A recent Forbes article by the versatile Bonnie Ruberg paints an interesting picture of Second Life as a tool for teaching English as a second language. It profiles teacher Kip Boahn, one of the leaders of a real-world German school for ESL, who has now built his own center in Second Life where teachers and students can avail themselves of academic resources for free.
The virtual environment seems to allow Boahn to create any number of situations both to engage students and to teach them new language applications -- for example, a rather wacky pirate scenario in which learners picked up words like "loot" and "booty," as well as more common fare like fast food restaurants.
From the article:
Boahn first began dabbling in "Second Life" as he was searching for ways to use technology to augment what happened in his real-world classrooms. "I became intrigued by the immersiveness of "Second Life" and other 3D worlds," he says. "The richness and multitudes of environments seemed to offer fantastic opportunities for exposure to language." Today, Boahn counts himself as part of a growing group of online ESL enthusiasts--including teachers from America and Europe, and students from countries as far-flung as Uruguay and China--who come together to practice language via text and voice chat.
The article has other info on Second Life for language education applications, too, but as for Boahn, he's now seeing some 75 visitors a day since his center opened in-world last month, and he's hoping for more once he starts advertising.
