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Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds pp 135–163Cite as

Second Language Acquisition by Immersive and Collaborative Task-Based Learning in a Virtual World

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Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

The methods by which English as a Second Language can be taught and learnt in a Virtual World (VW) are explored in this study of an online community of language learners from around the world. Theories of language acquisition are invoked and the affordances required for current methods of teaching and learning a second language in the physical world (PW) and online in Skype and VWs are compared and discussed. There are descriptions of the resources created and used by the ELIP~Homewood (E~H) group in their OpenSim world and accounts of their activities there and in Second Life (SL). The E~H Grid has been running since July 2010 and in some ways the project is just beginning as the students themselves design and create new places, buildings, objects and resources for their own enjoyment and learning and as their world evolves in a Language Learning project which meets many of the principles of immersion and of naturalistic, acquisition oriented and task-based language learning.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education and Professional Studies, King’s College London, London, UK

    Margaret de Jong Derrington

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  1. Margaret de Jong Derrington
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Correspondence to Margaret de Jong Derrington .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Coventry University Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry, United Kingdom

    Mark Childs

  2. The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

    Anna Peachey

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de Jong Derrington, M. (2013). Second Language Acquisition by Immersive and Collaborative Task-Based Learning in a Virtual World. In: Childs, M., Peachey, A. (eds) Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5370-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5370-2_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5369-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5370-2

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