vitaal and niflar projects at slanguages 2009

Ton KoenraadTELLConsult

Ton KoenraadTELLConsult

Rounding off:ViTAAL

Rounding off:ViTAAL

Starting up:NIFLAR

Starting up:NIFLAR

The ViTAAL ProjectGOAL

Researching the contribution of 3d MUVEs to Language Education.

Focus on oral skills.

Joint project:Schools & Teacher Ed.

The ViTAAL Project

• R & D for 3 Activity Formats:

1. Language Village: training & testing

2. Interactive narrative: LanguageQuest

3. Events and Fun Activities

Format 1: Virtual Language Village

Pupils

•Teachers

• Student Teachers & Trainers

•Fellow pupils

IRL, what is Languagevillage | Langueville | Sprachstadt ?

RL-simulation with physical props as scenes for everyday communicative situations

Teachers, native or competent speakers take on roles and/or assess.

Target group at 2ndary Schools: mostly beginner to intermediate level (CEFR: A1-A2)

A school-based, yearly event.

Virtual Language Village Rationale:

More practice of oral skills for RL language tasks

Design principles

Blended approach:

- techer-led f2f sessions & in-world sessions with fellow pupils and student mentors

- using additional materials alligned to textbook in use

- in-world assessment training by student teachers

Virtual Language Village: Organisation

Production / Mentor TeamA’dam student teachers (n=18)

Materials:paper based prep. activities, CEF Level A1-A2194 pp.

Participants2 schools, 1 class eachAge: 13-14Student teacher mentored groups (size: n=3)

Virtual Language Village: technical features

A variety of locations: tourist info, cafeteria, police station, baker’s, village square, pond, student hang-out, etc..

2 bots

‘professional’ avatars

Voice-enabled, but…

Format 2. SurReal Quest: an interactive detective story

The Interactive Quest Rationale:

Enhance the WebQuest concept using story development and embedding ‘live’ interaction

Design principles

- LanguageQuest design criteria

- Competitive pupil teams (n=5)

- teacher-coached f2f team sessions

- in-world meetings with story characters (student mentors)

- assessment of (interim) products by teacher

Interactive LanguageQuest: Organisation

Production & Actor TeamA’dam student teachers (n=7)

Materials:- Original storyline, - CEF-based inputs & tasks ( A2 – B1)- specifically designed LQuest template

Participants- 1 school, 1 class Age: 16-17- 1st year student teachers (n=7)

Teacher Ed. Curriculum Module Theoretical input:

- TBLT & SLA principles- Methodology for oral skills training

- Task design principles

- CEFR & Assessment: criteria & instruments & procedures

Practical experiences:- Materials development- Fluency training- Online assessments

Output

- Language Village:Textbook supplementary materials

- LanguageQuest

- Events:Registration website & self access prep. materials

Evaluation & Research

General Focus: Feasibility

Proof of concept for Learning Blend: learning potential, added value, win-win?

Mapping of conditions

Materials & Activity design

Performance-based assessment

Evaluation: Pupil perspective Interesting, nice change

Spent more time than usual after school hours

Learned more: - vocab, - talking about self, ordering things, giving directions

More awareness of: - relevance of grammar / pronunciation for communication - personal knowledge & skills gaps

Did and learned equally little as in f2f lessons

3D world not very inviting (looks, interactive facilities)

Technical (voice) & organisational problems (partner presence)

extension of the virtual village needed: a wider variety of shops.

Evaluation: Teacher perspectivePupils enthusiastic,

more motivation & time on task, less inhibition

More authenticity in tasks, language use: attention for accuracy

More opportunities for differentiation & independent work

Enjoyed working with new formats

More class-based preparation time needed for online sessions

Success factors:- timely delivery & quality of prep materials- operational technology- teacher competences: classroom management,

ICT-skills

Allignment of class activities with student mentors agendas

Evaluation: Student teacher perspective

Great learning opportunity:

- designing materials- getting peer-feedback in design process

Practicing interaction & teaching skills:- interlocutor role- giving feedback to pupils - doing assessments

Design task:very time consuming

Organisational problems:- pupil presence- teamwork

Technical issues: - voice- AW- interface skills

Evaluation: Teacher educator perspective

Great chance for linking theory to practice

Implementation of experiential learning in teacher ed.

Collaboration with schools is vital

Current module is too demanding: further phasing of curriculum content

Critical trainer’s skills:- coaching student production teams- personal ICT / AW skills

Issues & constraints

Institutional- Hard & Software:

Availability 3d browser,capturing software, headsets, VLE…

- Curriculum embedded activity

- Pedagogy match (staff, materials)

Virtual World SoftwareICT skills

Future Developments

Implementation in partners’ curriculaScaling up (languages, formats, sectors)Exploitation model (partnership

expansion)Further research:

- Promotion of L2 use? - face & content validity of assessments- pragmatics (teaching & assessing)- SLA?

So much about the ViTAAL Project: any questions / comments?

For papers see:www.koenraad.info/vrall

NIFLARNIFLARNetworked Interaction

in Foreign Language Acquisition

& Research

EU project 2009 – 2011

EU project 2009 – 2011

PartnersPartners

U. PalackyU. Palacky TELLConsultTELLConsult U. CoimbraU. Coimbra

CoordinatorCoordinator

Affiliate partners: U. Nevsky and Novosibirsk Technical University, U. Concepción, 4 sec. schools

Affiliate partners: U. Nevsky and Novosibirsk Technical University, U. Concepción, 4 sec. schools

NIFLAR Objectives & ambitionsNIFLAR Objectives & ambitionsExploring the added value of video-web

communication (VWC) and virtual worlds (VW) to development of communicative and intercultural competence in L2.

Development of design principles for effective L2 tasks

Development, application and evaluation of tasks according to the design principles

Contribute to international international researchresearch: : CMC, ICC, Pragmatics, blended learning

Exploring the added value of VWC and VW

Opportunities for real-life and virtual synchronous communication with native speakers of the target language

Opportunities for creating culture-specific virtual contexts for contextualised communication

Evaluation grid for task design in video-web communication and virtual worlds

Design principles:

For communicative competence in L2 acquisition

For intercultural competence in L2 acquisition

For the application of VWC and VW in L2 acquisition

Video conferencing:

ADOBE CONNECT

Video conferencing:

ADOBE CONNECT

Design principles for the application of Video Web Communication

Video-web communication:

Personal contact is relevant

Nonverbal interaction is relevant

Only communication partners are present

Visual context outside communication partners is irrelevant

Voice-enabled 3D WorldVoice-enabled 3D World

Design principles for the application of 3D Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds: Visual context around communication partners is

relevant

Context is specifically created or applied for context-specific conversation topics

As in real-life, others might interfere

Contexts might be adapted (simplified, exaggerated) in order to promote awareness and learning

Interaction focused on studentsInteraction focused on students

Two target groups:

Foreign language learners of Dutch, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish (also at secondary level)

Pre-service teachers of Dutch, Russian and Spanish

Importance of adequate tasksImportance of adequate tasksCharacteristics of appropriate tasks for

virtual interaction

Standardised format

Level (CEFR)

Teachers and pre-service teachers designing, piloting and adapting tasks

Research FocusResearch FocusInteractions: Conferencing & 3D

Tasks

Specific aspects: ICC, pragmatics, negotiation of meaning

DeliverablesDeliverables A framework for task designA framework for task design

A collection of tasks and scenariosA collection of tasks and scenarios

Guides for: Teachers, Teacher Educators & CMC researchGuides for: Teachers, Teacher Educators & CMC research

A 3D world & facilities for its future exploitationA 3D world & facilities for its future exploitation

Master theses, publications, conference presentationsMaster theses, publications, conference presentations

Dissemination websiteDissemination website

Thank youThank you

Any questions Any questions oror

Comments?Comments?

Thank youThank you

Any questions Any questions oror

Comments?Comments?

Ton KoenraadTELLConsult

Ton KoenraadTELLConsult

www.niflar.euwww.niflar.eu