Alex Week 3 - Literature Review

Benefits and challenges of using Second Life in English teaching: Experts’ opinions

H. Sezgi Sarac.

Research aim:

This research aims to evaluate the use of Second Life in English Language Teaching at a tertiary level.

Research methods:

Research group: The participants selected for the study were five experts from different universities located within Turkey.

Measurement: The data was gathered through structured interviews. the qualitative data from the experts have been collected and analysed in relation to theme identification.

Interviewed follow the  purposeful sampling enabling the inquiry on their epistemological beliefs (Krathwohl, 1998; Driscoll, 2000)

Research Results:  

The participants agree that second that that second life is very effective in terms of teaching speaking and writing and also go on to include teaching of writing and problem solving. The participants also pointed out another major benefit of SL was that each instructor could mould it according to his/her own needs, views and case  

However, while they agreed on the effectiveness of second life they also came up with challenges faced within teaching in second life.

The challenges revolved around three different. Technical, Financial and user related challenges. All participants across all five experts had experienced these challenges in working with second life.

Conclusion:

The results of the study found that English teaching at a tertiary level is both beneficial and practical. The results indicate that speaking and listening skills can be greatly improved within second life learning and that it should be integrated into universities. However, the study also concludes that an education policy would need to be developed to help ease the financial burden and also workshops would need to be developed to help ease the technical burden.

References:

Driscoll, M. P. (2000). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Krathwohl, D. R. (1998). Methods of educational and social science research (2nd ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc

Sarac, H, S, (2014). Benefits and challenges of using second life in English teaching: Experts opinion, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 158, 326-330.