Abstract
To find ways to promote out-of-class autonomous Chinese language learning with technology, the Chinese programme at a regional Australian university provided its undergraduate Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) student with an additional learning opportunity in order to practice and thereby reinforce communicative language skills in an extant immersive 3D multiuser virtual world (3D MUVW) created in Second Life (SL), Chinese Island (CI) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EYZueyp1go&t=2s) developed by a major Australian urban university. This chapter presents a semester-long pilot study that aimed to investigate students’ perceptions of this learning resource, particularly to explore whether this integrated approach can assist Chinese language educators in fostering autonomous learning out of the classroom. Through analysis of individual and group interviews, the study found that the resources afforded by CI were beneficial for students’ learning of Chinese language and culture beyond the classroom. In addition, the findings could inform Chinese language educators about how to better prepare students for intensive and immersive study abroad. The chapter concludes with pedagogical implications and directions for further research.
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Notes
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- 2.
Note here that “isolation” includes learners situated distantly from other Chinese speakers/learners, and not merely those living at a distance from larger population centres. In other words, it includes those who may be living in an urban area, but who are not personally in contact with Chinese speakers outside of the instructional context.
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A notable exception was the subset of participants who spoke favourably of their interactions with instructors who happened to be online during their visits to CI.
- 4.
Note that the bird she refers to is a feature of the Second Life platform itself—not something specific to CI.
- 5.
An “Easter Egg” is an element within a digital resource such as a computer game or a digital media disc, which has been intentionally placed by the content creators in an inconspicuous place, with a view to providing the end-user with a rewarding experience of discovery.
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Wang, Y., Grist, M., Grant, S. (2021). Into the Real World: Autonomous and Integrated Chinese Language Learning Through a 3D Immersive Experience. In: Lan, YJ., Grant, S. (eds) Contextual Language Learning. Chinese Language Learning Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3416-1_6
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