Case Story: SituationalSpeakingInVirtualWorlds

Created	25 Mar 2009	By	Jeffrey Yen
Modified	08 Aug 2008	By	john gray
Owner	Jeffrey Yen	Contributors	Jeffrey Yen

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

The situation involves Secondary school students learning English.

Students can be quite good in their comprehension and composition (exam requirements). However, they have more problems when it comes to speaking or communicating in different situations and contexts (not exactly required in exams but very important in real life.)

For example, the requirements of oral communication when ordering food in a restaurant are quite different compared with the things to say when making a police report.

By leveraging on the benefits of virtual environments designed to simulate distinctly different scenarios, students can have the opportunity to notice the differences in tone, style, content used in various life situations.

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

• Enable students to see differences in speech when they are communicating with others in different situations
• Enable students to thus speak effectively and appropriately in virtual environments

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

• Sudents enter virtual environments such as a restaurant
• They are given roles and tasks (e.g., customer needs to order something, waiters needs to take order or try to sell particular expensive dishes)
• Depending on the level of the students, less, or more, scaffolding can be provided. (For e.g., whether the student reads off a script, or if the interactive session is more free-flowing and not scripted.)
• Conversations and interactions are captured, and feedback on particular exchanges can be analysed and discussed in class.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

Licensing