THE Journal

RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING A RESORT WITHIN THE 'SECOND LIFE' DIGITAL WORLD TO USE AS A STAGE FOR LANGUAGE STUDIES.

It may not provide participants with the same quest-oriented challenges of a World of Warcraft or an EverQuest II, but the burgeoning 3-D virtual world known as Second Life is all about immersion. Second Life is a vast digital continent, teeming with avatars (nearly 10 million by one count) representing “residents” with homes and businesses.

Researchers at nonprofit research institute SRI International see Second Life as an environment with great promise for English language learners. SRI's Center for Technology in Learning (CTL) has just embarked on a research project called Lakamaka Island, named for a piece of real estate—a tropical island— that the institute has purchased in the Second Life universe. Principal investigators Valerie Crawford and Phil Vahey and their team are using this virtual island as a staging ground for language-learning studies.

Also on the project is John Brecht, a learning technology engineer. “We're looking at the virtual environment as a means of establishing a concrete context to practice language skills,” he says. “Rather than running students through exercises in the abstract, practicing words and phrases from a textbook, the virtual world allows you to engage students in a virtual role-playing exercise.”

Initially, CTL researchers plan to establish a narrative thread for visitors to the island, woven around the concept of travel, Brecht explains. Participants will check in to hotels, order meals, and engage in many of the activities they might experience during a trip to another country. SRI is also developing a voice-recognition engine designed to allow participants to practice their language skills, without having to have an expensive instructor or native speaker in the room.

The long-term goal of the project, which is still in the prototyping phase, is to create a kind of mutually supportive foreign exchange program, Brecht adds. “The island could be a place where you could have English speakers learning Japanese, and Japanese speakers learning English, with both helping each other through the exercises. Think of it as a bottom-up, self-motivated social system, rather than a traditional top-down, school-like experience.”