Bodies in cyberspace : language learning in a simulated environment

• Main Author: Murray, Garold Linwood
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: A la rencontre de Philippe (Videodisc); French language - Study and teaching - Foreign speakers - Audio-visual aids; French language - Study and teaching - Foreign speakers - Case studies; Interactive video; Video tapes in education
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8621

This dissertation reports on a multiple-case study documenting the experiences of 23 French as second language learners, most of whom were pre-service teachers, as they worked independently to improve their existing oral/aural competency through the use of the interactive videodisc program À la rencontre de Philippe. The program claims to invite learners into the fictive Parisian world of a young freelance journalist, providing them with the opportunity for immersion in the target language and culture as well as a degree of control over their learning. The study explores learners' experiences as they work with this program, investigates the impact this experience might have on their second language acquisition and reflects on the implications this information might have for second language pedagogy and research. Participants were asked to write a reflective personal language learning history and keep a journal documenting each work session. These work sessions were videotaped. The data collected served as a basis for interviews exploring the participants' interaction with the microworld presented by the program, the program's technological features, learner autonomy, and the learning process and outcomes as perceived by the learners. The experiences of the learners indicate that instead of using technology to bring the second language and culture to learners in the classroom, it is now both possible and desirable to use technology to "transport" learners from the classroom into the second language environment. In other words, participants reported having the experience of subjective personal presence in the microworld. Furthermore, their overall experience suggested that language learning is both an embodied and a situated endeavour, as well as a cognitive one. Therefore, computer technology can enhance second language acquisition by providing learners the opportunity to be immersed in sociolinguistically-rich, simulated communities in which they can engage in everyday activities and interact with target language speakers.