Second Language Acquisition by Immersive and Collaborative Task-Based Learning in a Virtual World

Abstract

The methods by which English as a Second Language can be taught and learnt in a Virtual World (VW) are explored in this study of an online community of language learners from around the world. Theories of language acquisition are invoked and the affordances required for current methods of teaching and learning a second language in the real world (RL) and online in Skype and VWs are compared and discussed. There are descriptions of the resources created and used by the ELIP~Homewood (E~H) group in their OpenSim world and accounts of their activities there and in SecondLife (SL). The E~H Grid has been running since July 2010 and in some ways the project is just beginningas the students themselves design and create new places, buildings, objects and resources for their own enjoyment and learning and as their world evolves in an extended Task-Based Language Learning project.