Repetition is one of the most common activities in any language course for beginners. Repetition is also used in SL.
Repetition help learners to retain new vocabulary, and to learn its pronunciation and intonation. There are different kinds
of repetition which should be combined to avoid boredom and enhance vocabulary learning.
Repeat after me is probably the kind of repetition most commonly used in the language classroom. Students can be asked to
repeat in groups – choral repetition or drilling – or individually. However, no teaching technique is suitable for all
classes and all teaching contexts. Choral repetition is no exception. Due to sound problems, choral repetition is not
recommended in SL. The sound of all the students speaking at the same time makes it impossible to distinguish who is
pronouncing correctly or not; thus, providing feedback is not feasible. Individual repetition is suggested, but always
making sure to vary the questions asked to each participant. For example, if you are presenting new vocabulary using images,
the following questions could be used:
What is this?
Is this a _____?
Is this a ____ or a _____
What is (next) to the ______
Prompting students to ask other participants is also another way to vary repetitions. Short dialogues performed
in pairs where each student takes turns to represent the two speakers in the dialogue.
We will describe other kinds of repetition next week.
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Our next post will be about the use of repetition. Stay tuned!
In this lesson, students were learning the numbers from 1 to 10 and were repeating in chain, counting forward and backward while standing in a line and then in a circle and changing places.
Giving instructions
Giving instructions using the target language in a beginners course is another challenge in SL. In our Spanish for beginners we follow three procedures to make sure the participants in our course can follow class instructions: translation to English, images and modeling.
In the first place, we have an introductory lesson to present the most common instructions students will be listening to in each class. In this introductory class, we use English to explain these expressions (listen, pay attention, repeat please, come here, follow me, how do you say …. in Spanish? among others). All the phrases taught are posted to the course wiki, in a written form and we also add a recording. In this way, students can access this resource as many times as they want.
In this introductory lesson as well as in our regular classes, we use boards with images that illustrate instructions. Images help students understand and retain the message. In some cases, especially at the beginning of the course, we offer the written instruction in English and Spanish.
Modeling is perhaps the most efficient way to give instructions using the target language. In order to do this, we have a helper (team-teaching). The teacher gives the instructions to the helper once or twice, for the students to see what they have to do. This is especially good for complex activities. In case that the instructions are not clear, the helper translates them. We believe that we should not waste time in the instructions because what is important is the activity. As the course proceeds, students get used to the language used for instructions and there is no need for translations.
In the following pictures you will see some of the instruction boards we have created for our Spanish lessons.
What do you look like in Second Life? Is it important?
Appearance is important in RL and it cannot be taken for granted in SL. In Second Life you can look as you wish, you can even look like any animal. This flexibility is great for teachers. You can change your image according to the lesson you are teaching. Changing your appearance is an easy and fast process:
Right click on your avatar
Choose “Appearance”
You can also access the window, by clicking on the “Edit” and “Appearance” options at the top menu. Here you can find all the options to modify the character:
Shape: Body, Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth, Chin, Torso, Legs
Skin: Skin Color, Face Detail, Eyes, Makeup, Body Detail, Legs
You can use textures and colors to enhance your avatar by applying them to your avatar’s skin and clothing. Inventory items to wear can be found in your Library folder. Open your inventory, find something to try on. Right-click the file and select “wear” or drag each item from your inventory onto your avatar. You can also find free clothes and body parts (shapes, skins, hair, eyes) in different places in SL.
To take off clothes: right-click on your avatar and select “take off”. Quick change: Drag a clothing folder with an outfit from Inventory and drop it on your Avatar.
You can change your appearance to make a topic more real, for example, dressing as a doctor or nurse if you are teaching about health, a hospital, etc. Wearing an animal avatar if teaching about animals. Quickly changing clothes is very handy for teaching clothes and colors. Your imagination is the limit!
As I have said in previous posts, when we teach beginners we need to make use of visuals and interactive activities.
One of the first things that made it difficult for me to design a lesson in Second Life was my lack of knowledge of the kind of tools
I could use to teach in that environment. We know that in a Real Life classroom we can use overhead projectors, video players,
video beams, maps, whiteboards, among many others, and the tools labeled as web 2.0 have made the process of planning e-based
lessons very easy. However, I did not know what tools I could use in SL. To solve this problem, I started a search for
educational tools, and found many free tools as well as tools that can be bought from different designers. At the same time,
I learned that I could create simple objects adding textures, sound and ready-made scripts to make them interactive.
For more sophisticated tools, Languagelab has technicians who can create them for us. Nowadays, with this knowledge, planning
is easier but also a challenge to the imagination.
In order to have images and text shown on boards in SL, we have to upload textures (images) created in Power Point or any image editor
such as Photoshop, Paint Shop etc. Two excellent free solutions are Paint.NET (Windows only),
and Gimp, etc.
Sounds can be uploaded in Wav format. They cannot be longer that 10 seconds
which is a restriction for language teaching. However, you can use sounds from the web. The downside is that for every image and sound
we have to pay 10 Linden $
I am teaching Spanish to beginners in Languagelab. I have taught beginners of all ages in RL, but this is my first experience in a virtual world, and I am enjoying it. We have just finished delivering a course of Spanish for Travel where 95% of the language used was Spanish.
In order to cope with the lack of facial expressions and body language in general, certain elements need to be included to make sure students don’t get lost.
These are some of the aspects that characterized the Spanish for Travel course:
Team teaching: In order to model the language, pronunciation, dialogues, etc., the class is team-taught, a teacher and a helper.
Whole language approach: the four skills of the language (reading, writing, speaking and listening) are integrated in each lesson.
Eclectic use of teaching methods and approaches: In order to cater to different learning styles, and to the content being taught, we use different teaching methods and approaches (TPR (Total Physical Response), notional-functional situational, task-based, among others), to achieve our main aim: communicate in the target language.
Use of 3D objects: Lots of materials are needed for beginners, in order to introduce new vocabulary and concepts. Materials should be colorful and well-designed (layout – font sizes – combination of colors – size of images). Objects interactivity is highly appreciated by students.
Varied activities and locations: Changing activities and places is fundamental to make the class varied and to keep students attention.
I will expand on these aspects in future entries.
Meanwhile njoy these images from one of our Spanish classes:
What does it take to teach in SL? What do you need to know?
As I promised last week, I am going to answer some questions I have been asked about teaching in SL. Let´s start with the SL skills a teacher should master to feel comfortable during a class.
Teaching in SL is a new challenge for teachers, even for those who have experience in web-based teaching. When teaching in SL you need to be aware of your own avatar, the teaching tools, the content you want to deliver, the technical problems that may arise, as well as the skills your students have so they are able to follow the pace of the class.
When I started my training in Languagelab.com, I found that even though I had been around SL for some months, I lacked many of the skills needed to teach in this environment. So, I decided to write a list of these skills, and started to look for tutorials to learn by myself. What I learned with the tutorials I practiced in-world with the help of friends and colleagues at Languagelab This was a great experience, but every day that passed I felt I wanted to learn more and it still like that. You never stop learning in SL.
Then, I had the opportunity to design, with 2 other colleagues, a SL Skills Workshop for a teacher training program at Llab. We decided to categorize the required skills into five categories:
Personal Skills : everything related to your own avatar (e.g. moving, managing your profile and inventory)
Communication skills: communicating via chat, IM, voice call, creating and sending notes, teletransportation etc.)
Teaching tools: using different teaching tools (projectors, readers, dispensers)
Basics of building and scripting: creating and moving simple objects, and editing simple scripts
Media: recording, uploading, and embedding sounds
The classes were delivered by the three of us and we had the help of two other teachers from Languagelab. In-world and web-based self-access materials were provided for further practice.
I believe everyone with the desire to teach in SL should master these skills before offering his/her services. On this page you can find helpful tutorials to get yourself started: Torley Linden videos
Here are some photos from one of our SL Skills Workshop sessions
Languagelab improved my English by 40% according to my Univesity tests - Ali, Saudi Arabia
Unbelievable! beyond what I've expected... - Virtualriver, Indonesia
Languagelab is a good place to improve your English, having fun and with a very good team of people doing a great work. I love English classes and I'm learning more useful English than in RL classes. There are a lot of places to be able to learn what to do, how to say... like in RL... to learn to be able to have a fluent conversation - Nika, Spain.
A class of its own! - Alias, Germany
It's a great way to learn english, because it is not that much stressful as in the real world and mostly I can make it in time, I don't have to travel that far to meet new friends who have the same interests.- Hoshy, Germany.
Languagelab is really useful to improve your English. You meet nice people who have the same purpose. The teachers are friendly and help you when you need it (for your English but also material things as micro etc...) I enjoy the variety of activities as lessons, parties and quizz. It's really fun. It's not easy to find people in your own country to speak a foreign language but
Languagelab allows you to do it. - Laureen, France.
I have almost five months in LanguageLab, it has been a really great experience to learn English in SL and in LanguageLab, they always try to do funny ways to teach us, they send us mails remind us the class and class location. I love to learn there because its getting usual to speak English for me. So thanks for all your effort and i will be so happy to continue in this program. - Winnybeth, Guatemala
I like it's really good place to practise language. - Hwk, Georgia
It is a marvelous way to learn English and to make friends! - Chopa, Korea.
Great opportunity to test your english skills against people from all over the world and also to improve your accent and grammar to upper level and why not to the top level?! - Sensi, Bulgaria
I think it's a good way to improve your english and an amizing way to meet interesting people. You can practice your english guided by your teacher in funny classes and events. - Lucane , Spain
What I love about Languagelab is the use of all possibilities of this virtual world. I have made great excursions and visits with my fellow students from all over the world, doing all kind of things, and in the mean while practising my English. I like the diversity of methods, especially I like the quizzes and dance-events:). And voice helped me a lot to overcome my fear of speaking. Together with the enthusiasm of the teachers Languagelab is fun - Woutje, Netherlands
