5. Oral Skills in a Connected World: Function of a Language Lab 25 Years After the Founding of CALICO
M. Trevor Shanklin, San Diego State UniversityAbstract:
This article explores the configuration of a university foreign language lab given the dramatic changes in the last decade with regard to digital recording technology and the web as a basis for social networking. Resources and procedures are described for completing class assignments, making content available, carrying out assessment, including interactivity in fostering oral skills and assessment, and finally creating an exploratory and dynamic learning environment.
KEYWORDS
Oral Skills, Assessment, Language Lab, Technology Learning Outcomes
INTRODUCTION
The perspective of a language lab director is dramatically different now from that of 25 years ago. We have evolved from analog to digital technology in interconnectedness through the social-networking nature of the internet today and in the ability to transfer audio and video files in the twinkling of an eye. What is the significance of these changes of the language lab today, far removed from the audiocassettes of old where the instructor could listen in on individual students and groups as they repeated pattern drills? Indeed the question is asked whether language labs should be replaced by the increased mobility of computers through a one-to-one laptop program, cell phones, iPods, or their equivalent.
At the Language Acquisition Research Center (LARC), integrated into the language labs at San Diego State University (SDSU), we have set up the labs to meet the needs of the digital age, and we feel that these resources are essential for the success of the broad range of language programs offered at the university. Curiously, in a time of increased reliance on the internet for programs and content, the principle that might best characterize the labs is maintaining control through our servers, while teaching technology skills as learning outcomes in a foreign language curriculum.
Although we are dependent on the Instructional Technology Services at the university for a wide range of support (e.g., maintaining security and negotiating firewalls) and on Telecommunications and Network Services for providing the infrastructure for the high-speed internet connections, we do have our own servers for materials, databases, and instructional aides. Recently, we added two RAID servers with two terabytes of storage space: one terabyte for active use and one terabyte for backup. Why do we view this control as critical in a time when more and more applications can be run via the web? Our servers are our point of contact
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with the web. We use the server space for carrying out assessment and storing assignments. We clearly want to guarantee the reliability of the data in both of these endeavors. Let me provide a brief description of how we have configured our labs to meet foreign language faculty and student needs.
SERVER USE
If I were to choose one concept as central to the configuration of the labs and a technology outcome objective for students, it would be file transfer protocol (FTP). Through a simple FTP process, we can have students upload spoken and written tests and assignments. The fundamental principle of networking underlies the system of file transfer. When a student has two windows open on the computer, one window is on the computer, and the other is a window into the network. Dragging a file from one window to another takes it from the computer to the network. In our PC lab, students use Internet Explorer to click on a link on our web page that takes them to the FTP site where they enter a username and a password for their class. The window on the server allows them to upload but not to download. On the Macintosh platform, students use Fetch.
In addition to employing a basic networking process, students also can create and edit original material this way, before uploading it to the server. In terms of reliability, it means we can have a back-up copy on the computer in addition to the uploaded file. However, it also puts students in control of the technology. For audio recording we use Goldwave in the PC lab and Sound Studio 3 in the Mac lab. Both of these programs are both easy to use and powerful. Students, therefore, can complete an assignment simply or elaborately by using their editing skills. As an example with Goldwave, we tell students to use only the pause button on the recording panel. Once the stop button has been clicked on, the recording window is restricted. If students press the recording button again, the original recording will be recorded over. However, by selecting the part of the window beyond the recording, it is possible to continue the recording. Students can then cut parts out and make a more refined recording. It is also possible to use a number of filters, such as raising the volume if students have spoken too softly. Because both of our labs have been set up to enhance the quality of the audio recording, even if the original recording is too soft, the edited recording with the raised volume will be clear due to the absence of white noise and background noise, which used to plague us when we first started to configure the lab for digital recordings. We use a Logitech premium USB 350 headset on all computers. The latest version of Sound Studio, version 3.5.5, overcomes the restrictions noted above for Goldwave by making it possible to stop and start the recording without recording over the original. Also the graph now instantly displays in Sound Studio, as in Goldwave.
Mastering these techniques puts students in control of the technology (see the September 2007 draft TESOL technology standards for students at http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/bin.asp?CID=86&DID=9718&DOC=FILE.PDF). We support the 450 American Sign Language students at SDSU with a similar system using iMovie to make video recordings. Once again, students use a simple instruction sheet to complete the assignment and upload the file to the instructor's folder on our server. In addition, the more students wish to explore, the more effective they can become at editing these videos. They can add a title, transitions between the clips, edit out unwanted material, and even add a voice or text narrative. In addition to saving their film as a QuickTime movie and loading it on our server, they can burn a DVD for class or save it to their iPod.
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CONTENT
On the server, we build the basic infrastructure for promoting productive skills in such a way that basic technology skills are fostered as well. What is most important is the creation, storage, and sharing of content; the availability of language-learning software (e.g., Auralog's Tell Me More with built in speech recognition); assessment; the promotion of interactivity; and the linking of students here and abroad. Students can employ the technology that specifically enables them to join the global community.
At LARC/SDSU, we create and gather content and store it on web pages and in course management systems. We have a password-protected language page for 12 of the languages taught at SDSU, where we store sound files and video files and provide links to internet sites. Teachers sometimes put up sound files as assignments on the website for which students record responses. A Japanese instructor, for example, has put up video clips and pictures linked to sound files that ask students questions that students answer using the system described above. Other instructors use the Blackboard or the Moodle site which we have also set up at LARC.
LARC also maintains the Digital Media Archive currently with audio and video clips in 18 languages. Anyone can add to this archive by clicking on the Contribute link at http://larcdma.sdsu.edu. Also all of the files can be downloaded as podcasts by going to http://larc.sdsu.edu/podcasts. By subscribing to a language, any additional video clips are automatically downloaded to an aggregator such as iTunes.
ASSESSMENT
We encourage the use of digital recording software for oral assessments. We have developed two internet-based assessment instruments: LARCStar and CAST. The LARCStar program is for teachers to develop their own tests. A review of the latest version of this software, 2.2, was published in the September 2007 issue of the CALICO Journal. The software allows teachers to add video, picture, text, and audio prompts to elicit spoken discourse from students. After extensive piloting, we modified the software, removing the automatic timer in order to give students as much time as they need to record their response. Individual instructors can add timing constraints to a test, but, in the absence of instructor-imposed constraints, students are free to record a response, listen to it, and rerecord it until they are satisfied. One distinct advantage of LARCStar over the FTP system described above is that after the test has been graded, students can log back on and listen to the original prompt and their recording while reading feedback provided by the teacher. The software can be downloaded at http://larclab.sdsu.edu (click on online tests).
The CAST program is a national test that has been created in a consortium with four other leading institutions for foreign language assessment (see demo at http://cast.sdsu.edu). Unlike LARCStar, which is created by the teacher, the items for the CAST test have already been agreed upon, in seven functional categories and twelve content areas. There are currently over 250 banked items. The test is now being piloted in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Persian; additional tests are being developed in Egyptian and Iraqi Arabic, French, and German. The test is intended to give students an idea of whether they are at the ACTFL advanced level of speaking file://localhost/(http/::www.actfl.org:files:public:Guidelinesspeak.pdf). People taking the test answer five questions in depth that are randomly chosen from the banked items but designed to ensure that certain functions are always tested and that the content comes from a range of categories. The test takers then learn whether they are at the advanced level, approaching the advanced level, or not there yet. The test team is currently working on a
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feedback site that will give test takers individualized guidance on how to prepare for the full fledged ACTFL OPI based on their performance on CAST. The test results are scored by human evaluators (see Figure 1).
From the perspective of the language lab, the test serves as a model for prompts and a rating rubric, and we assist instructors as they assess students' oral skills. It would also be possible to use the same approach for the Video Oral Communications Instrument (VOCI) that was developed in the mid 1990s. Seven of the videocassette VOCIs were digitized (ESL, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish). Our students now take these tests by launching a QuickTime movie and using the recording software and server access as described above. In Spanish and Chinese, these tests are used to evaluate proficiency in international business programs. In Japanese, all students are tested annually on the first of the three parts of the exam as an on-going program evaluation. We anticipate that the CAST exams will gradually replace the VOCI exams.
We also use the FTP system described above for assessment. In the Fall 2007 term, for example, a first-semester Japanese class used the lab once every 3 weeks for oral assessment. At the beginning of the second half of the term, first- and second-year students were asked to evaluate the use of the lab in improving their speaking skills. Students evaluated the lab on a 3-point scale. First-year students rated the value of the lab at an average of 2.55, and second-year students at an average of 1.48. The second-year students were recording on their own, uploading their files to the server, and getting occasional feedback. It seems the students who received systematic feedback through the process of oral assessment greatly valued the use of lab resources.
INTERACTIVITY
The oral assessment instruments and procedures reviewed up to this point do not provide an assessment of interactive oral skills. To accomplish this at the moment, we have combined our FTP procedure with Skype (voice over internet protocol), recording software for Skype, and the configuration of our Moodle site (see also Mullen, Appel, & Shanklin, in press). One project that made use of Skype in this way involved a partnership between third-year Japanese students at SDSU and students of English at Tsuda College in Japan.
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We are in the second phase of the Japanese project and have made many adjustments based on the experience and feedback in the first phase. In the first phase, the instructor in Japan assigned students to partners and gave them a list of topics to discuss. We attempted to set the lab up to record students, but two problems interfered with all but a few of the calls: difficulty in managing the software and the enormous time difference between California and Japan, which prevented students from doing their recordings in the lab. Not all students completed the project, and several expressed considerable dissatisfaction. For example, in response to the question "Why did you like or not like talking to your partner?" there were seven positive responses, one neutral, and three negative; in response to the question, "In which way was Skype helpful or not for practicing your speaking skills?" there were only three positive responses, two neutral, and six negative.
Sample positive response
For me; it was nice to have the speaking be a requirement; because then I was guaranteed to do it. I am not that confident in my speaking; so being able to practice was very nice. Of course; it was helpful that my partner and I had topics given to us. It was hard to get started; since we were both nervous; but the topics allowed us to just start talking.
Sample negative response
Sometimes it is difficult to hear the speaker on the other side due to technological problems. Also; the time difference made it difficult to setup a good time to speak to my Skype partner.
Sample neutral response
Well; outside of this assignment; when I talk to Japanese friends or my girlfriend on skype it is great. We converse and I can learn new words and phrases. I really like the program.
In the second phase, students logged onto our Moodle site and wrote a brief introduction along with their email address, Skype name, and hours of availability. By clicking on 'Participants,' students could see who was currently online, read an introduction, and decide who they would like to Skype. The instructor at Tsuda College set up a series of assignments with a link to two different pictures, one for the SDSU students and one for the Japanese students. The students' task was to describe the differences in the pictures, some differences in Japanese and some in English. We also started checking out headsets so that students could complete their assignments at home. Students were encouraged to complete their assignments even if they were not able to actually record the conversation.
The distribution of calls has been far more successful in the second phase than in the first. With 2 weeks left to go in the second phase (as of this writing), 34 conversations have taken place in contrast to 23 in the first phase. Also, the sustainability of the exchanges has greatly improved. In the first phase, 12 pairs of students participated in exchanges:
9 pairs communicated 1 time,
2 pairs communicated 3 times, and
1 pair communicated 8 times.
As is usually the case in these kinds of volunteer/semivolunteer tandem projects, a very steep drop-off in participation occurred over the course of the project. Conversations were not necessarily well divided between the two languages. For example, it seems that the pair who spoke 8 times spoke almost exclusively in Japanese.
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In the second phase, only 9 pairs have participated so far, but the distribution of calls has been much better:
3 pairs communicated 1 time,
1 pair communicated 3 times,
3 pairs communicated 4 times,
2 pairs communicated 5 times, and
1 pair communicated 6 times.
Further, all of the conversations have been evenly divided between English and Japanese and focused on language study using the tasks. And they are continuing, so probably there will be several more conversations to add to this.
The recording software we have installed on our iMacs also allows us to tape students in the same class. For example, in one 50-minute session, 30 third-year Spanish students were able to record two 10-minute conversations between pairs and upload them to the instructor's folder on the server. This enables the documentation of conversational skills. It is also possible to use the Skype conference feature to have several students on at the same time, or students and a Teaching Assistant.
The activity on the Moodle site by participants also reveals the involvement of the students as they accessed tasks and profiles. The 11 students who consulted at least one task clicked on components in the Moodle site 403, 304, 254, 247, 229, 194, 150, 112, 93, 85, and 42 times, respectively.
VIDEOCONFERENCING AND BEYOND
We have recently equipped a high-tech classroom specifically for classes in less commonly taught languages. The room has a new smart board, five oval tables with pull-out PC trays, and 16 laptops are distributed to students. Among other things we have used the room for teleconferencing using eLuminate. The room will be used for the California State University Distance Education Initiative to support the Global Studies major being offered at San Jose State University with support from California State University, Monterey Bay and SDSU. Courses taught at all three campuses will fulfill the requirements for the Global Studies degree at San Jose State University. Videoconferencing and distance education will be further important components in any language lab in our digital age.
Clearly, we are not advocating a one-size-fits-all solution for language labs and language teaching. The procedures that we have put in place have evolved out of an attempt to assist faculty in accomplishing their objectives. The FTP process evolved out of an attempt to help a Spanish teacher administer written exams and the American Sign Language coordinator to administer video assessments. We simplified the process to the point at which we could guarantee technological reliability. Similarly, setting up the lab to ensure high-quality recording and reliability led to the emergence of new processes. Students in a German course have used a camcorder to shoot video and then edited the final result in iMovie. A number of Spanish instructors have sent their students to do oral assessments with iMovie so that the instructor could see that the students were not reading from a paper when recording! These projects show a vibrant, dynamic community where new ideas are engendered in the continuous effort to harness technology to accomplish learning objectives.
We are fortunate to have both a national resource center for foreign language learning (LARC) and the foreign language labs at a university that cares greatly about its foreign
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language program. That same engendering of ideas takes place across many communities. Not every institution is so fortunate; nonetheless, I believe that the structure demonstrated here for a vibrant digital foreign language lab in our connected world is a model for any institution.
The one thing we do not have in place, you may have noticed, is a replacement for the traditional language lab! Nothing described here enables the instructor to easily group students and listen in on conversations in real time. The LARC language labs will be moving in 2009 or early 2010, and we will be faced with making decisions on installing a digital language lab to be integrated into an already-in-place network. If we do so, we of course want to encourage faculty to use the facility. But we still want them to be able to make decisions about their goals and how they might accomplish those goals.
And what of the great number of tasks and content made available online by publishing companies? In the Spanish department at SDSU, instructors use Quia. We have had demonstrations by McGraw Hill in our labs to Spanish faculty on how to access Quia and make optimal use of it. The resources of the lab nicely complement those offered by the publishing company. Also, Wimba is licensed to SDSU as a module in Blackboard. Some of our instructors leave a prompt for the students on the voice discussion board to which students respond simply by clicking on the tab in Blackboard. This has also been used for assessment in the lab.
Finally, a word about support. We have two labs and always keep one open for self-study. Last semester we had over 7,000 individual visits and 150 class visits to our second lab, and some classes were regularly held there. We encourage students and faculty to master the resources, but we also make sure that someone is on hand to assist them. I am certain that the atmosphere of the LARC labs is a laboratory for exploration.
REFERENCE
Mullen, T., Appel, M., & Shanklin, M. T. (in press). Skype-based tandem language learning and web 2.0. In M. Thomas (Ed.), Handbook of language acquisition technologies: Web 2.0 transformation of learning. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
AUTHOR'S BIODATA
Trevor Shanklin, Ph.D., is the director of the LARC language labs at SDSU. He is a language teacher and teacher trainer with a background in linguistics and experience in Central and Eastern Europe. Recently he coordinated a literacy project at 10 federal schools on the Navajo Nation for the Chinle Technology Consortium
AUTHOR'S ADDRESS
Trevor Shanklin
Language Acquisition Resource Center
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-8305
Phone: 619 594 5445
Fax: 619 594 0511
6. Web 2.0, Synthetic Immersive Environments, and Mobile Resources for Language Education
Julie M. Sykes, University of MinnesotaAna Oskoz, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Steven L. Thorne, The Pennsylvania State University
Abstract:
In light of the increasingly blurred line between mediated and nonmediated contexts for social, professional, and educational purposes, attention to the presence and use of innovative digital media is critical to the consideration of the future of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). This article reviews current trends in the use of mediated communication and offers a vision for near-future second and foreign language (L2) learning that utilizes emerging media as (a) meaningful contexts for L2 language development and (b) a means for adding real world relevance to in-class uses of internet-mediated communication tools. In this article, we first explore a sampling of Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking) related to collaborative content building and dissemination of information. We then consider three types of 3-dimensional virtual environments, including open social virtualities (such as Second Life and There), massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) (e.g., World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Eve Online), and synthetic immersive environments (SIEs, i.e., visually rendered spaces which combine aspects of open social virtualities with goal-directed gaming models to address specific learning objectives). In particular, we report on SIEs as they might be used to foster interlanguage pragmatic development and briefly report on an existing project in this area. The ultimate goal is to spark future research and pedagogical innovation in these areas of emerging digital media in order to arrive at a greater understanding of the complexities involved in their integration with language learning in ways that will be most relevant to the communicative contexts of the 21st century.
KEYWORDS
Web 2.0, Online Virtual Worlds, Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), Synthetic Immersive Environments (SIEs), Wiki, Blog, Social Bookmarking
INTRODUCTION
At present, education is entering a particularly critical stage that is marked by an urgent need to examine the role digitally mediated, collaborative tools play, not only as learning tools, but as authentic means of communication and relationship building. Concomitant with burgeoning numbers of internet users (approaching 1.25 billion individuals as of September 30, 2007)1 comes a parallel growth in quantity and variety of mediated expression, the everyday forms of participation in civic, professional, and social life, and, perhaps most profoundly, the
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emergence of entirely new social formations that have surfaced only in, and through, internet mediation (for discussions, see Jenkins, 2006; Thorne, 2008a; Thorne & Black, 2008).
The global internet use statistics presented above, supported by sociological research (e.g., Castells, 2004), suggest that, in many economically developed regions, one would find it difficult to conduct common professional and interpersonal activities without internet information and communication tools.2 In this sense, internet-mediated communication is no longer a supplement to, or practice arena for, communication in everyday life. Instead, it "is a high-stakes environment in its own right" (Thorne & Payne, 2005, p. 372). That is, instead of merely simulating other modes of interaction, technology-mediated communication is, in and of itself, the real thing that operates as a critically important medium for all kinds of human interaction. In addition to the changes technology has precipitated in communicative functioning, there are cognitive implications related to the increased use of digital information and communication tools as well. Namely, recent research indicates both a qualitative and physiological shift in cognitive processes based on the prolific use of these tools in everyday life (e.g., Dror, 2007). Our premise, therefore, is that, in considering the future of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), we should continue to leverage educationally oriented, computer-mediated activity, while also remaining aware of the transformational roles many of these collaborative tools play in meaningful language use, both inside and outside of the classroom. A corollary is that, in some cases, mastery of high-frequency and high-stakes mediated genres of communication should also form the explicit goal of educational practice.
This article reviews current trends in the use of digitally mediated communication and offers a vision for near-future second and foreign language learning (L2) that utilizes emerging media as (a) meaningful contexts for L2 language development and (b) a means for adding real world relevance to in-class uses of internet communication tools. In the following sections, we examine these issues in light of two genres of digital spaces--Web 2.0 technologies and multiuser, immersive virtual spaces. We first explore a sampling of three Web 2.0 technologies (i.e., wikis, blogs, social bookmarking) as related to transforming the practice of collaborative content building, dissemination, and categorization. This discussion will utilize specific examples drawn from projects related to L2 learning in Web 2.0 contexts. In the second half of the article, we consider three types of immersive virtual environments, including open social virtualities (e.g., Second Life or There), massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) (the most prominent example of which is World of Warcraft), and synthetic immersive environments (SIEs, i.e., visually rendered spaces which combine attributes of open social virtualities with goal-directed gaming models to address specific learning objectives). In particular, we will focus on SIEs as they might be used to foster interlanguage pragmatic development and will briefly report on an existing project in this area. The ultimate goal of this article is to spark future research and pedagogical innovation in these Web 2.0 and SIE-related areas in order to arrive at a greater understanding of the complexities involved in the integration of digital media with language learning in ways that will be most relevant to the communicative contexts of the 21st century.
WEB 2.0: WIKIS, BLOGS, AND SOCIAL BOOKMARKING
With the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies, we have seen a noteworthy impact on the manners in which content is created, disseminated, and interpreted in society (Brown & Adler, 2008; Levy & Stone, 2006). Each of the Web 2.0 tools chosen for discussion in this article plays an important role in the understanding of a new conceptualization of social knowledge.
Wikis (i.e., collaborative, editable web spaces) facilitate the creation of content by groups of people, often resulting in the production of more accurate, diverse, and thorough
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informational texts. For example, one would be hard pressed to find an internet user not familiar with Wikipedia3 (http://www.wikipedia.org, currently reporting "more than 75,000 active contributors and 9,000,000 entries in more than 250 languages," Wikipedia, November 2007), a site that has been described as "collaborative writing that leverages collective intelligence for knowledge production in the public domain" (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007, p. 17). While the value of the information on Wikipedia has recently been the focus of much debate (Jaschik, 2007), there is strong evidence that Wikipedia and related resources have transformed the ways in which knowledge is documented and shared on a global scale (Jenkins, 2008).
In conjunction with the collaborative content creation often found in wikis, blogs provide a new medium of individualized self-expression. A recent count by Technorati estimates the existence of more than 70 million active blogs with the number growing daily. Furthermore, real-time blogging through, for example, Twitter (http://twitter.com), is taking this individualized expression a step further by allowing opinions and commentary to be documented and shared synchronously. With increased access to the production and dissemination of information comes an increasing need to organize and personalize relevant information efficiently (Levy & Stone, 2006). Social bookmarking sites, such as del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us), support this process by allowing users to catalogue, characterize, and share indexical resources to information.
While space limitations preclude further discussion, we wish to note the growing prominence of social computing networks (e.g., Facebook [http://www.facebook.com] and MySpace [http://www.myspace.com]) and media self-publishing venues (e.g., Flickr [http://www.flickr.com] and YouTube [http://www.youtube.com]) that allow users to personally connect, socially interact, and share media and activities with one another at a scale that is staggering.4 Facebook, for example, reports 57 million active users and an average of 250,000 new registered users daily since January 2007.
WEB 2.0 AND L2 LEARNING
In relation to the development of plurilingual competence, Web 2.0 tools support collaborative and individual text and multimedia production. Relatedly, they foster attention to aspects of language use that span from appropriate lexical choice to syntactic accuracy and from rhetorical style to textual cohesion and genre specificity. Furthermore, they have the potential to encourage awareness of the use of written language and visual expression as forms of representation that are rooted in, often pluralistic, linguistic and cultural conventions.
The aforementioned characteristics of Web 2.0 technologies help explain why reports on the use of wikis and blogs5 represent an emerging growth market in the economy of CALL research (e.g., Ducate & Lomicka, 2005; Kost, 2007; Thorne & Payne, 2005). Importantly, wikis and blogs are spaces in which students have the potential to move from the conventional epistemic stance of knowledge consumer to that of knowledge producer, and, in so doing, to shift also from mere participation in an educational community to contributive and co-constitutive roles in that community. We would underscore, however, that L2 and general educational uses of these technologies require critical awareness of media literacies and may provide both new resources as well as precipitate significant challenges to teachers and administrators (for a discussion, see Thorne & Reinhardt, 2008). The remainder of this section reports on work currently underway in the CALL arena related to wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking. Each section further explores the unique role these tools can, and perhaps should, play in future language learning endeavors. Examples from current projects are included where available.
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Wikis: Collaborative Content Creation
Originally utilized by computer programmers and system designers, wikis have become popular venues for collaboration and communication in a variety of contexts, including the education arena, at both the K-12 and university levels (Farabaugh, 2007; Farabaugh, Farabaugh & Freeland, 2005; Kost, 2007; Oskoz & Elola, 2008; Wang et al., 2005). In part, educators' interest in the use of wikis likely "derives from the facility [they] offer [for] talking to others, regardless of the distance, and the opportunity [they] provide to gather information. Using [them], we feel connected, both to the people and to various contexts of our world" (Farabaugh, 2007, p. 42). Furthermore, wikis are readily accessible and are low or no cost for noncommercial (e.g., educational or nonprofit) use.6 Increasingly, open source (e.g., Moodle) and commercial (e.g., WebCT/Blackboard) course management systems (CMSs) now include integrated wiki and blog spaces, making them more readily available to practitioners already using such systems.
Early reports on the use of wikis in the L2 classroom have been primarily descriptive and exploratory in nature (Godwin-Jones, 2003; Thorne & Payne, 2005), but a number of projects currently underway have documented innovative uses of wikis in the L2 classroom. These include the application of wikis to connect methodology classes among universities (Lomicka, Lord, Ducate, & Arnold, 2007), to examine students' content and composition development (Oskoz & Elola, 2008), and to assess learners' language use as part of their experience in writing classes (Kost, 2007). From an examination of these studies, as well as the more general literature on wikis, two attributes of this mediated context emerge as especially applicable to the CALL arena. These include a reconceptualization of authorship as well as changes to approaches to the writing process as a whole.
The blurring of historical notions of authorship that emerge as a function of collaborative writing in a universal write-access wiki space revises the conventional author-reader relationship; witness the lack of explicitly defined authorship on sites such as Wikipedia to name the most prominent example (see Thorne, 2008b, for a discussion). Fully utilizing wikis in the L2 classroom requires recognition of the learning that can take place through, and as a result of, the collaborative creation of one final product (Brown & Adler, 2008). This has an impact not only on the notion of individualized scholarship, but also the created product as a whole.
In terms of assessment and insight into the writing process, a useful feature for language educators is the ability to explicitly track all registered user contributions to a wiki document (e.g., additions, deletions, alterations, etc.). This feature makes visible many aspects of the historical evolution of a text as well as the content of individual user contributions. Learners themselves can use document tracking features to examine the evolution of a text, potentially enhancing their ability to objectively monitor and control their learning processes. As stated by Farabaugh, "the discussion tend[s] to be evolving and democratic ... with each participant in turn taking the opportunity to shape the 'reified' experience" (2007, p. 45). In essence, knowledge building is not only focused on developing a final product; also highlighted are the turn-by-turn dynamics of scholarly authorship within an "open source epistemology" (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007, p. 18).
The collaborative value of wikis is further increased when accompanied by the use of web-based voice applications such as the commercial tools Skype, Skype TM, or Voice Direct. Adding a synchronous voice application to the asynchronous collaboration of wikis provides another layer of complexity and richness to students' work and increases the level of accountability for the participants (Oskoz & Elola, 2008). Collaboration goes beyond the editing of sentences, organization of paragraphs, and addition of content. Given that the final product is a representation of all of those involved, the synchronous voice discussion becomes a
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negotiation of ideas, more closely mimicking collaborative scenarios that often happen in the nonacademic world (e.g., Brown & Adler, 2008; Jenkins, 2006). From a pedagogical point of view, instructors can design activities that engage learners, both synchronously and asynchronously, to enable collaborative engagement on a more complex level. To take an example from one of our institutions, students in advanced writing classes in Spanish participate in research projects in which pairs of students collaborate in the development of content and language learning related tasks via wiki. While students complete most of the work and the revisions in the wiki, they have the opportunity to fine tune and discuss any content or linguistic concerns synchronously by using tools such as Voice Direct. Through archival searches of these online discussions, a record of the collaborative process is created that can be easily accessed and reviewed.
From a research point of view, the use of wikis, in conjunction with voice (or written) chat, supplies a large amount of data regarding students' collaboration across drafts, the depth of students' discussions with voice/written chat, and organizational, linguistic and content related differences between first and final drafts (Oskoz & Elola, 2008). This information can provide additional insights into the complex L2 writing process, which, in turn, can inform pedagogical applications in the classroom.
Blogs: Self-expression and (the Potential for) Enhanced Readership
Blogs come in many shapes and sizes and have evolved as a set of "social and informational phenomena that include mainstream media as well as grassroots and watchdog news reporting, thematic and topic-specific amateur and professional observations, business and commercial information outlets, and, of course, the 'public' journaling of one's 'private' life" (Thorne & Payne, 2005, p. 382). They are free (e.g., Blogger.com [https://www.blogger.com/start]), easy to create (i.e., often a matter of merely entering content and uploading), and customizable (making them attractive to advanced users). In addition, they provide a space in the public domain to which information can be added instantaneously (Richardson, 2006) and made available to a global audience.7 Thus, blogs are especially useful for encouraging individual (and less frequently, group) authorship that is relevant to a larger, interactive community.
Blogs are receiving increasingly more attention in CALL research and second language instruction (e.g., Bloch, 2007; Ducate & Lomicka, 2005; Elola & Oskoz, 2008; Fidalgo-Eick, 2006) as primarily individual authoring environments. While blogs are often richly interlinked with other interactive digital spaces, blogs tend to be highly personal and have been described as "I, I, me-me-me" environments due to the fact that they are typically controlled by a single person and explicitly reflect that individual's point of view (Thorne & Payne, 2005, p. 382). Their potential to enhance L2 writing skills through meaningful tasks and extended readership is often the subject of attention.
Despite the individually oriented perspective often associated with blogging, their use also offers significant opportunities to cultivate interaction. Readers can respond to writers' entries with comments that can result in de facto threaded discussions (Campbell, 2003). Student maintenance of individual journals by participating in blog communities, different from essays written to an unknown or overly narrow audience (e.g., the instructor), provides students with a sense of authorial purpose (Fidalgo-Eick, 2006). Moreover, blogs can be used to enhance students' reading and writing, both in their native language and the target language(s) (Ducate & Lomicka, 2005). Furthermore, students can access entries on different topics by experts and other learners as well as explore links referenced within a blog. Learners
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can also read blogs written by individuals around the world, supporting the analysis of--and interaction with--cultural information viewed as a form of legitimate cultural eavesdropping.
In addition, blogs can be envisioned as a tool for students to develop intercultural communicative competence, defined as openness to difference and a capacity to contingently and dynamically interact with members of other speech communities and cultures (e.g., Byram, 2000; Belz & Thorne, 2006; Thorne, 2006). In a recent project (Elola & Oskoz, 2008), blogs were used to connect residential foreign language students with international partners. Following discussion of a series of tasks related to family, health, art, and urban living, students, working primarily in pods of four (two students in the US and two students in Spain) presented evidence of intercultural competence. Overall, students found the experience to be successful and both groups perceived that blogging had a positive effect in their intercultural competence development.
Alternative forms of blogging
Current blogging practices involve more than the written word. Three popular forms of multimedia blogging--audioblogging, moblogging, and vloging--include the primary objective of blogging through multimedia (i.e., audiofiles, pictures, and videos) as an addition to, or replacement of, textual postings. Similar to text blog posts, multimedia blogs are organized by the time and date posted. Moblogging, for its part, allows users to upload pictures taken from cell phones, PDAs, and digital cameras, presenting an opportunity for real-time documentation and charting. Finally, vlogs support the addition of video, usually accompanied by text, images, and additional contextual information. Paraphrasing Godwin-Jones (2005), moblogging and vlogs are particularly compelling at a time in which so many cell phones have built in digital cameras and the capacity to create video clips. Given the facility to download MP3 or other audio files and the large number of students who own cell phones, these three variables bring new possibilities and projects to the L2 classroom. For example, in study abroad contexts, without the need to wait for access to a computer, students upload images and text directly from their cell phones, thus sharing more vividly and rapidly their experiences with others, be it family or classmates. These formats have been little explored in L2 education research but are growing in popularity with campus study abroad offices and organizations (a Google search on the query "study abroad blogs" returned 277,000 hits, the first 5 pages of which were nearly all relevant).
Social Bookmarking: The Social Organization of Collective Knowledge
With the explosion of shared content available in these emerging digital spaces, the ability to categorize and annotate information that is meaningful and relevant to an individual is important (Levy & Stone, 2006). However, due to the sheer volume of content available in digital spaces today, it is impractical (and likely impossible) to effectively manage the information at a local level (e.g., each individual user). Therefore, while the word "bookmarking" does not necessarily make us think of collaboration, social bookmarking, in essence, is the collaborative management of digital content. Instead of individually bookmarking each site of collective interest, social bookmarking allows one to annotate in a minimally designed webpage such as in del.icio.us URLs to different web pages. Below each URL, the user is able to provide a small description of the webpage content where the user(s) select words as tags.8
The benefits of using social bookmarking as a research or instructional tool include: (a) creating an "outboard memory," a page that stores links that could otherwise get lost in an array of emails and printouts; (b) connecting with people who share the same interests and who
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could become potential collaborators; (c) clustering tags which reveal unique combinations of an individual's research themes; (d) creating a multiauthored, bookmarked page that might ultimately benefit the entire team when working on a project; and (e) providing insights into the owner (owners') research (Alexander, 2006). Social bookmarking creates a space where students can share their personal and professional inquiries. Sites such as del.icio.us provide the possibility of creating private networks localizable to students in a class, enabling the creation of a bank of resources to which everybody would have access.9 The benefits of social bookmarking go beyond the sharing of information among users. As with the aforementioned communication environments described above, its benefits are maximized when used in conjunction with other tools, for example the linking of social bookmarking with blog and wiki projects.10
In general, we consider the Web 2.0 tools presented in this article as essential to the transformation from individual to collective content creation, dissemination, and categorization. Future CALL research and L2 pedagogy would benefit from continued exploration of these tools as serious, relevant contexts for the creation and shaping of knowledge in meaningful, real-world contexts.
ONLINE VIRTUAL WORLDS: OPEN SOCIAL SPACES, MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES, AND SYNTHENTIC IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS
An important area that warrants significant attention in considering the relevance of mediated contexts are the realms of open social spaces (e.g., Second Life, There, and Active Worlds), massively multiplayer online gaming spaces (MMOGs) (e.g., World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Eve Online), and synthetic immersive environments (SIEs) (e.g., Croquelandia and ZON). The commercial endeavors in this context form a billion dollar empire and engage participants from all over the world. Recently, educational researchers have begun to assess these interactional spaces and gaming models as beneficial for learning (e.g., de Freitas, 2006; Gee, 2003, 2005; Jenkins & Squire, 2004; National Summit on Educational Gaming, 2005; Prensky, 2001; Steinkuelher, 2004, 2007), and, more specifically, for achieving communicative and intercultural competence (e.g., Bryant, 2006; GarcÃa-Carbonell, Montero, Rising, & Watts, 2001; Thorne, 2008c; Thorne & Black, 2007, 2008). Mediated experiences in different online social and gaming worlds allow users to experiment and interact with a wide variety of norms of communication and social interaction (e.g., Steinkuehler, 2006). Thus, each type of visually rendered virtual space presents distinct possibilities for language development based on the affordances, constraints, and unique interactional opportunities of the space itself. In the discussion to follow, we first address considerations of communicative norms within various types of online immersive worlds. We then explore the use of SIEs for L2 learning with specific reference to a project that targets the complex issue of interlanguage pragmatic development.11
Communicative Norms in Online Virtual Worlds
In thinking about the complex, collaborative nature of immersive spaces, it is critical to examine not only the features unique to each type of space, but also the communicative norms and practices associated with their use. Examining why and how construction and negotiation of communicative functions occur in intercultural language learning through computer-mediated communication (CMC), Thorne (2003) presents a cultural-historical framework for understanding how internet-based tools mediate communication (see also Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). Based on this framework, Thorne postulates that "digital communication technologies
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have made possible substantive aesthetic shifts in human communicative practices" and argues that such practices emerge within distinctive cultures-of-use--that is, the unity of local and contingent aspects of interaction with "the historically sedimented characteristics that accrue to a [computer-mediated-communication] tool from its everyday use" (2003, p. 40). The historically developed cultures-of-use of a mediated communication environment, involving norms and expectations of appropriate language use, shape interactional dynamics and, by extension, the forms of language development and literacy engagement taking place in these contexts (see also Thorne, 2000).
Historically, the field of second language acquisition has seen an increasing level of importance placed on communicative norms as part of evolving models of communicative competence (Bachman, 1997; Canale & Swain, 1980; Hymes, 1972; Thorne, 200612). Immersive modalities offer significant opportunities for engaged interaction and language socialization within specific genres and communicative norms. Attention to the relationship between innovative mediated communication technologies and the development of advanced language skills, such as pragmatics, should be considered, not only in terms of how they function as learning tools, but also as relevant interactive contexts in and of themselves. Thus, when considering any mediated environment, it is critical to place value on the inherent norms of the interactive space itself as well as the application of learned skills to other communicative contexts.
Full participation in virtually rendered spaces requires pragmatic control of the communicative norms local to a specific online community as well as mastery of the interface and virtual topography. Users of Second Life, for example, must learn a designated set of in-world features before they are permitted to navigate away from "Orientation Island." Moreover, to be a highly skilled player in World of Warcraft, one must not only be able to complete quests, gain assets, and navigate through three continents of geographic space, but also to interact with others in an appropriate manner utilizing the norms established by expert players of the game. This point will be elaborated shortly.
To add further complexity, participants may take on numerous identities in immersive spaces through careful manipulation of sociopragmatic factors as they carry out and creatively transform roles they visually embody in the virtual space (Gee, 2003, 2005; Prensky, 2001). For example, in Second Life, an open social space designed as a simulation of "life," users can select the gender of their avatar, design their own clothing, and modify their behavior based on, for example, location or the presence/absence of other participants. Behavior in Second Life can be, and should be, tailored to suit a variety of social contexts such as the tropical island bar, classroom, or commercial, high-power board room of a company on virtual Main Street. Moreover, experienced players are quite adept at identifying new users based on the appearance of their avatar (Sadler, 2007).
Players of MMOGs can take this experimentation one step further by selecting a race, class, or profession. In World of Warcraft, to take an example from the most widely played MMOG (with over 9,000,000 players worldwide), users begin the game by selecting a race (which influences geographical area, game-suggested personality, and other social features) as well as a class (which influences abilities and the manner in which the game is played). Once this selection has been made, a user's avatar is then constrained by the societal norms of that race in Azeroth (the simulated world in which the characters live). For example, Night Elves are described in the official game documentation as a race having more sophisticated personalities with a tendency to make dry jokes whereas Gnomes are depicted as the "nerdy" race that is marked with extreme intelligence and mechanical abilities. Each of these constraints is game suggested, yet user selected and enacted (or not, as is frequently the case).
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In MMOGs such as World of Warcraft, it is common for users to create two or more characters (known as 'alts' or 'toons') in order to experience the game from different perspectives. This seems to indicate that social experimentation is an inherent characteristic of these spaces. In addition to experimenting with roles and personalities, learners can also experiment in terms of gesture, physical context, audio enhancement, and transferring of assets within the various types of immersive spaces. As Gee suggests, "[g]ames are an invitation to play out different sides of our desires, feelings, values, fears, fantasies, and identities" (2005, p. 70). In relation to language learning, such opportunities for identity play precipitate sociopragmatic considerations that can involve gesture and personal space (e.g., Rosenbloom, 2006), political action (e.g., Sawyer, 2005; Second Life Herald 2006, 2007), critique and co-construction of "culture" (e.g., Mistral, 2007), caretaking (Kushner, 2006), emotional connection with others and with the game space (e.g., Slater et al., 2006), sexual encounters (e.g., Cheng, 2006), and commerce (e.g., Shamoon, 2006).
Virtual Social Spaces and Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Spaces
While there is a growing body of research addressing the use of Second Life in education, up to this point (see de Freitas, 2006, for a review), relatively little research has specifically addressed the use of MMOGs for L2 language development. In a preliminary analysis of these issues, Thorne (2008c) analyzes intercultural communication occurring in MMOGs as related to other internet-mediated communication modalities. A detailed analysis of an interaction between an expert speaker of English living in the US and an expert speaker of Russian living in the Ukraine indicates evidence of a number of positive assets for language learning (e.g., natural, unscripted interaction, emotional bond with the interlocutor, reciprocal alterations in expert status, explicit other- and self-correction, extended repair sequences, and exhibited motivation for language learning). Additionally, the interaction represented in this case study demonstrated numerous complex communicative functions such as solidarity building, greeting and leave taking, apologizing, and requesting (see also Nardi, Ly, & Harris, 2007). Despite the limited work in this area, the inherent characteristics of both open virtual spaces and MMOGs offer numerous potential benefits for the development of complex communicative skills, such as pragmatics, in a second language.13 The following section describes a project currently underway aimed at leveraging the possibilities of immersive spaces for language learning.
Synthetic Immersive Environments
SIEs represent a unique variety of online immersive space that is carefully designed to function as a social space while, at the same time, incorporating the beneficial attributes of MMOG models. In other words, SIEs are engineered spaces which integrate the many benefits of online gaming to produce explicit, educationally related outcomes in simulated, relevant interactional contexts (Sykes, 2008). SIEs carry significant potential in that they allow creators to target specific skills and educational objectives, while creating a meaningful collaborative space in which learners themselves are at the center of their own learning.
A large-scale research project which entails the creation, implementation, and analysis of the first SIE targeted at attaining advanced L2 skills is currently underway (Sykes, 2008). The Croquelandia space14 is an SIE designed for the learning of Spanish pragmatics in which learners are immersed in a 3-dimensional, graphically rich social space that emulates various regions of the "real" Spanish-speaking world. During their time in Croquelandia, learners are engaged in a variety of game-like, goal-directed activities (e.g., quests) designed to provide
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behavior-based corrective feedback to users through interaction with non-player characters (NPCs), native speakers, and other group members. Learners are able to practice in the SIE in order to improve their pragmatic competence in a low-risk, yet emotionally engaging, immersive space. Interaction with, and within, this SIE carries the ultimate goal of enhancing learners' ability to deal with various pragmatic features of L2 Spanish. Initial learner perception and outcome data indicate a positive effect of the use of SIEs for pragmatic development. The following section explores some of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of SIEs for learning L2 communicative norms, especially considerations relevant to pragmatics.
THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SIEs FOR L2 PRAGMATIC LEARNING
Advantages
Considering the complexity of the issues inherent in the internet-mediated communicative contexts themselves as well as the numerous pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic factors influencing pragmatic appropriateness, it might appear impossible to harness this technological tool for L2 pragmatic learning. However, the whole might be less complex than all of its individual components. Research has shown that pragmatics is indeed teachable and should be included in L2 language learning (Cohen, 1996; Kasper, 1997; LoCastro, 2003; Rose & Kasper, 2001; Rose, 2005). Furthermore, internet-mediated tools offer immense potential to overcome some of the inherent difficulties in teaching pragmatics (Sykes, 2005). Some of these difficulties include: (a) individual personality differences and sensitivity to certain contextual factors influencing the interaction (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Kasper, 1997), (b) assessment and feedback challenges (Cohen, 2004; Roever, 2004; Salaberry & Cohen, 2006), and (c) immense variation (dialect, social, individual) (Márquez-Reiter & Placencia, 2005).
One of the biggest advantages of using SIEs for learning pragmatics, as well as other complex communicative norms and functions, is their flexibility and built-in complexity. In other words, it is an internet-mediated modality which encourages the use of an integrated set of complex features to learn about complex language functions (i.e., pragmatics) in a realistic amount of time, not something that is merely created for a learning exercise. Gee (2003) describes the mechanism driving games, which is equally applicable to SIEs,
So here we are with something that is long, hard, and challenging. However, you cannot play a game if you cannot learn it. ... Of course, designers could keep making them shorter and simpler to facilitate learning. ... But, no, in this case, game designers keep making the games longer and more challenging, and still manage to get them learned. (p. 6)
This is much like pragmatics. The more you know, the more difficult it becomes, and the longer it takes to truly master the necessary pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic skills.15 SIEs provide a mechanism for making this a possible and realistic endeavor. This complexity also makes SIEs unique from other types of internet-mediated environments.
Simulated roles and identities
As noted in the previous discussion regarding online immersive spaces, one of the most positive assets for L2 pragmatic learning is the possibility to take on numerous, simulated identities and participant roles. In doing so, learners are able to experiment and practice pragmatic functions in diverse social contexts and settings. In SIEs, assumed participant roles move a step beyond those found in a synchronous CMC environment. Not only can learners simulate
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and manipulate the roles they are taking on, they can also embody them in the visually simulated space (Gee, 2003, 2005; Prensky, 2001). Through this experimentation, the goal is that learners begin to understand the impact language has on their level of success (high or low) in specific communicative contexts. Furthermore, the intention is that they will also start to integrate the pragmatic skills acquired in the SIE into their repertoire for use in nonmediated interaction and other digital contexts.
Emotional connection
Another important advantage of SIEs is the emotional connection users often feel in response to the environment. This is especially beneficial in SIEs because the virtual environment itself can be constructed in ways that are relevant for a specific population of learners. For example, Croquelandia utilizes digital models created from photographs taken in geographical locations throughout the Spanish-speaking world (e.g., Otavalo, Ecuador, and Merida, Mexico). Retrospective interviews with the participants indicate that this "simulated realism" was especially impressive to learners involved in the project because it allowed them to feel like they were "really there" (Sykes, 2008).
This emotional connection with the content is an important benefit of the SIE space. Research has shown that immersive spaces are highly engaging and produce emotions of "real" consequence (Prensky, 2001; Slater et al., 2006; Wilcox, Allison, Elfassy, & Grelik, 2006). It allows the opportunity for learners to feel the results of their actions without causing real-world harm to the people around them. de Freitas (2006) notes that "By creating games as metaphors, children and adults can utilize role play and narrative forms to imagine and empathize with other people, events from history, or with potential scenarios in the future and to experiment and rehearse skills in safe, protected environments" (p. 6). They also can begin to see the world around them reflectively and thoughtfully, making pragmatic features more important to their perceived success. This advantage is similar to that found in the telecollaboration studies using asynchronous CMC and synchronous CMC (Belz, 2003; Furstenberg, Levet, English, & Maillet, 2001; Thorne, 2003) in which learners build emotional bonds (positive or negative) with their collaborative partners. In SIEs, these emotional connections may motivate learners to continue practicing so they can successfully cultivate their relationships with other human beings, either collaboratively in the virtual space or in other contexts within the Spanish-speaking world.
Authentic or low-risk practice
An additionally noteworthy attribute of SIEs is the extensive opportunity to practice. Practice and hypothesizing is an important component of L2 pragmatic learning. First of all, learners have the opportunity to interact with native speakers in a nonthreatening environment where they already share common ground (i.e., the SIE itself). As observed by Thorne (2008c) in an analysis of discourse between a Russian student and an American student, bonds are built fairly quickly and include interaction around the space as well as aspects of the world outside of the SIE. This can lead to a number of practice opportunities by bringing together interlocutors from around the world, especially in large-scale commercial games.
Another advantage is the low-risk practice opportunities provided through interaction with NPCs (de Freitas, 2006; Gee, 2003, 2005; Mistral, 2007). This is an advantage for L2 learning because high-stakes speech acts, such as apologizing, can be performed without offending "real" interlocutors. Yet, at the same time, learners can feel the impact of their errors
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based on elements built into the space (e.g., lost assets, fewer invitations, angry NPCs). Thus, different types of practice can provide advantages to L2 pragmatic learning in a number of ways, either through interaction with other human beings or interaction with elements built into the spaces themselves.
Disadvantages
Despite the many potential benefits offered by SIEs for pragmatic learning, it is important to discuss the drawbacks as well. The biggest potential disadvantage in SIEs is the danger of learning the pragmatics of the space and not necessarily skills of the L2 itself. As previously mentioned, online immersive spaces are constrained by, and create, their own communicative norms. Thus, two people who are extremely close and get along very well in an SIE may not necessarily be able to transfer that relationship, and those in-game communication repertoires, to face-to-face communication. Gee (2003) describes the case of a player who had reached a very high level in a MMOG only to have his character killed off. In this particular game, the only way to be resurrected is to be invited back in by another player. The player in question posted numerous requests including his home telephone number, and, eventually, someone helped him get back in. However, it took a great deal of time for this to happen and only a few players were willing to help. In other words, the communicative norms maintained in the MMOG did not carry into communicative contexts outside of the immersive world. In this case, the request was granted, but there was no guarantee outside of the playing space that the same type of solidarity existed in other contexts. A way to overcome this drawback is to continue to focus on skills for L2 pragmatic performance that enable learners to deal with a variety of contextual and mediated (as well as nonmediated) situations.
Another disadvantage of using online immersive worlds for L2 learning, especially applicable in the case of multimillion dollar immersive environments such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, is the stigma educators might have about embracing the positive aspects of the spaces themselves. Gee (2003, 2005) comments extensively on the perceptions that many have about the representation of violence or gender in the learning spaces. While he does not embrace many of the criticisms, the issues themselves could create difficulties when implementing these learning tools in the educational setting. (For a discussion of the evolving role of gender and gaming, see Cassell & Jenkins, 1998).
CONCLUSION
Using Web 2.0 tools and various forms of online immersive worlds suggest a number of profound transformations to traditional approaches for second language education. In each of the contexts described above, students' agency--defined here as the socioculturally mediated capacity to act (based on Ahearn, 2001)--has the potential to evolve beyond the confines of the subject-position associated with the conventional institutional identity of 'student.' Intrepid uses of new media fray the boundaries separating study from play, student from player, and information consumer from knowledge producer. In many of these contexts, from social bookmarking and wiki use to MMOG play, expertise is distributed across participants engaged in multiple systems of activity that relate to the local enterprise at hand. Additionally, when new media is put to wise use, we see tremendous potential for an increase in the ecological relations between the language practices and identity dispositions developed within instructional L2 contexts and the broader plurilingual communicative contexts of life outside of the academy.
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As mentioned at numerous points in this article, the developmentally successful use of Web 2.0 tools and immersive worlds will not be straightforward and cannot be taken for granted. However, the research and pedagogical reports discussed here strongly suggest a powerful potential of Web 2.0 and online immersive spaces for second language learning.
NOTES
2 See Tapscott (2000), McGrath (2004), Warschauer (2003), and Van Dijk (2005) for discussion of the digital divide in education, even in economically developed countries. While these factors also likely affect the perception and use of internet-mediated communicative tools, a discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of this analysis.
3 Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), probably the most well known wiki, is a user-edited online encyclopedia founded in 2001 in which readers make changes and improve the content of the different texts.
4 See Levy and Stone (2006) for a brief discussion in this area.
5 In fact, of all the Web 2.0 technologies, wikis and blogs are arguably the most commonly used Web 2.0 tools in L2 education.
6 These include, for example, pbwiki (http://pbwiki.com), QwikWiki (http://www.qwikiwiki.com), MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki), Google Docs (http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html), and wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com).
7 As a caveat, access does not necessarily indicate readership.
8 The collaborative aspect of social bookmarking is apparent when one understands that each URL connects the user's page to other users' del.icio.us pages who have bookmarked the same URL.
9 In addition, we speculate that through examining the connections behind selected URLs and tags, learners might be more likely to find partners with whom to work on projects closely related to their own interests while also increasing their exposure to, and curiosity about, different topics.
10 To provide a concrete example, by connecting their pages to their blogs, students share their findings and links with the rest of the class, and even a wider community, at the same time that they increase the blog value as a written artifact in the social network. While working in collaborative projects in a wiki, students can easily have access to the shared information to elaborate their project. As the weeks, months, semesters, and years pass by, students will be able to add, delete, and constantly update sources of their interests. Social bookmarking has been little explored in L2 education.
11 "Pragmatics" addresses the various manners (i.e., linguistic and nonlinguistic) in which meaning is communicated and interpreted in interaction, as well as the sociocultural factors (individual and collective) which influence the communicated and interpreted messages (Crystal, 1997; LoCastro, 2003; Yule, 1996). Interlanguage pragmatics refers to the development of these abilities in a second language.
12 Thorne (2006) advocates for the importance of pragmatics in communicative competency by suggesting a re-orientation from a focus on L2 communicative competence to a focus on intercultural competence. This re-orientation emphasizes the critical connection between language and social practice as related to the negotiation of interactional patterns in intercultural communication.
13 For an extensive discussion of these potential benefits, see Sykes (2008).
14 For more information on Croquelandia see University of Minnesota Croquet Project (http://croquet.umn.edu).
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15 Both Judd (1999) and Cohen (2005) offer instructional methodologies in pragmatics that fit within SIEs. Through different mechanisms, they both suggest the importance of a diversified look at pragmatics and the development of skills for using different pragmatic functions as opposed to teaching chunks or prescriptive formulas.
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AUTHORS' BIODATA
Julie M. Sykes is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Minnesota where she specializes in Spanish Applied Linguistics, emerging technologies/CALL, and L2 pragmatic acquisition. She also holds a graduate certificate in School Technology Leadership from the University of Minnesota. Julie's most recent project entails the creation, implementation, and empirical investigation of the first synthetic immersive environment for learning Spanish pragmatics, Croquelandia. Sykes has presented extensively
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and published various articles on CALL-related topics including synchronous computer-mediated communication and pragmatic development, gaming and CALL, and lexical acquisition in digitally mediated environments.
Ana Oskoz is Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Foreign Language Education and currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language and second language acquisition. Her most recent research focuses on the use of Web 2.0 applications, such as wikis and blogs, in the foreign language classroom. Ana Oskoz has presented extensively nationally and internationally and published on CALL-related topics.
Steven L. Thorne is Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Associate Director of the Center for Language Acquisition at the Pennsylvania State University. He also serves as the Advisor for Mediated Learning at the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (http://calper.la.psu.edu). His interests include new media literacies, CALL, intercultural communication, and projects that engage cultural-historical activity theory, contextual traditions of language analysis, and usage-based approaches to language development. His book length works include a co-edited volume, Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education (Thomson/Heinle, 2006) and the co-authored monograph Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development (Oxford University Press, 2006).
AUTHORS' ADDRESSES
Julie M. Sykes
Department of Spanish & Portuguese
University of Minnesota
9 Pleasant Street S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
Phone: 612 624 5529
Email: sykes030@umn.edu
Ana Oskoz
Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, Maryland 21250
Phone: 410 455 2997
Fax: 410 455 1025
Email: aoskoz@umbc.edu
Steven L. Thorne
Department of Applied Linguistics
The Pennsylvania State University
305 Sparks
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814 863 7036
Fax: 814 865 7944
7. Interactive Language Simulation Systems: Technology For A National Language Base
A. Allen Rowe
Abstract:
In early 1982 the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center set a course toward making interactive video an integral part of foreign language instruction. This effort is being carried on with the help of several organizations, both civilian and military. The outcome should improve the quality of language instruction for national security and also bring interactive video technology within the grasp of many school systems, colleges, and universities throughout the nation.
KEYWORDS: teaching methods, interactive video, research, administration
Communicating is the most important thing in the world. Communications are the essential basis for all organized human activities. Communications between human and machine and from machine to machine, although important, in no way rival the primacy of communications between humans. Thus the learning of several languages in addition to our mother tongue should be an integral part of our education, at least on a par with the mastery of BASIC or PASCAL. You may wish to establish for yourself the importance which most adults in our society attribute to foreign languages. Ask any group of ten or more people to raise their hands if they at some time in their lives aspired to learn a foreign language. My experience has been that the response is almost unanimous.
The Shadow
If, however, you go on to ask this same group to indicate by show of hands how many of them did in fact master to their own satisfaction at least one foreign language, you are likely to find the response rather sparse, unless of course you happen to be at a language teacher's convention. These simple facts, although generally overlooked, are of profound significance. There is probably no other domain of learning, other than music perhaps, which enjoys such a favorable predisposition among mankind in general but which overall nets such dismal results. To borrow a stanza from T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men,
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
What is this shadow in foreign language learning that absorbs the motivation and efforts of millions, letting only an elite handful through with anything near mastery? It might be the teachers, the students themselves, the administration of the various language teaching institutions, the very nature of foreign language learning, or the methodology of language teaching. Although there are problems from all these sources, the real villain is elsewhere, so venerable and ubiquitous as to have gone generally unsuspected for centuries while generation after generation of young learners left a goodly portion of their enthusiasm for education and their own self-respect in the numbing grasp of the classroom.
The Villain
Somewhere ages ago foreign language teaching was lumped together with the teaching of several other disciplines. Since these disciplines could be taught rather well via classroom and book, foreign languages were poured into the same tight mold. The most dynamic, colorful, and vibrant of all subjects—living human language—was reduced to two-dimensional black symbols and bound up between the covers of a book, the ultimate effect being not unlike the use of specimens preserved in formaldehyde in an introductory class on wildlife. Then, both learners and teachers found themselves closed up with the book in a classroom. It would be difficult to devise an environment more distant from the rich dynamism of real language. Of course those with
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the means could bypass this institutional model and find themselves in the foreign country with their own personal tutor and, for good measure, the traditional set of books. That was and still is a very fine model for second language acquisition. It is unfortunately not a practical model for mainstream language training within the federal government. Even if the expense could be justified, it is unlikely that we would want to send our language students from the intelligence community to Russia or China for their studies.
So heretofore there has really been no viable alternative to the classroom model for mainstream language training in the national security community. Now, however, the confluence of three powerful technological currents—informatics, simulations, and random-access audio-visuals—may well be building toward a tide of change which could profoundly alter the old classroom model of language instruction.
Division of Labor
The key to success in pioneering a new model of language training is conceptually quite simple. The revolution will come about when we hit upon the most appropriate division of labor between human and machine, or more specifically between teacher and interactive technology. It is both trite and misleading to state that technology will do away with teachers. The exciting, albeit at times threatening, likelihood is that we develop technology-enhanced models of language training, the role of the instructor will undergo a humanizing revolution. Simply stated, we will be able to have the machines do what they do best. This should finally free our students and instructors from a great deal of tedium and allow them to make better use of their limited time together.
Working Together
In an effort to determine just what the best division of labor is between human and system and what shape that system should take, Colonel David A. McNerney, the Commandant of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California, established in late 1981 an Educational Technology Division and adopted a policy of interagency cooperation. At this time our projects involve us with the Air Force Academy, the Army Communicative Technology Office, the Army Research Institute, the Defense Audio Visual Agency, the Foreign Service Institute, the National Security Agency, and TRADOC's Training Developments Institute.
Supersystem
Our cooperation with these organizations has confirmed our initial predisposition toward interactive video as the training medium for our time. Mr. Robert Scott, Head of the Defense Audio Visual Agency, is fond of quoting the following statement made four decades ago during surrender proceedings by Field Marshall Von Keitel, Chief of the German General Staff.
We had everything calculated perfectly except the speed with which the Allies were able to train their people for war. Our major miscalculation was in underestimating their quick and complete mastery of film education.
The times have changed. We see interactive video, not film, as the medium par excellence for this generation of learners.
Our first step in testing this hypothesis was to put together prototype interactive video Supersystems. Such systems have made possible a joint research effort between the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The first project compared interactive video with various linear treatments of video material; the second pitted interactive video against a master instructor. In both cases interactive video won.
Another use for our systems has been to gain support for our projects through numerous VIP demonstrations. The mainstay of most of these presentations has been Montevidisco, Brigham Young University's McKay Institute's imaginative pioneering application of interactive technology to the teaching of Spanish. Several rather more modest offerings have been De Vive Voix in French and Klavier im Haus in German. We see the adaptation of such existing materials to interactive video as a most promising and practical domain. If the crucial issue of copyright release is properly handled, the language course developer or instructor can acquire excellent video materials for a fraction of the cost of original production.
A more extensive undertaking than Klavier im Haus or De Vive Voix is VEL-VET (Video Enhanced Learning/Video Enhanced Testing). The first pilot vehicle for VELVET is our seven-week resident German Gateway course, a program for senior officers on their way to assignments in Germany. The project involves the adaptation to interactive video of the BBC Kontakte series as well as production of original dialog, simulation video, and printed materials. Future VELVET plans call for efforts in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Russian. It may well be that the notorious difficulty of these languages for many native English speakers is due more to the book-bound nature of most language instruction rather than to the inherent difficulty of the languages themselves. If this is the case, the introduction of interactive video to the process could net spectacular results. Some evidence for this is available relating to the late Dr. Victorine Abboud's Arabic Writing System with Sound program developed at the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Abboud's program allows students to master in six to eight hours of learning-station time what takes from thirty to sixty hours in the classroom.
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Delivering the Goods
Dr. Judith Daly of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said that bringing the advantages of interactive video to language instruction was primarily a matter of management and administration, not a question of advanced research.
In In Search of Excellence Peters and Waterman write:
What we are against is wrong-headed analysis, analysis that is too complex to be useful and too unwieldy to be flexible, analysis that strives to be precise (especially at the wrong time) about the inherently unknowable...and especially analysis done to line operators by control-oriented, hands-off staffs... We are also against situations in which action stops while planning takes over, the all-too-frequently observed paralysis through analysis syndrome. We have watched too many line managers who simply want to get on with their job but are deflated by central staffs that can always find a way to prove something won't work, although they have no way of quantifying why it might work. The central staff plays it safe by taking the negative view; and as it gains power, it stamps all verve, life, and initiative out of the company.
In order to deliver the goods in language instruction we must be especially careful and anxious to coordinate the development of a product with its uses and possible uses. Research must work with management and management must accommodate research or in the long run the benefits of research are nullified and management and research find themselves behind the times and unable to produce a product that is acceptable or applicable to the real market. This is especially true in the area of language where we are not graduating enough qualified linguists to meet even peace-time needs.
The classroom model of language teaching presently offers no real answer to the nation's need for linguists. However, research indicates that interactive video technology may be the answer, and a very cost effective answer at that.
How do we get research and management aware of and cooperating with each other? The key element is clout. It may be that it will take nothing short of a Presidential directive, comparable to President Kennedy's goal for NASA of putting a man on the moon, to permit the federal language training community to reap the fruits of the new technology.
This would not of course obliterate all obstacles. What it would do though is make possible the establishment and funding of an ad hoc center charged with the acceleration of applied research and development for interactive language instructional systems. Thus school-house staff and faculty would not be tempted to perceive education technology as an activity competing for their resources and threatening their jobs. Rather, they could call on the center for help when they wanted it. Our experience is that when given the opportunity our faculty calls for the help of technology. Our problem has not been one of hostility but rather one of frustration on the part of our teachers when we could not respond rapidly enough or when what we could do with our very limited means fell short of their desire for quality. Such a center would also free research from the dangers of being misdirected within the school-house due to prevailing methodology biases or immediate teaching requirements.
In addition to providing support for instruction the center could develop programs aimed at helping students achieve more during their lab and private study time. For the most part students have nothing against the technology. In fact many of them have much higher expectations than we are currently meeting. And for students the final analysis is very simple: if it improves the grade and diminishes the pain, they'll use it.
Several elements are necessary for the success of such a center: first a healthy dose of what In Search of Excellence calls the monomaniac with a mission, product champions, those creative fanatics, who are pivotal to the innovating process; next, intelligent and responsive support from experienced contracting, legal, and personnel offices to provide the goods and services required for applied research and development; of equal importance, excellent communications facilities; and finally, a readily accessible learner population.
Like NASA
Even the modest progress made to date in interactive video technology for language training has already had its spin-off benefits. Language educators from throughout the nation have caught a glimpse of what's possible and begun to apply themselves to make it happen. As but one of many examples, representatives from both the Napa and Monterey public school districts have come to the Defense Language Institute to get first-hand experience with interactive video. Their enthusiasm and discussion indicate that seeing what has been done acts as a catalyst to evoke imagination and creativity. This phenomenon alone justifies the claim that there is benefit for the nation at large in the foreign language educational technology initiatives undertaken within the federal establishment. If it is possible to overcome the inertia experienced to date, either through the establishment of a research center or through whatever other means, it is not unlikely that the spin-off benefits will be even more tangible, including not only specific instructional designs, but solutions to hard- and software problems, as well as access to more and more random-access
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imageware. As Dr. Minnie Kenny, Deputy Assistant Director for Training of the National Security Agency's National Cryptologic School, has pointed out, the problem of providing qualified linguists for national security does not begin in the government language schools. It begins at home and in school for the children of this nation. Anything we do to help them learn foreign languages is part of the solution. It may therefore not be unrealistic to hope that just as today in our homes and schools we enjoy the spin-off benefits of NASA-developed technology we may tomorrow be able to learn languages at home and school better than ever before due in part to what the government language schools are doing today.
Footnotes
For further information on the research being done at the United States Air Force Academy, write Colonel Ruben A. Cubero, Department Head, The Department of Foreign Languages, United States Air Force Academy, CO 80840.
For further information on Montevidisco write the McKay Institute, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.
A limited number of the De Vive Voix experimental videodiscs are available for research projects. For further information write Commandant, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, ATFL-DIN-NS (Mr. Scott), Presidio of Monterey, CA 93944. For further information on the standard De Vive Voix materials as well as other Structural-Global Audio-Visual language instructional materials write Hatier-Didier New York, 220 E. 95th Street, New York, NY 10128, (212)534-1302.
Klavier im Haus was made available through special permission from The German Educational Television Network and the experimental videodisc containing these materials is not available for additional research projects.
The Kontakte experimental videodiscs are not presently available for additional research. For further information on Kontakte and other BBC foreign language video programs is available from Films, Incorporated, 1213 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091, (800)323-4222. In Illinois call (312)256-3200.
Author's Address
Chief, Educational Technology Division
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center
Attn: ATFL-TD-ET
Presidio of Monterey, CA 93940
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