Virtual Worlds for Language Learning: From Theory to Practice RandallSadler. New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2012.

04–644 Donaghue, H. (Shajah Women's College, UAE). An instrument to elicit teachers’ beliefs and assumptions. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK), 57, 4 (2003), 344–351.04–645 Heller-Murphy, Anne and Northcott, Joy (U. of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK). “Who does she think she is?” constraints on autonomy in language teacher education. Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK), 12 (2003), 10–18.04–646 LeLoup, J. W. (State U. of New-York-Cortland) and Schmidt-Rinchart, B. A Venezuelan experience: professional development for teachers, meaningful activities for students. Hispania (Ann Arbor, USA), 86, 3 (2003), 586–591.04–647 Macaro, E. (University of Oxford; Email: [email protected]) Second language teachers as second language classroom researchers. Language Learning Journal (Rugby, UK), 27 (2003), 43–51.04–648 Murphy, J. (New College, Nottingham). Task-based learning: the interaction between tasks and learners. ELT Journal (Oxford, UK), 57, 4 (2003), 352–360.04–649 Urmston, Alan (Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Hong Kong; Email: [email protected]). Learning to teach English in Hong Kong: the opinions of teachers in training. Language and Education (Clevedon, UK), 17, 2 (2003), 112–137.04–650 Wharton, Sue (University of Aston, UK; Email: [email protected]). Defining appropriate criteria for the assessment of master's level TESOL assignments. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education (London, UK), 28, 6 (2003), 649–663.04–651 Wildsmith-Cromarty, Rosemary (University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa; Email: [email protected]). Mutual apprenticeship in the learning and teaching of an additional language. Language and Education (Clevedon, UK), 17, 2 (2003), 138–154.

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The Griefer and the Stalker: Disruptive Actors in a Second Life Educational Community

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research ◽

10.4101/jvwr.v13i1.7400 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jean-Paul Lafayette DuQuette

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Learning Community ◽

Virtual Worlds ◽

Second Life ◽

Virtual World ◽

English Language ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Community Members ◽

Fear And Anxiety

Linden Lab’s Second Life (SL) is well-known for its hands-off approach to user conflict-resolution. Although users are given tools to mute and block individual accounts as well as ban undesirable avatars from user-owned land, that does not prevent determined, malicious users from disrupting communities and harassing individuals. This case study focuses on two such malicious users exemplary of two specific types of malevolent virtual world actors: in-world griefers and online stalkers. As part of a decade-long ethnographic research project within the Cypris Chat English language learning community in SL, this paper utilizes data gleaned from notes on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and first-hand encounters. It categorizes the disparate strategies these individuals have used over the years in their attempts to disrupt group cohesion, sow distrust between students and teachers, humiliate individuals, and foment an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. It then reviews the methods community members used to defend themselves from such attacks and analyzes the efficacy of these strategies. This study builds on our understanding of harassment in virtual worlds and acts as a cautionary tale for future virtual world educators and community leaders considering the development of their own online classes and groups.

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Deep Learning and Competition in Psycholinguistic Research

East European Journal of Psycholinguistics ◽

10.29038/eejpl.2017.4.2.rta ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 67-74

Author(s):

Роман Тарабань ◽

Маршал Філіп Х.

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Second Language ◽

Deep Learning ◽

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learning ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Competition Model ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Cue Validity

MacWhinney, Bates, and colleagues developed the Competition Model in the 1980s as an alternate to Chomskyan models that encapsulate syntax as a special-purpose module. The Competition Model adopted the functional perspective that language serves communicative goals and functions. In contrast to the premise that knowledge of language is innate, the Competition model asserts that language is learned and processed through general cognitive mechanisms that identify and weight phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic cues in the language experiences of the learner. These weighted cues guide the language user in the comprehension and production of language forms. The present article provides background on the Competition Model, describes machine simulations of linguistic competition, and extends the principles of the Competition Model to new machine models and applications through deep learning networks. References Bates, E. & MacWhinney, B. (1982). A functionalist approach to grammar. In E. Wanner & L. Gleitman (Eds.), Language acquisition: the state of the art. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In: The Crosslinguistic Study of Sentence Processing, (pp 3-76). B. MacWhinney and E. Bates (Eds.), New York: Cambridge University Press. Devescovi, A., D’Amico, S., Smith, S., Mimica, I., & Bates, E. (1998). The development of sentence comprehension in Italian and Serbo-Croatian: Local versus distributed cues. In: Syntax and Semantics: Vol. 31. Sentence Pocessing: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective, (pp. 345-377). D. Hillert (Ed.), San Diego: Academic Press. Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What it is, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569-1579. Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review, 87, 329-354. Langacker, R. (1989). Foundations of cognitive grammar. Vol. 2: Applications. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Li, P., & MacWhinney, B. (2013). Competition model. In: The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), Malden, MA: Wiley. MacWhinney, B. (1987). The competition model. In: Mechanisms of Language Acquisition, (pp.249-308). B. MacWhinney (Ed.).Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. MacWhinney, B. (2001). The competition model: The input, the context, and the brain. In: Cognition and Second Language Instruction, (pp. 69–90). P. Robinson (Ed.), New York: Cambridge University Press. MacWhinney, B. (2008). A Unified Model. In: Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, (pp. 341-371). P. Robinson & N. Ellis (Eds.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. MacWhinney B. (2012). The logic of the Unified Model. In: The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, (pp. 211–227). S. Gass and A. Mackey (Eds.). New York: Routledge. MacWhinney, B. (2015). Multidimensional SLA. In: Usage-Based Perspectives on Second Language Learning, (pp. 22-45). S. Eskilde and T. Cadierno (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. MacWhinney, B., Bates, E. & Kliegl, R. (1984). Cue validity and sentence interpretation in English, German, and Italian. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 127-150. MacWhinney, B., Leinbach, J., Taraban, R., & McDonald, J. (1989). Language learning: Cues or rules? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 255-277. McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1986). Parallel Distributed Processing. Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition. Volume 2: Psychological and Biological Models. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Presson, N. & MacWhinney, B. (2011). The Competition Model and language disorders. In: Handbook of Psycholinguistic and Cognitive Processes, (pp. 31-48). J. Guendozi, F. Loncke, and M. Williams (Eds.). New York: Psychology Press. Sokolov, J. L. (1988). Cue validity in Hebrew sentence comprehension. Journal of Child Language, 15, 129-156. Taraban, R. (2004). Drawing learners’ attention to syntactic context aids gender-like category induction. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(2), 202-216. Taraban, R. (2017). Hate, white supremacy, PTSD, and metacognition. In: Improve With Metacognition [online]. L. Scharff, A. Richmond, & J. Draeger (Eds.). Retrieved from: www.improvewithmetacognition.com. Taraban, R., & Kempe, V. (1999). Gender processing in native and non-native Russian speakers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 119-148. Taraban, R., McDonald, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Category learning in a connectionist model: Learning to decline the German definite article. In R. Corrigan, F. Eckman, & M. Noonan (Eds.), Linguistic categorization (pp. 163-193). Philadelphia: Benjamins. Taraban, R., & Roark, B. (1996). Competition in learning language-based categories. Applied Psycholinguistics, 17, 125-148.

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The multilingual turn as a critical movement in education: assumptions, challenges and a need for reflection

Applied Linguistics Review ◽

10.1515/applirev-2016-2010 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 131-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Gabriela Sylvia Meier

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Language Learning ◽

Bilingual Education ◽

Social Practice ◽

Decomposition Analysis ◽

Language Teachers ◽

Theoretical Pluralism ◽

Critical Movement ◽

Critical Perspectives

AbstractThis study establishes the multilingual turn as part of a critical movement in education. It highlights the importance we ought to attach to how we understand the concepts of language, the learners and language learning and related terms, as such assumptions determine what language teachers and learners do in the classroom. A thematic decomposition analysis of 21 chapters, contained in two books both with phrase the multilingual turn in their title (Conteh and Meier 2014, The multilingual turn in languages education: Opportunities and challenges. Bristol: Multilingual Matters; May 2014a, The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and Bilingual education. New York: Routledge), confirms that new critical understandings of these concepts have developed in recent years. While there is not total accord, my findings showed that authors, associated with the multilingual turn, conceive languages as a resource for learning and as associated with status and power; the learners as diverse multilingual and social practitioners; and learning as a multilingual social practice based on theoretical pluralism, consistently guided by critical perspectives. While theoretically relatively well established, the multilingual turn faces important challenges that hamper its translation into mainstream practice, namely popularly accepted monolingual norms and a lack of guidance for teachers. The findings combined with previous research inform a framework to reflect on practice, which may, in the long term, help address the challenges identified.

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The Use of Virtual Worlds in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Computer-Assisted Language Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7663-1.ch093 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1949-1972

Author(s):

Ellen Yeh ◽

Guofang Wan

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Virtual Worlds ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Language Teaching ◽

Dynamic Environment ◽

Foreign Language Teaching ◽

Learning Instruction ◽

Language Teaching And Learning

This book chapter presents, a review of the literature from 2004-2014 regarding the various models of virtual worlds used in foreign language teaching and learning, the impact of virtual world learning environments and the implications of language teaching. The study being reported aims to address the following questions: (1) What are the models of virtual worlds used in language learning instruction in K-12 and higher education; (2) How do VWLEs impact language learning in terms of motivation, communicative competency, intercultural competency, collaborative competency, constructivist learning, and sociocultural competency; and (3) What are the implications of using VWLEs in foreign language teaching and learning? Results indicate that social context and task-based learning enhanced language learners' participation and motivations. Findings also indicate that consistent use of interactional strategies encouraged learners to engage in the tasks and stay motivated. The study suggested that a VWLE offers a motivating, engaging, and multi-dynamic environment for language learners.

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