PANEL 2

Session
Abstracts

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PANEL 2
Multi-Cultures/Multi-Schools - Intercultural Communication in Virtual Worlds

Presenters: by Beatrice Ligorio from Katholieke University of Nijmegen, Netherlands and Chris Corsbie from Universidad Americana in Asuncion, Paraguay

Chris Corsbie - Avatar Worlds for Foreign Language Education

queenbee: Folks, we have a bit of a techno problem going on and we will be hosting the next session here
queenbee: I will take a moment to set links and we will proceed to next session :>)
queenbee: yes, Chris Corsbie will be giving his talk first.
"akejay": clap clap
Brainstorm: Materia del tiempo

chris corsbie: Hello everyone, please wave to show me you are here. Please accept a big howdy from me. I'm coming to you today from Asuncion, Paraguay in South America. My name is Chris Corsbie. I am presenting information from my thesis for my M.A. in Foreign
Vetunimi1: *flaps tired wings yet again
chris corsbie: The three guiding questions for this presentation are posted on the bulletin boards here in the conference room Please take a second to read these to keep in mind as I present the following information. vr: what bulletin boards?
Vetunimi1: plz give url here Chris .
chris corsbie: Well it looks like the questions are not up, so here they are: What special advantages presented to language learners in these environments.
chris corsbie: the second question is What special contraints and limitations do these environments present for language learning
chris corsbie: the third question is what effect will advances in multi media in these worlds have on their suitability for language learning
chris corsbie: The full text version of my thesis with images and videoclips is available at http://public.webbox.com/123456/ . After getting to that page you have to do a search using my e-mail address: corsbie@tenet.edu. Then you will have access to a link to
chris corsbie: The opportunities for distance education that new developments in networked computer application are making possible are exciting. The subject of my thesis is how avatar-inhabited virtual worlds, can be used to expand the capabilities of Computer Ass
chris corsbie: am I going to fast
"Graham": no
dorps: no thats fine
chris corsbie: thanks
Rolland: you're fine.
chris corsbie: that is Computer assisted language learning or CALL
roberto cuccu: go ahead
chris corsbie: My main thesis is that web-based avatar worlds offer a new modality for delivery of human to human interactive distance language training for building oral language and cultural skills in simulator type environments.
chris corsbie: ok derrick
chris corsbie: To present the case that these new environments may be useful in the development of CALL, I have provided a broad background by presenting information on the history of CALL, visions for the development of CALL, and perspectives on the theory of seco
"salvador": hello juan!
"Celeste": hello dad
chris corsbie: the theory of second language acquisition (SLA) that apply to this subject
chris corsbie: To present the case that these new environments may be useful in the development of CALL, I have provided a broad background by presenting information on the history of CALL, visions for the development of CALL, and perspectives on the theory of seco
Henny: Martin, moet ik iets horen???
chris corsbie: ok hold on and i will tell you how to get to the thesis later
chris corsbie: Chapter One, "Thematic History of CALL", provides an overview of the development of CALL with particular attention to a number of topics which are germane to the development of CALL materials in virtual world environments.
Henny: ik heb het gevoel dat ik van alles mis, ik snap de reacties niet, wordt er mondelinge info overgebracht?
chris corsbie: In Chapter Two, "Vision for the Evolution of CALL". I turn to an examination of the vision of how CALL should evolve as it has been articulated by a number of authors whose work has been reviewed in my research.
chris corsbie: sorry, hen I don't speak dutch
chris corsbie: I draw on the work of many researchers in the field of second language acquisition to explore the question of why avatar worlds may be a good tool for the type of instruction that is indicated by research on how people learn languages.
roberto cuccu: when you refer to CALL, do you mean learning "exclusively" with a computer or "also with" a computer
chris corsbie: Chapter Three, "Avatar-inhabited Virtual Worlds", with numerous illustrations, describes these worlds and the options for interaction available within them.
chris corsbie: its a wide field that means that you use computers in some capacity in language learning
chris corsbie: yeah its 196 pages
chris corsbie: In this section, particular attention is given to how the features available in these environments can be used to realize some of the goals for the development of CALL articulated
chris corsbie: don't worry I won't paste all 196 pages!
chris corsbie: in Chapter Two.
chris corsbie: A description of how these worlds can be used to develop sociointeractive competence, incorporating both linguistic and paralinguistic aspects of interaction,
chris corsbie: The diversity of these worlds, as those of us present, being inhabitants of these worlds already know, is quite amazing. New developments seem to come along frequently.
chris corsbie: Examples of worlds with complicated systems of community relations such as laws, elections, ownership of property, and commerce, such as cybertown.com, can lend themselves readily to students of a foreign language who wish to practice communicating w
chris corsbie: communicating with people in the language about a variety of topics in a realistic setting.
chris corsbie: The examples presented in the thesis are a small set of the worlds that are currently available to CALL developers in cyberspace.
chris corsbie: The discussion mentioned limited example of what sorts of virtual worlds could be desirable in a CALL application and of what sorts of options would be desirable to incorporate in these worlds given constraints on access to hardware and bandwidth con
roberto cuccu: confinining themselves to written communication, of course chris corsbie: bandwidth connections to the Internet.
chris corsbie: no not really roberto, just wait i'm getting to that vr: not with traveler "Celeste": dad lets look around
chris corsbie: This topic could be expanded upon greatly and merits further research. I hope to be able to conduct such research with appropriate collaborators in the context of a doctoral program.
chris corsbie: However, the scope of this thesis was only to show that these worlds offer new ways to deliver human to human distance language instruction using CALL for developing oral language and cultural skills in a simulator type environment.
chris corsbie: What is new about these environments is that they provide a greater degree of contextualization through the use multimedia and the generation of relationships between users in avatar form. The inclusion of verbal communications between humans is anot
chris corsbie: between humans is another new development in distance CALL.
"Timaeus2": too long
"Timaeus2": being cut off
chris corsbie: The examples I provided in thesis have shown that these worlds provide the opportunity for a wide variety of human to human interaction, moving far beyond the one computer one learner paradigm of earlier CALL.
chris corsbie: sorry I'm doing my best, plese be patient
chris corsbie: If optimum hardware and connectivity is available, the incorporation of real-time telephonic vocal interactions is obviously quite desirable for the development of oral language skills. Yet
chris corsbie: Lee’s (1998) research, cited in the thesis, showed that there are transfers to oral language skills produced by use of text-based chat.
chris corsbie: Warschauer (1995) advocates the use of text based chat rooms as a prelude to oral language practice, thus making it part of the development of oral language skills.

chris corsbie: This progression from heavily scaffolded interactions in a text-based chat to verbal exchanges also satisfies Clifford’s (1998) criteria for communicative CALL that describes the transition from structured discourse to open-ended discourse as desirable
Henny: Is your research limited to language learning our is your theory suitable for other domains?
chris corsbie: As was detailed in the section of the thesis on avatar worlds, there exists great potential for utilizing these worlds to develop cultural skills that are both linguistic and paralinguistic.
chris corsbie: I would say that it has applications in aother domains but I focused on language
Damir: hello
chris corsbie: Gestures, proximics, and shifts in body positioning or posture can all be used in communication among users inhabiting appropriate avatars.
c hris corsbie: Furthermore, the rich variety of both psychological and societal roles that can be simulated through the variability of self-representation in avatar form makes these spaces very well
chris corsbie: suited to the type of simulators that are outlined by Jones (1982) and Di Pietro (1987). That is to say simulations which allow students to participate in role plays to simulate language use that
chris corsbie: is specific to interacting in certain roles involving the use of politeness formulas and special grammar forms that are using in exchanges between people of different sexes, social statuses, and ages.
chris corsbie: Numerous ways of providing feedback to the learner to focus her attention on both correct form in language, and appropriate use of cultural skills in strategic interaction as described by Di Pietro
chris corsbie: have also been presented. For instance logs of text chat can use useful in helping learners to be aware of common errors they are making.
chris corsbie: This will also allow the teacher to focus grammar instruction on particular problems of the student. Conceivably, audio recordings of interactions could also be analyzed for problems, especially
chris corsbie: roblems with pronunciation, to diagnose appropriate intervention using applied linguistics, or in other words showing students how to make certain sounds from the phonology of the new language.
chris corsbie: Video clips can be used to critique and present information about gesturing, proximics and other forms of body language such as facial expression
chris corsbie: In addition to the ability to incorporate visual information into the graphic environment in a broad sense, these worlds could be used to label objects with written or oral text to assist in
chris corsbie: vocabulary learning, and even to color code objects for grammatical features such as gender, which is a big issue for many English learners of other languages due to the lack of
chris corsbie: gender for most nouns in English.
chris corsbie: At this point my presentation is finished and I would like to open up the floor to discussion. Thanks very much to Bea and Bonnie and all of the other people who have worked so hard to make this
Rolland: Thank you chris.
"Timaeus2": clap clap
dorps: Applause
chris corsbie: so hard to make this conference a reality
Brainstorm: Very nice topic , thank you for talking
Rolland: *applauds gratuitously*
chris corsbie: at least virtually.
Brainstorm: :-)
"chris2": clap clap
Rolland: muy sugestivo
bea: sorry chris I was not in earlier
chris corsbie: por nada, qeustions?
vlearn1: *clap clap*
chris corsbie: no prob bea
"Timaeus2": sorry for my commets during your talk - your text was missing parts
chris corsbie: no prob tim
roberto cuccu: I wonder if there's among us any one that has actually implemented some form of CALL in AW
katy: clap, clap!
omar: yes, i was unsure how much of this you were able to implement in tests, and how much is theoretical right now?
chris corsbie: yeah, Ididn´t count well enough language guy not math
spans1: goodly, will check out your thesis
chris corsbie: well, right now I am trying to organize some more case studies
Brainstorm: Are there any Langugage Learning Environments established. "Timaeus2": can't wait to get a copy of your work...is it online?
chris corsbie: I did one last year when I ws teaching Sp. in Texas with some ESL kids in Argentin
chris corsbie: Now I have ome student of ESL in Parguay I am tryin to match up with students os Spin other places
chris corsbie: for some additional experiments
chris corsbie: anybody interested?
Brainstorm: yes, sure
chris corsbie: I used to teach in Bowie Highschool in Austin, do you know Peg Syverson Vernon
chris corsbie: do I know you, Vernon
Rolland: Howwould your vision reconcile dalectic differences in say...spanish?Henny: in Holland we are looking for schools for some collaboration, high school
chris corsbie: yes, that ws part of what we did with the kids from Argentinachris corsbie: great heny, lets stay in touch about that
chris corsbie: rolland, that is a challenge, we just do the best we can
chris corsbie: the dialectical difference are signifigant, but not crucial
chris corsbie: say hi to sandy for me Vernon
roberto cuccu: vetunimi1, what do you mean with "btw"
chris corsbie: big al, It was ok, but there were bugs, logistics and schedulig were big hassles
queenbee: ok, I would like to introduce Beatrice she has been revived :>O
Rolland: I see, i'm was just thinking that since you are going to be taking into account various speech and motor patterns that are associated with different languages, I was wondering how that would work with intra-language and intra-culture difference..
Rolland: that might arise ....
chris corsbie: I´m also really interested in doing voice lessons not just text chat,
chris corsbie: thanks rolland, its somone elses turn now, but send me an email and lets chat later
chris corsbie: yeah vernon, I want to try it out, send me an email and give me the poop
roberto cuccu: what's your email?
zg: you can use hear me with aw
Rolland: okay crhis..
Brainstorm: I would love AW on a mobile device :-)
Rolland: what was your email again?
chris corsbie: corsbie@tenet.edu
chris corsbie: yeah brainstorm that would be cool
chris corsbie: thanks vernon
chris corsbie: Iguess I´m over now
chris corsbie: whats next queenbee

bea: well I should say that you are not missing too much if you can still read me :))

Click here for transcripts from PANEL 3 - MUDs, MOOs and 3D MUVES: Case Studies and Collaboratory Exemplars

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