Habib week1 Article Review

 The reality of virtual worlds: pros and cons of their application to foreign language teaching.

Garrido-Iñigo, P., & Rodríguez-Moreno, F

This study was conducted on 108 tourism students at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (in Spain). it presents the advantages and disadvantages for second life as a way to teach foreign language.

Below, I have discussed some of the aims, methods and findings of the study:

The Aims were to:

·      Teach the students French naturally.

·      Avoid getting too much into French culture as it was not needed.

·      Create a virtual world to make them understand better.

·      Make them speak meaningfully and not just the reproduction of certain grammatical structures.

The methods were to:

·      Give students false identities.

·      Give students various contexts related to airport.

·      Speak Spanish and French both at the same time in the classroom to teach.

·      Have a group of the students of the same language proficiency.

·      Promote student interaction to reduce nervousness and fear and also by writing activities.

The findings were:

·      There were certain technical difficulties during the creation of the virtual reality such as slow internet.

·      Students enjoyed, felt more motivated and confident.

The reference:

Garrido-Iñigo, P., & Rodríguez-Moreno, F. (2015). The reality of virtual worlds: pros and cons of their application to foreign language teaching. Interactive Learning Environments, 23(4), 453-470.