Are you involved in language learning / teaching in Second Life?

[Baldric Commons]

Please use this space to let us know if you or your organisation is involved in language learning in Second Life - write a brief summary of what you are doing and please leave links so people can find out more and/or can get in touch.

[Ton Koenraad]

Hello Graham and all,
Would like to report on a project for languages in Virtual Worlds, not in SL this time, but in AW.
Please find my paper on the Dutch project 'Vitaal' for WorldCALL 2008 attached.
PPTs and other content on related activities are available from this page:
http://www.koenraad.info/VRALL/
Ciao Ton

[willem]

dear Ton,
good to see there are more Dutchmen out there who forthink the future. I am very interested and will read your paper soon. I myself have been a language teacher in the real world of Barcelona Spain for 30 years.
I have my own company called Back Up Line.
I am thinking of bying a language practice setting where virtual students can enjoy interaction with both hidden teachers and fellow students.
will get back to you after the paper
tot ziens
Willem

[Gloria B. Clark]

Hi- I have been teaching hybrid Spanish courses for several semesters in the university classroom and SL. I am coordinating our SL experience with the text Mosaicos (Prentice Hall, 4th edition). I would love to hear about the experiences others have had with SL in the language classroom.

[Keira Moxie]

Hi Gloria. I am very interested in maybe sitting in on a class. Is theer a class schedule somewhere I can peruse? Or the SLUrl?

[Sachiko Kamioka]

Hi Gloria,
We are organizing a Chinese immersion camp in SL targeting college-level intermediate speakers. (http://casls.uoregon.edu/mychinainfo.php) We are currently creating quests and I would like to learn from successors who have created activities. I would love to hear your experiences.

[Salty Saenz (Frank)]

I have an EFL Teacher Training/Professional Development center that is new .. to be debuted on Oct 18th at the 35th MEX-TESOL international convention in Leon, Mexico. This is a center where I really hope to focus more on 21st century skills for teachers, rather than lets say teach grammar.

Asking all avatars to join us on Oct 18 to kick things off, http://metamexico.ning.com/xn/detail/849670:Topic:16885

SLURL = http://tinyurl.com/metamexico

Mexico English Teachers' Alliance, http;metamexico.ning.com

[Sachiko Kamioka]

The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University of Oregon, USA, has been working on a grant project called MyChina. We will be organizing a Chinese immersion camp in the summer of 2009. I am always looking for collaborators and opportunities for exchanging ideas.

[willem]

Hi
please read my comment 8 November to Ton,
No answer so far... Like your project. My partner is Chinese.
How about English as a second life language. Esperanto was just as new one day as Second Life was a couple of years ago. I believe it will not take 200 years to get the United States of Europe to have 1 common language with coexisting local family language. Here in Spain there are 4 oficial languages and in Switzerland?.

The world needs practice to feel comfortable using a second language, so why not telepractice mingling with both teachers as well as other speakers.

get in touch with info at our site backuplines.com
I do not check this forum very oftene as it is quite dead...
Hope to hear from you

Willem

[Rebecca Gaydos]

I would be interested in learning more about My China. I am an ESL teacher and teacher trainer at a mid-west university. I also study Mandarin Chinese .

[Sachiko Kamioka]

Hi Rebecca,
Thank you for your comment. You can find more details about MyChina Village Virtual Chinese Immersion Camp at:
http://casls.uoregon.edu/mychinainfo.php

Seats are filling up quickly so I recommend that you sign up now if you are interested.

[Howard Vickers]

Hi Graham

Avatar Languages teaches (mainly English and Spanish) online, including using Second Life. Initially teaching was in custom built classrooms, but we have moved to using SL as a social and contextual space (and therefore using public spaces).

More information at www.avatarlanguages.com and on the blog (www.avatarlanguages.com/blog).

I am personally particularly interested in virtual worlds (not just Second Life) as social spaces for language practice, as I see this as an area that other (eg 2D) online social spheres are not able to offer the same potential. Virtual worlds are much more immediate and social (especially when voice taken into consideration) than other online forums.

Howard

[Mike McKay / Professor Merryman]

Professor Merryman here! I've left Open Life. Why? Because there isn't going to be voice capability added anytime soon. The use of voice is, of course, crucial to language learning in a virtual world, unless your intent is to learn only how to write. I've left OLG and my region called Petrona, as well as English Village, to pursue my new group called Cypris Chat.
Cypris Chat, a voice only conversation group, is located on the island of Cypris. To date we have 60 members who, for the most part, would like to practice speaking English using voice or who are learning to teach languages in SL. The biggest problem I see in-world is the aversion to using voice by so many. Go to Xstreet, purchase my Chat On texture for L$0, and display it on your land. We really need to advertise the use of voice.

Come visit us in Cypris Village on Cypris Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cypris%20Island/10/28/22