Learner participation patterns and strategy usein Second Life: an exploratory case study

This paper reports on an exploratory case study that investigates the synchronous interactionof intermediate level EFL learners in the 3D virtual world Second Life. The subjects took partin three seventy-minute chat sessions that involved the use of affordances provided by apurpose-built world within this environment. Analysis of the data revealed that the contextand tasks appeared to elicit a high degree of participation. The interaction was highly learner–centered, with the majority of messages exchanged between students. The analysis furtherindicated that the subjects overcame initial difficulties to produce coherent target languageoutput focused on the tasks through collaborative interaction involving the use of fivetransactional and two interactional discourse management strategies. Transactional strategiesidentified in the data were the use of split turns, time saving devices, addressivity, upper caseand quotation marks. Interactional strategies were the use of politeness and keyboard symbols.The majority of these represented transfers from strategies used in non-computer-basedforms of communication. The others were adaptive behaviours appropriate to the onlinemedium. The consistent use of these strategies enabled the subjects to manage their interactionin an effective manner. Learner feedback was largely positive, and indicted that participationappeared to engender high levels of motivation and interest. This paper concludes by identifyingareas of potential in future research on the use of 3D virtual worlds in CALL