The following paper presents two stages of an action research project involving two oral proficiency courses held in the virtual world Second Life. Course 1 was conducted during the Autumn of 2007. Based on the experiences of this course, we redesigned many aspects of it in order to improve student activity in terms of oral participation and gave the course again in Spring 2008. By analysing the recordings of four 90-minute sessions, two from each course, we were able to measure student participation based on floor space, turn lengths and turn-taking patterns, and in the study we discuss how different changes in design may have contributed to more favourable outcomes. Results seem to indicate that meaning focussed task design, which involves authenticity and collaborative elements, has a direct impact on learner participation and engagement. Furthermore, our results seem to suggest that technical and social initiations into a complex environment such as SL are important factors that have to be worked into the course design.
This paper presents some of the overall frameworks and models for language learning that were used under Avalon (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live ONline), an EU co-funded project aimed at developing language-learning scenarios in virtual worlds. The introduction and background summarize some of the theories that constitute the starting points for the designs and are followed by a discussion of how the affordances of virtual worlds support the communicative language-learning model used in the project. The authors’ main focus then turns to pedagogic design, where the authors present the methods used during the project and some generic aspects of course designs that were developed. The article ends with a more specific look at examples of task design from the courses given under the project framework.
In this study, we compare the first and the last sessions from an online oral proficiency course aimed at doctoral students conducted in the virtual world Second Life. The study attempts to identify how supportive moves made by the teacher encourage learners to engage with language, and what type of linguistic behaviour in the learners leads to engagement in others. We compare overall differences in terms of floor space and turn-taking patterns, and also conduct a more in-depth discourse analysis of parts of the sessions focusing on supportive moves such as back-channelling and elicitors. There are indications that the supportive linguistic behaviour of teachers is important in increasing learner engagement. In our study we are also able to observe a change in student linguistic behaviour between the first and the last sessions with students becoming more active in signalling involvement as the course progresses. Finally, by illustrating some of the language awareness issues that arise in online environments, we hope to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of online communication.
We explored gender stereotypes among Swedish university students (N = 101) who were studying a course in psychology, using a matched-guise experimental design. The gender identity of a speaker in a dialogue, manifested by voice, was digitally manipulated to sound male or female.
Responses to the recordings indicated that a speaker with a male voice was rated as significantly less conscientious, agreeable, extraverted, and open to experience than was the same speaker with a female voice. Regarding social behavior, there was a tendency for the speaker with a male voice
to be rated as more hostile than was the same speaker with a female voice. The study findings suggest that stereotype effects, rather than real behavioral differences, may have an impact on perceived gender differences.
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