Language schools await SL Voice
Constructing virtual environments for language learning that either augment or replace classroom work has been a holy grail of foreign-language educators since the first digital “microworld” was developed 15 years ago. “The basic idea of getting individuals to interact in a microworld or simulation is extremely interesting, but it’s hard to do,” says Robert Fischer, a professor of French and linguistics at Texas State University and the executive director of the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium.
Michael Erard has a timely Technology Review piece on language schools plans for virtual worlds, the challenges they face and LanguageLab’s September SL launch. Todate text-translator offerings such as Universal Translator, Kitsune HUD (English-to-Japanese) and R246 J2E HUD (Japanese-to-English) have facilitated communicate between residents from the Americas, Europe and now Japan. It will be interesting to see how SL Voice shapes the revolution and evolution of language schools within virtual worlds.