NIFLAR pilots 2009

One of the first publications of the NIFLAR project.

Jauregi, Kristi, Rick de Graaff, Silvia Canto and Ton Koenraad. (2009) Towards a pedagogical framework for task design in video-web communication and virtual worlds.

To appear in the Conference Proceedings EUROCALL 2009 - New Trends in CALL: Working Together. Also submitted for publication in ReCALL.

Abstract

Within the NIFLAR project two environments are being used in which language students can communicate synchronously with native speakers: video web communication and virtual worlds.  In a video web communication environment students from various countries can talk, work together and share files (for example photos, presentations, films) while seeing each other, whereas in a virtual world students’ avatars can interact with and talk to each other while undertaking action together (exploring, constructing, problem solving, going into different spaces, meeting unknown avatars…). In both cases the language students’ discussion partners are native speaker student teachers, who in this way have the opportunity to communicate with ‘real’ foreign language learners and give them feedback. For this, researchers and student teachers together have developed pedagogical tasks in which authentic social interaction and intercultural awareness play a much larger role than in most present-day classroom language education. In this article we present and discuss a set of design principles which have been developed and tested within the NIFLAR project. In order to illustrate its application, we will present the analysis and assessment of some tasks that have been developed for and applied in video web communication and particularly in the virtual world Second Life. We finally present the results of a pilot conducted recently in Second Life.