A language learner’s experience in Second Life
• Pierre, France, language learner at the Avatar Languages school
• A feedback of one personal experience using SL
o why and how I used SL
o what did I find and like (or dislike) there
o how did the use of SL contribute to my learning process

Why I Started to Use Second Life
• Why I started to use SL about 2 years ago?
o curiosity
o practice my English
o tips from my English teacher at AL
• SL in France in 2007
o a lot of buzz about it, like today about facebook and twitter
o access to Second Life was not such an easy thing

First steps in Second Life
• Relatively easy and rapid to start and to learn the basics
o to walk
o to fly
o to customize your avatar
o to chat
o to add friends
• I wasn't interested in...
o spend time shopping
o build something
o spend real money
• What I was after?
o meet people
o understand what all the buzz was about
o explore places
o learn English

Places
• Places built by users
o kinda utopia to build your own world
o feeling of a world in constant evolution
o open world controled by its inhabitants
• To find my way
o blog post on the web
o tips from my teacher at Avatar Languages
o tips from people I met on Second Life
o CNN blog about Second Life was very useful
• Great variety of place
o places which remind you of a real place
o fantasy places with charming landscapes
o places to share a common interest or value
o even a place which was an art work

People
• Best experience of chatting with Second Life
o friendly people who enjoy having a chat
 a lot of people
 most of them speak English
 interesting people
 I got to know some regular
o completely different experience of chatting
 chat with someone while seeing him as an avatar
 chatting in an environment
• Never use voice chat
o I was afraid boring the person I was talking with
o Maybe I didn't want my avatar to have my real voice

Learning English in Second Life
• A good way to learn english
o new vocabulary and expressions
o quickly find the words and build the sentences
• Important role of the environment
 find the name of objects
 describe people
 give or understand spatial informations
 ask how to do something
• Kind of real situations

Chatting with a Group
• Taking part (or trying to take part) in a group conversation
 the group doesn't wait for you to understand and answer
 what the group is talking about can change very rapidly
 there were jokes and slang

My Experience of Second Life - One Year Later
• A place to meet people and share an environment
• Completely new experience of chatting
o interesting people
o very friendly and open minded
o something to speak about
• Milestone in my learning process
• Vast and so many things to do
• My limits with Second Life... what I still a regret
o I didn't use voice chat
o I was unable to take part in group conversation

SLanguages 2009
This presentation was given at
SLanguages 2009
The Conference for Language
Education in Virtual Worlds
slanguages.net