A language learner’s experience in Second Life

• Pierre, France, language learner at the Avatar Languages school•  A feedback of one personal experience using SL 

o why and how I used SLo what did I find and like (or dislike) thereo how did the use of SL contribute to my learning process 

 

Why I Started to Use Second Life

• Why I started to use SL about 2 years ago?o curiosityo practice my Englisho tips from my English teacher at AL

• SL in France in 2007o a lot of buzz about  it, like today about facebook and twitter o access to Second Life was not such an easy thing 

 

First steps in Second Life

• Relatively easy and rapid to start and to learn the basicso to walk o to fly o to customize your avataro to chat o to add friends

• I wasn't interested in...o spend time shopping o build something o spend real money 

• What I was after?o meet peopleo understand what all the buzz was abouto explore places o learn English

Places

• Places built by users o kinda utopia to build your own worldo feeling of a world in constant evolution  o  open world controled by its inhabitants

• To find my way o blog post on the webo tips from my teacher at Avatar Languageso tips from people I met on Second Lifeo CNN blog about Second Life was very useful

• Great variety of place o  places which remind you of a real place o  fantasy places with charming landscapeso  places  to share a common interest or valueo  even a place which was an art work 

People

• Best experience of chatting with Second Life o friendly people who enjoy having a chat

a lot of people most of them speak English  interesting people I got to know some regular

o completely different experience of chatting chat with someone while seeing him as an avatar chatting in an environment

• Never use voice chato I was afraid boring the person I was talking with o Maybe I didn't want my avatar to have my real voice

         

Learning English in Second Life

• A good way to learn english o new vocabulary and expressionso quickly find the words and build the sentences

• Important role of the environment find the name of objects describe people give or understand spatial informations ask how to do something

• Kind of real situations

Chatting with a Group

• Taking part (or trying to take part) in a group conversation the group doesn't wait for you to understand and answer what the group is talking about can change very rapidly there were jokes and slang 

 

My Experience of Second Life - One Year Later

• A place to meet people and share an environment • Completely new experience of chatting 

o interesting people o very friendly and open mindedo something to speak about

• Milestone in my learning process• Vast and so many things to do• My limits with Second Life... what I still a regret

o I didn't use voice chato I was unable to take part in group conversation

slanguages.net

SLanguages 2009

This presentation was given at

SLanguages 2009

The Conference for Language Education in Virtual Worlds