February 2015, Volume 19, Number 1
pp. 83-101
ESL TEACHER TRAINING IN 3D VIRTUAL WORLDS
Iryna Kazlova, Carleton University
Dmitri Priven, Algonquin College
Dr. Iryna Kozlova is a part-time instructor at Carleton University, Canada. Some of her research interests include language learning pedagogy and teacher training in synchronous multimodal web-conferencing environments. She has extensive experience in designing and teaching online language courses and courses in applied linguistics.
Dmitri Priven teaches in and coordinates the Teachers of English as a Second/Foreign Language program at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. His research interests include the use of technology in ESL/EFL teacher training, as well as first language attrition and minority language education.
Language learning in 3D Virtual Worlds (VWs) has become a focus in teaching nowadays as the modern technologies are becoming more advanced and powerful. As stated by Kozlova, I & Priven, D. (2015) in their article, 3D VWs are defined as "persistent virtual environments in which people experience others as being there with them and where they interact with them” (Schroeder, 2008, p. 2). 3D VWs are useful as they can be used via communication, give users a simulation of real-life experiences, and is different from the normal face-to-face classroom and web-conferencing learning experience.
Therefore, this study aims to identify the skills needed specifically for teaching in 3D VWs, or 3D-specific skills, to observe how these skills are developed, and to find an effective method of teacher taining that facilitates the skill-acquisition process and makes it more meaningful and rewarding. This study uses Compton's (2009) framework as a general guideline to study the knowledge and skills needed for teaching in 3D VWs.
It was an international joint project by the Language Institute from one of the Canadian colleges and the English Language School of a university in Turkey. Six teacher trainees aged between 31 to 53 years old volunteered as participants in the study. They were pursuing graduate certificates in Teaching English as a Second Language/Foreign Language (TESL/FL) in the college administering the project in Canada. They were enrolled in a course on Educational Technology in Second/Foreign Language Teaching taught by the first author. Six females and two male students, aged 18 years old were in upper-intermediate English courses in the English language School in Turkey. The trainee teachers used pseudonyms instead of their real names when logging in the environment. All female teachers who were English native speakers logged in as Gerri, Simone, Diane, Lynn, and Joan. The male teacher, who was a native speaker of Korean and a near-native speaker of English logged in as Jack. All of the teachers except Jack have completed their teaching practicum by the time the project started.
Two virtual worlds, Algonquin College Campus and Tipontia Island were used as learning environments. They were created on a cloud-based platform AvayaLive Engage that has real-time collaboration and web-conferencing tools. Algonquin College Campus imitates the real-life campus. whereby it has a study hall, office buildings, and amphitheaters. Tipontia Island has a territory with mountains, trees, lake, river with waterfalls, and several landmarks. Participants logged in to the VWa as personalized avatars and they were able to do what humans do and imitate human gestures. They could also interact via audio and text-based chat and share web-cam video.
The teacher training were divided into two stages: a four-week pre-teaching stage and six-week teaching stage. During the pre-teaching stage, teacher trainees explored the 3D VWs, their locations and tools; developed language-learning tasks, and tested the tasks with peers and instructors. Written feedback were provided on Blackboard wikis. Task-based approach to language teaching was chosen as the theoretical background for the language instruction in 3D VWs. During teaching stage, teacher trainees were involved in task implementation, teaching observation, post-teaching feedback sessions, and reflections on teaching.
As a result, in pre-teaching stage, five integrated skill were emerged from the data. For the first skill, framing the task, they chose a task topic, an environment, task type, micro tasks and tools to mediate language production. Next, in providing input to learners, the teachers used oral input (role play) whereby they acted as the informants to the students. The other skills were managing student's collaboration, giving instructions, and providing feedback to students. Designing collaborative tasks and managing students' collaboration was the integrated skill. 3D VWs are collaborative environments so communication tools like public whiteboards and Power Point slides were used. Instructions were given in detailed script and teachers tried to give feedback to students without interfering their interaction while collaborating on their task. During teaching stage, teacher trainees wrote journal entries on their teaching experience after each teaching session. They wrote about what happened, challenges they faced during the tutoring sessions, and suggestions for improvement for teacher trainees who taught the following weeks. However, teachers faced some challenges and these challenges were highlighted in this stage. The difficulties include the skill of managing students' collaboration, skill of providing input, skill of giving instructions, and skill of providing feedback to students. Although during the pre-teaching stage they were able to develop skills that allowed them to get students engaged in collaborative learning, during the first two weeks of teaching they encountered these previously unidentified challenges.
For me, this is an interesting study because the implementation of 3D VWs in language learning is different from the normal language learning in class. Students get to interact with one another in the virtual world while learning the language. What interest me the most is that the use of the virtual worlds, Algonquin College Campus and Tipontia Island which imitate the real life situation. Students get to create their own avatars and these avatars can emulate what human beings do. This pretty much reminds me of the game "The Sims" and I can imagine the fun both trainee teachers and students have while conducting this study. Of course it is conducted with the focus of learning the English language. From the findings, it can be seen that certain teachers were good with 3D VWs. They managed to lead the group at the beginning of the task development. They made use of the learning environments as their learning tools and posted feedback in wiki page where other teachers adapted their teaching skills according to their suitability. Students were given the opportunities to use language when collaborating with the task.
However, there are some challenges faced by the trainee teachers and students in using the 3D VWs because they do not have any teaching and learning in 3D VWs before. Since 3D VWs are complex systems that require understanding of how the environment and its tools are used for realization of pedagogical goals, it is somehow difficult and time consuming for novice teachers to explore the environment and learn how to teach in such environment on their own. The students who are native speakers of Turkish are also not accustomed to using the target language while working on the task as they find it strange to speak English with their own native people. Future research can be conducted to teachers who have experienced in teaching using the 3D VWs instead of trainee teachers and ensuring that they have adequate knowledge on 3D VWs and how to implement this in their teaching, so that they can guide their students later on.
Using technology in language learning is not strange these days. Even in Malaysia, schools and universities have incorporated the use of technology in teaching and learning. Schools are equipped with computer labs and even projectors in classroom. In universities, there is blended learning where students get to learn in class and also in virtual world as what we have in our university which is iLearn. Situated learning promotes social interaction and collaboration is an essential component in situated learning - learners become actively participated and engaged in the activities. With the advancement of modern technologies, 3D VWs are one of the tools that can be used in Malaysia and similar research can be adapted in Malaysian context since English is our second language and it would be great to see whether using 3D VWs in English second language (ESL) learning will produce the same result if it is conducted in our country.
For me, this is an interesting study because the implementation of 3D VWs in language learning is different from the normal language learning in class. Students get to interact with one another in the virtual world while learning the language. What interest me the most is that the use of the virtual worlds, Algonquin College Campus and Tipontia Island which imitate the real life situation. Students get to create their own avatars and these avatars can emulate what human beings do. This pretty much reminds me of the game "The Sims" and I can imagine the fun both trainee teachers and students have while conducting this study. Of course it is conducted with the focus of learning the English language. From the findings, it can be seen that certain teachers were good with 3D VWs. They managed to lead the group at the beginning of the task development. They made use of the learning environments as their learning tools and posted feedback in wiki page where other teachers adapted their teaching skills according to their suitability. Students were given the opportunities to use language when collaborating with the task.
However, there are some challenges faced by the trainee teachers and students in using the 3D VWs because they do not have any teaching and learning in 3D VWs before. Since 3D VWs are complex systems that require understanding of how the environment and its tools are used for realization of pedagogical goals, it is somehow difficult and time consuming for novice teachers to explore the environment and learn how to teach in such environment on their own. The students who are native speakers of Turkish are also not accustomed to using the target language while working on the task as they find it strange to speak English with their own native people. Future research can be conducted to teachers who have experienced in teaching using the 3D VWs instead of trainee teachers and ensuring that they have adequate knowledge on 3D VWs and how to implement this in their teaching, so that they can guide their students later on.
Using technology in language learning is not strange these days. Even in Malaysia, schools and universities have incorporated the use of technology in teaching and learning. Schools are equipped with computer labs and even projectors in classroom. In universities, there is blended learning where students get to learn in class and also in virtual world as what we have in our university which is iLearn. Situated learning promotes social interaction and collaboration is an essential component in situated learning - learners become actively participated and engaged in the activities. With the advancement of modern technologies, 3D VWs are one of the tools that can be used in Malaysia and similar research can be adapted in Malaysian context since English is our second language and it would be great to see whether using 3D VWs in English second language (ESL) learning will produce the same result if it is conducted in our country.
APA Citation: Kozlova, I., & Priven, D. (2015). ESL teacher training in 3D virtual worlds. Language Learning & Technology, 19(1), 83–101. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2015/kozlovapriven.pdf
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