Shiv on Learning

Google, Youtube and a wealth of ELT sites give students access to a wealth of information.  Why does having ready access to information lead to better language practice? Read on to find out….

Access to information online has radically changed the way we find information, analyze and disseminate it.  In the past you had to learn things by rote, remember dates and hold often useless information in your brain.  Now we have access to a world of information from our computer or mobile phone. Therefore, being in a classroom is an artificial environment where traditionally you don’t have those tools – under conventional rules of politeness students shouldn’t use their phone or laptop in an ESL class. When using a virtual world students have access to all those tools and discussions can be stimulating using up to date, personalised information due to the fact they have all the information they need at their fingertips.   They can share music from their country, show pictures and check verbs they are unsure of.  Due to the ready access of information the lesson becomes about using the language and not a memory exercise.

You can catch up on the rest of the series here.

Jessica Driscoll
Education Director, Languagelab.com

You might wonder how body language works when practising English online.  I will tell you how conveying meaning is possible in a virtual world and can be in many cases more effective.  If you would like to read post #2 click here.

Body Language and inhibition:

A great advantage of teaching face to face is using body language and facial expressions.  A good teacher will always try and use these tools to the best of their ability.  In a virtual world you don’t have your own body language and facial expressions but you do have those of your avatar.  These can be much more powerful than your actual body.  By that I mean teaching elementary students using techniques like TPR can often be embarrassing for the teacher and the learner.  Who really wants to climb on the table or hide behind the door to learn prepositions?  Learning prepositions using your avatar however is fun, engaging and not embarrassing.  It isn’t your real body jumping up and down or hiding underneath something!  Also when you know nobody can see you go red and blush, you are more likely to take risks and make mistakes which is essential to making progress in language learning.

TPR in classrooms can be tricky.

Using your avatar to move around is liberating.

By Jessica Driscoll

Continuing our discussion on benefits for students my next port of call is the classroom and how practising English in what is essentially an artificially constructed environment may not be the best place to do this.

Classroom is an artificial environment:

In the average classroom there is usually some standard equipment; chairs, desks, perhaps a projector or computer and maybe even an IWB.  So when teachers do role-play activities there is a lot of imagining for the students to do, as there isn’t a train station or cafe or gallery in the classroom.  In a virtual world you can go and visit the gallery, buy a train ticket and go to the theatre.  You don’t need to imagine it you can be there so the time can be spent producing language you have learned and not pretending to be the barman.  The environments in English City are created with the CEF in mind so that all the sessions can have the ALT Can Do statements as the basis for student discussion.

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Students in class having to imagine a scenario like checking into a hotel

Students actively participating and checking into a hotel in English City.

By

Jessica Driscoll

There are lots of advantages for students practising English in virtual worlds like English City.  From multi-modal communication to the liberating feeling of movement through your avatar.  This series of blog postings will talk about the key benefits to students.  I will start with multi-level communication and talk about how it is very useful to have different channels of communication in a language learning environment.

Multi-levels of communication.

In a classroom the teacher can talk directly to the whole class, with one student, with a group of students.  However, only one if these can happen at once.  In a virtual world there are multi-levels of communication which are happening simultaneously.

Ways to communicate in a virtual world:

1.    Speaking directly to everyone in the vicinity (local voice chat)
2.    Speaking one to one with a student (private voice chat)
3.    Typing to everyone in the vicinity (local text chat)
4.    One to one messages (Instant Message or IM)
5.    Talking to your group without the other group hearing (Conference call)
6.    Messaging others in your group (IM conference)

As you can see there are lots of ways to communicate and all of these can be happening at the same time.  This is great for group work, pair work, or if a shy student wants to ask the teacher something.  It encourages peer learning as at any one time there could be 10-15 conversations happening.

Types of interactions:

1.  A student could be asking the teacher in a private message to repeat the previous instruction.
2.  Group of  students could be discussing the topic in a private text message. 
3.  Teacher can address one student in a private voice call to correct them without disturbing the class or embarrassing the student.

An instant Message is a private message from student to teacher.

Local voice chat people talking openly in the virtual world to everyone else around them.

Local chat is a text message that everyone in the vicinity can see.

- Jessica Driscoll