Week 1: Yulia (article review)

Wang, Song, Xia and Yan's (2009) article discusses students' experiences and perspectives on Second Life (henceforth SL) as a platform for learning English. Although their research is quite narrow in terms of the scope of inquiry (small sample size) and context, there are a few points that can help us understand how to facilitate L2 or EFL learning process and what could cause hindrances.

Based on the narratives of the Chinese students who participated in the project, it can be inferred that we need to consider SL learning environment, communication, task partners and general feelings of our students. For some of them it is important "not to lose face" and have no associated anxiety to communicate with the native speakers. These two findings are good examples Krashen's affective filter – one of the hypotheses of his SLA theory. The higher the levels of anxiety are, the higher the filter is and hence, the more negative impact students’ anxiety might have on their success and progress in language learning.

Other than anxiety, students' success in language acquisition can be affected by other factors, such as motivation, self-image, identity, gender, confidence, etc. (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). 

Although the findings of this article are quite useful in terms of understanding the SLA process and integrating SL into language teaching, it can be inferred that not all learners might find SL helpful. Also, there are a few practical considerations that educational practitioners need to take into account.

First of all, it is almost a pre-requisite that SL users should not be technologically challenged. Wang, Song, Xia and Yan (2009) sampled university students, whose age range was from 19 to 23. These young people were experienced in using various gadgets and online communication tools and were computer literate, which explains why SL can be helpful. However, people who are not computer literate for various reasons, such as age, absence of financial resources to purchase a computer and start learning how to use it, etc., in my view, would probably find SL challenging and prefer a conventional way.

Another consideration and limitation of SL is people’s learning styles. Not all learners are visual (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). Likewise, some learners prefer face-to-face communication to an online one.

And finally, to run SL application one needs to have a powerful computer with very good graphics and fast broadband, which not all language schools can afford and certainly not every individual. So there is a limitation on the target audience/learners that could make use of SL.

However, the presence of these limitations does not mean SL cannot be used as an educational platform. The awareness of its limitations and knowing our learners well (their styles, readiness to use such technologies, etc.) will help us understand who might benefit from it and how best to organise the learning process in SL so it facilitated students’ success in language learning.

References:

Wang, C., Song, H., Xia, F. & Yan, Q. (2009). Integrating Second Life into an EFL program: Students' perspectives. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 2(1), 1-16.

Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2006). How languages are learned. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.