Languagelab.com Blog

Hi Students,

Just a quick post to tell you a little about the DUCKLING project at Leicester University.  Recently at Languagelab we had a team from Leicester University come in and watch our classes.  These were all teachers from different countries who wanted to learn more about teaching in virtual worlds.

Here is a video of a presentation they made in Southampton last week.

This morning I saw a great blog posting on Bettina Tizzy’s blog Not Possible in Real Life, it is a video of a man who uses holographic tools to build in a virtual world. The video was made by Bruce Branit.  Can you imagine if you could do that in Real Life?….

Watch the video and answer the questions afterwards:

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

1. Who is the man?

2. Who is the woman?

3. What do you think happened to the woman?

4. When do you think the film is supposed to be set?

5. How do you think the man feels?

6. Does this film remind you of any other short films?

7. What adjectives can you use to describe the film?

8. Did you like the film? Why or why not?

9. Have you seen any other films about virtual worlds?

10. Have you seen any good Second Life Machinima?

If you know any good links please post them for us to see!

Jessie Teacher

Want to come and visit English City ?

Never learned English in a virtual world ?

If you want to visit English City for one day and meet our ‘English City People’, students and teachers why not get a Day Pass – for the special reduced price of $2,500 Lindens which is less than $10 US dollars you can try all the classes and activities for 24 hours and also get help from our team on how to use your voice and move around in English City.

So to visit us:

1. Register

2. Visit our welcome area

3. Join the group Languagelab Day Pass

Start learning now !

Jessie Teacher

I was talking to one of the Languagelab Helpers today, Eid Avro and he reminded me that he had been working with us for a year ! It seems like yesterday that we first met.

He joked with me that the first time I spoke to him was via text chat on Livehelp on the Languagelab website, and he couldn’t even get into Languagelab or download the software!  Also when Eid started coming to Languagelab he used a translator to talk to me and was very shy to speak English, now it is a different story; Eid is never quiet !

The Helpers are responsible for introducing students to Languagelab and making sure they understand our system when they join our school.  They do a fantastic job and we now have an international team who can speak many different languages.  Ami Champion is the Senior Manager of the Helper team now and has become an expert at dealing with Human Resources issues from a multi-national team of people whom she has never met face to face!

As virtual worlds become more mainstream and people use them more for services and education, people like the Helpers and Teachers at Languagelab will be more common, but right now they are making history as the first virtual worlds workforce to be involved in ESL teaching.

To see more pictures of the Helpers and Languagelab check out our flickr group and come and visit them in world ! Ami Champion isthe Helper Manager and we have representatives from KSA, China, Sweden, USA and many more countries!

Take care and keep practicing!

Jessie Teacher

Languagelab has been named as a solutions provider in Glenn Linden’s latest blog post on real world businesses that use Second Life.   “We define Solution Providers as professional businesses and individuals who work in Second Life with real-world businesses, creating immersive experiences that aim to invite, engage, educate and entertain fellow Residents, as well as their employees and internal audiences.”

Using the Second Life grid to operate a real life business is becoming increasingly common. As the pioneer of language learning in virtual worlds with a real life work force on every continent Languagelab is a working example of how traditional services such as language learning can be taken into the 21st century.

Glenn also said “Languagelab uses the immersive environment of Second Life as part of the learning experience for their unique language classes”.  Languagelab is in good company using the grid as a platform as L’Oreal, the World Bank and Cisco all use the grid to provide services and carry out promotional activities.

There are many reasons to use virtual worlds as a platform for your business; cutting operations costs, hosting international events without leaving a huge carbon footprint and taking advantage of the immersive environment to create a truly engaging experience. Being able to re-create an environment or situation as we can in English City is something that you could never do in real life.  If you live hundreds of miles from the nearest large city that has a multi-cultural population you may never meet anyone to practice your English with but as Languagelab students know, at English City there are lots of native speakers and students from 45 different countries to talk to.

See you soon in English City !