 at 11:59pm

Yaay I'm in! This is going to be F.U.N. If you want to know all I know about virtual worlds, and keeping in mind that all anyone knows is the sum total of what the network knows, then here is what's at my node in the network: http://sl2ndchance.pbwiki.com/. You can see that this touches on many other nodes present here. - Vance

Comment by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith on April 23, 2008 at 6:02pm

Thanks for the invite, Baldric. Hope to learn more about virtual worlds here.
--Elizabeth

Comment by Baldric Commons on April 23, 2008 at 4:53pm

Hi everyone, I think this will be as good a place as any for those people involved in language teaching and learning in virtual worlds to let people know what they are doing - I'm looking forward to people letting us all know.

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