This page focuses on a Second Language Acquisition (SLA) study conducted in virtual worlds that could help teachers in terms of knowledge about acquisition processes, in which technology is integration between formal and non formal education.
The research comprises of some studies strongly focused on the development of Italian oral language proficiency.
It is held within Second Life® in order to explore the affordances of public spaces to enhance Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and to stimulate the oral production through learner’s engagement.
Since 2007, a new pilot project, Café Italia, was developed by Carmela Dell’Aria (aka Misy Ferraris) in Second Life®.
Starting from theory and research (SLA and Linguistics) the project leads to effective language learning practice. As matter of fact, the research moves to analyze learners’ needs, to give a focus for instruction, to adapt technology to their needs through experimentation, and to evaluate the results.
This study is meant to underline the basic principles underpinning our research and to highlight the key points to be considered while teaching the issue of use of ICT resources to support the teaching of Italian as FL.
The researcher only aims at discussing and providing evidence for the research method adopted and the applications demonstrate how real life and virtual worlds can be integrated into the teaching of FL. A high level of competence can be reached when the target language is a “medium” of communication rather than an “object” of analysis. The pilot demonstrates that the application in virtual worlds allows learners to acquire knowledge while actively engaging their own powers of perception, communication and reasoning. VWs are flexible, can be adapted to different situations and realize an “intermediate space” where virtuality and reality can meet through a more holistic educational experience for FL learners.
What is Second Life?
Second Life is a 3D world where everyone you see is a real person and every place you visit is built by people just like you. If you want to know more about education in Second Life, please, join one of these groups
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.