Second language teaching in virtual worlds : the case of european college students under the ERASMUS programme.

Abstract

This project is a proposal for a case study that aims to describe and understand communicative and pedagogical processes involved in Second Life in a context of second language learning, by modelling in-world lessons of Portuguese as a second language for ERASMUS students arriving in Portugal. The purpose is to provide examples of situated elearning driven activities and perceive how an immersive context stimulates learning by involving students in a virtual reality situation, where real life language context situations are provoked and where not possible in real life learning routines happen. This will allow experiencing the advantages of this platform compared to physical life teaching and learning contexts, through the inherent characteristics of this medium, such as the synchronous and simultaneous use of voice and text.