Audiographic environments and virtual worlds are network-based tools for communication in real time and for the collaborative creation of text and graphics. The use of audiographic tools – integrating audio, text and graphics – in language learning started in the mid-1990s but has been slow to develop, possibly due to cost (unlike chat applications, most audiographic applications are not free). Virtual worlds are virtual reality programmes which range from immersive environments (with sound and touch sensors) to graphical spaces (with or without audio) and textbased environments (such as MOOs). Often they are open spaces, accessible by the general public as well as by those in a learning group. For the purposes of this chapter we concentrate on virtual worlds that offer more than the written mode.
We now explore two studies: an early piece by Erben (1999), who examined audiographics in an immersion setting for the learning of Japanese by trainee teachers in Australia; the other by Svensson (2003), one of the few practitioners advocating virtual worlds as suitable platforms for communicative and constructivist language learning. His article describes the use of one such virtual world with advanced students of English.
Reference:
Lamy,
Marie-Noelle and Hampel, Regine. 2007. Online Communication in Language
Learning and Teaching : Audiographic
Environments and Virtual Worlds. Australia: Palgrave
macmillan
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