The affordances of virtual worlds for language learning

392 Pages·2017·7.05 MB·English

The affordances of virtual worlds for language
learning
An activity theoretical study

Susanna Nocchi
Laurea in lingue e letterature straniere moderne (Università di Pisa, Italy)
MPhil in Applied Linguistics (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Dublin City University
School of Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies
Under the supervision of
Dr Françoise Blin
Dr Vera Sheridan
January 2017
I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme
of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, that I
have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best
of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of
others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the
text of my work.

Signed: ___________________ (Candidate) ID No.: 5912880 Date: ___________
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my thesis supervisors, Dr. Françoise Blin and
Dr. Vera Sheridan for their expert advice, guidance, and their continuous support and
encouragement throughout the length of this project. Dr. Blin and Dr. Sheridan were a
source of inspiration and motivation, their insightful comments and their demanding
questions helped me focus my research and their meetings provided a relaxed and
friendly environment, which supported creativity and academic enquiry.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Second Life® community of friends and
colleagues. Particularly, I want to thank Giovanni Dalla Bona (Imparafacile Runo), who
gave me full access to his Imparafacile Island in Second Life® and introduced me to a
number of wonderful and generous volunteers, without whom this research would not
have seen the light of day. My sincere thanks also to Dr. Carmela Dell’Aria (Misy
Ferraris) and her students. Dr. Dell’Aria’s collaboration, advice, and support were
invaluable during the pilot study. Last, but not least, I would like to thank Anna Lazzari
(Annette Lionheart), who offered precious advice and help during the whole duration of
SLitaliano both in real-life and in virtual-life.
A sincere grazie to the students who joined me in this adventure and explored the virtual
world, making friends and communicating in Italian.
I also thank my institution, the Dublin Institute of Technology, for financial support
during this endeavour of mine.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and all my friends who had to endure my PhD
moods for a good number of years and still love me, despite all.

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Table of Contents
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I
TABLE OF CONTENTS II
TABLE OF EXCERPTS VII
TABLE OF FIGURES VIII
TABLE OF NETWORKS IX
TABLE OF SNAPSHOTS X
TABLE OF TABLES XI
SUSANNA NOCCHI. THE AFFORDANCES OF VIRTUAL WORLDS FOR
LANGUAGE LEARNING - ABSTRACT XII
LIST OF ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS AND VIRTUAL WORLD
TERMINOLOGY XIII
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Prologue 1
1.2 Scope of the study 2
1.3 Research objectives and context of study 6
1.4 Outline of the thesis 9
CHAPTER 2 VIRTUAL WORLDS: WHAT, WHERE AND HOW 13
2.1 Virtual Worlds, terminology 15
2.2 Virtual Worlds, a description 16
2.2.1 Synchronicity 18
2.2.2 Persistency and generative capability 18
2.2.3 Avatars 19
2.3 Virtual worlds as heterotopias of our times 21
2.4 Presence and immersion in Virtual Worlds 23
2.4.1 How real is the virtual? Sense of presence in Virtual Worlds 24
2.4.2 Sense of presence and immersion in a Virtual World 26
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2.4.3 Virtual Corpsing in Virtual Worlds 28
2.5 Virtual Worlds and their use in education 29
2.5.1 Research on virtual worlds for education: positive findings 31
2.5.2 Research on VWs for education: critical issues 35
2.6 Trends of research on Virtual Worlds for education 39
2.7 Summary 43
CHAPTER 3 AFFORDANCES OF VIRTUAL WORLDS FOR
LANGUAGE LEARNING IN AN ACTIVITY THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK 45
3.1 The concept of affordance: from perceptual psychology to Human Computer
Interaction 46
3.2 Human Computer Interaction: affordances of computer mediated
environments 49
3.3 ICT in education: affordances in the learning environment 52
3.3.1 Language affordances in an ecological perspective 58
3.4 Affordances of virtual worlds for learning 60
3.5 A theory for understanding learning in computed mediated environments,
cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) 66
3.5.1 First and second generation activity theory, the cultural-historical school of
psychology 68
3.5.2 Engeström’s model: Third generation activity theory 71
3.5.3 The role of mediation and the core tenets of cultural historical activity theory 74
3.6 The role of contradictions in the activity system as a possible source of learning 77
3.7 A definition of affordances for language learning in an ICT learning
environment, grounded on an activity theoretical framework 83
3.7.1 Investigating affordances for language learning 84
3.8 Summary 86
CHAPTER 4 EPISTEMOLOGICAL, METHODOLOGICAL AND
OPERATIONALISATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS ON RESEARCH IN
VIRTUAL WORLDS 87
4.1 Reasons for this study and research questions 88
4.2 Conducting research in virtual worlds 89
4.2.1 Conducting research with and on avatars: appearance and identity 90
4.2.2 Recruitment and types of participants 92
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4.2.3 Choice and set-up of research space 92
4.2.4 Recording and transcribing virtual world data 93
4.2.5 Researcher training, credibility and roles 95
4.2.6 Standards of Practice in the virtual world 96
4.2.7 Ethical considerations when conducting a research study in virtual worlds 97
4.3 Operationalising the activity theoretical framework to identify affordances for
language learning 99
4.3.1 Choosing the unit of analysis and the level of analysis 100
4.3.2 Identifying tensions and contradictions in the activity system 102
4.4 Implications for this study: research design 102
4.4.1 Context of the research study 103
4.4.2 Research design: stages 104
4.4.3 Design choices made for this study in a virtual world 105
4.4.4 Role of the researcher, implications for this study 107
4.4.5 Operationalising the activity theoretical framework: choosing the language
task as a unit of analysis and modelling the language task as an activity system 108
4.4.6 Investigating episodes of tension and disruption in the language task activity
system 112
4.5 Summary 112
CHAPTER 5 CONTEXT, METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION114
5.1 Design and implementation of the language courses 114
5.1.1 The pilot course: Italiano in gioco 115
5.1.2 Italiano in gioco: the data and how it influenced the second course 115
5.1.3 SLitaliano course structure 117
5.2 Course structure, session themes and task types 120
5.3 Participants, recruitment and profile 123
5.3.1 Recruitment of students and students’ profile 123
5.3.2 Recruitment of Italian participants and their profile 124
5.4 Data types 126
5.4.1 Data before the course: the pre-course questionnaire 127
5.4.2 Data type during the course: recordings and reflective journals 127
5.4.3 Data type after the course: semi-structured interviews 128
5.5 Data selection: three sessions selected for analysis 130
5.5.1 Choice of transcription mode and representation 134
5.6 Encoding the data: Atlas.ti, segmentation of data and use of semantic networks136
5.6.1 Stage 1 data analysis: a taxonomy of episodes caused by disruptions in the
activity system 139
5.6.2 Stage 2 of data analysis: creating a taxonomy of affordance related actions 141
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5.7 Summary 147
CHAPTER 6 WHAT HAPPENS DURING LANGUAGE LEARNING IN A
VIRTUAL WORLD: FOCUS SHIFT EPISODES, ACTIONS AND
CONTRADICTIONS 149
6.1 A narrative account of the three sessions of SLitaliano 149
6.1.1 Session Four: Si mangia! (Let’s eat) 150
6.1.2 Session Six: Feste in Italia (Holidays in Italy) 153
6.1.3 Session Eight: Mammia mia, che male! (Damn, it hurts!) 157
6.2 Types and distribution of disruptions and related focus shifts 159
6.2.1 Language related focus shifts, types and description 161
6.2.2 Intercultural focus shifts, types and description 167
6.2.3 Focus shifts caused by technical disruptions, types and description 173
6.3 The focus shift as a possible manifestation of an underlying contradiction in the
activity system 176
6.3.1 Focus shifts caused by language and technical disruptions and their
underlying contradictions 177
6.3.2 Focus shifts caused by intercultural disruptions and their underlying
contradictions 179
6.4 What happens during a focus shift episode: the case of the Health Card episode
during the Making an appointment with a consultant role-play 183
6.5 Summary 190
CHAPTER 7 AFFORDANCES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING 191
7.1 Overview of the distribution of the actions performed during the focus shift
episodes 191
7.2 The community as a source of affordances for language learning 193
7.2.1 Talking a problem through: episodes of Languaging during the focus shift
episodes 198
7.3 Technical affordances for FL communication in the Virtual World: modes of
interaction 204
7.3.1 Reasons for using Local Chat 206
7.3.2 Who used Local Chat 210
7.3.3 Who used Voice Chat and for what 213
7.4 Use of other in-world technical features as an affordance to complete the
language task 214
7.5 Consequences of the non-realisation of a technical affordance: cases of Virtual
Corpsing 220
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7.5.1 An extreme case of Virtual Corpsing: a crash episode 221
7.5.2 The Hover Tips episode, a technical breakdown with many layers 224
7.6 Summary 229
CHAPTER 8 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 230
8.1 Aim of this study and results 234
8.1.1 Question 1 235
8.1.2 Question Two 242
8.1.3 Question Three 246
8.2 Original contributions and limitations of this study 250
8.3 Future research perspectives 253
REFERENCES 256
APPENDIX A 282
Plain Language Statement 282
Informed Consent Form (for Italian volunteers) 283
Informed Consent Form (for DIT students) 285
APPENDIX B – TRANSCRIPTS 286
Session Four: Si mangia! 286
Introduction 286
Task One: An easy recipe 291
Task Two: Cooking together 294
Task Three: The Opinionator game and Wind-down part 301
Session Six: Feste in Italia 312
Introduction 312
Taks One: The Easter language task 318
Task Two: The Carnival language task 324
Task Three: All Souls’ Day language task and Wind-Down part 334
Session Eight: Mamma mia, che dolore! 344
Introduction 344
Task One: Visiting a friend at the hospital 346
Task Two: Making an appointment with a consultant 358
Task Three: At the Chemist’s and Wind-Down part 368
APPENDIX C 372
The Hover Tips episode – English translation 372
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Table of excerpts
Excerpt 5-1 Transcription example. Session four, Let’s eat! ............................................... 135
Excerpt 5-2 Session Six. A03. Exposure to Authentic Target Language Culture in Voice
Chat: the mamuthones ......................................................................................................... 143
Excerpt 5-3 Session Eight, A13 Authentic Language Culture In-World ............................. 144
Excerpt 5-4 Session Six. A15 Native Speaker Support in Voice Chat. The meaning of riti 145
Excerpt 5-5 Session Eight. A09 Target Language Lexical Support In-World, pointing to
frutta martorana .................................................................................................................. 146
Excerpt 5-6 Session Four, A10 Intercultural Exchange in Voice Chat. Pizza in Dublin ..... 147
Excerpt 6-1 Lexical Meaning question, Session Four: the meaning of dorato .................... 162
Excerpt 6-2 Lexical Meaning question, Session Eight, the meaning of scippare ................ 163
Excerpt 6-3 Lexical Meaning question, Session Six, The meaning of cenci ....................... 164
Excerpt 6-4 Lexical Meaning/T, Session Four, the use of troppo ....................................... 165
Excerpt 6-5 Lexical Search focus shift, Session Eight, looking for painkillers ................... 166
Excerpt 6-6 Morphological focus shift, Session Four, the plural of aglio ........................... 167
Excerpt 6-7 Morphological focus shift, Session Four, the agreement of quanto ................. 167
Excerpt 6-8 Intercultural Exchange focus shift, Session Eight, the Health Card ................. 169
Excerpt 6-9 Intercultural Exchange, Session Eight, Women’s Day ..................................... 169
Excerpt 6-10. Engineered intercultural exchange, Session Four, the cappuccino episode ... 170
Excerpt 6-11 Intercultural Exchange/T focus shift, Session Eight, the identity card ........... 172
Excerpt 6-12 Intercultural Information, Session Four, pasta al dente .................................. 172
Excerpt 6-13 Technical focus shift, Session Six, movement ............................................... 174
Excerpt 6-14 Technical experience focus shift, Session Four, sound problem .................... 175
Excerpt 6-15 Lexical meaning focus shift, Session Four, the peperonata ........................... 177
Excerpt 6-16 Technical expertise focus shift, Session Four, reading the Opinionator ......... 178
Excerpt 6-17. Session eight: the Health Card exchange, intercultural focus shift................ 185
Excerpt 7-1 Session Six, the Tufara episode ....................................................................... 195
Excerpt 7-2 Session Four, Si mangia!, the Salento episode ................................................. 197
Excerpt 7-3 Session Eight, Damn, it hurts! Languaging to solve a technical problem ........ 199
Excerpt 7-4 Session Four, Si mangia! the panna episode .................................................... 201
Excerpt 7-5 Session Four, Si mangia! Language support in voice chat ............................... 207
Excerpt 7-6 Session Four, Si mangia! asking for the meaning of rosolare.......................... 208
Excerpt 7-7 Session Four, Si mangia! Comment on a type of pasta sauce .......................... 209
Excerpt 7-8 Session Four, Si mangia! Comment in Local Chat on using garlic and onion
together ............................................................................................................................... 209
Excerpt 7-9 Session Six, Feste in Italia, problems with Su’s voice ..................................... 210
Excerpt 7-10 Session Four, Si mangia! Resolving a sound problem ................................... 217
Excerpt 7-11 Session Six, Feste in Italia, Ita’s IM exchange after crashing ........................ 222
Excerpt 7-12. Session Six, voice exchange after crashing ................................................... 222
Excerpt 7-13 Session Four, Si mangia! the Hover Tips episode, start ................................. 226
Excerpt 7-14 Session Four, Si mangia!, the Hover Tips episode, second solution .............. 226
Excerpt 7-15 Session Four, Si mangia! the Hover Tips episode, the mezzaluna episode .... 227

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Table of figures
Figure 3-1 Vygotsky’s model of mediated action (adapted from Cole & Engeström, 1993,
p. 5) ....................................................................................................................................... 69
Figure 3-2 Activity system (based on Engeström’s model, 2015) ......................................... 72
Figure 3-3 Secondary contradictions in the set-up of the FL course activity system ............. 81
Figure 4-1 Activity theory model of the Easter language learning task activity ................. 109
Figure 5-1 Set up of the two language courses .................................................................... 118
Figure 5-2 Students’ work for SLitaliano, spaces and related tasks .................................... 119
Figure 6-1 Distribution of types of disruption during the three sessions ............................. 160
Figure 6-2 Types of Language related focus shifts .............................................................. 162
Figure 6-3 Types of Intercultural focus shifts ..................................................................... 168
Figure 6-4 Occurrence of technical disruptions ................................................................... 173
Figure 6-5 Model of a language task activity system with secondary contradictions and
resulting sub-activity systems ............................................................................................. 182
Figure 7-1 Distribution of actions observed during the focus shifts .................................... 192
Figure 7-2 Incidence of community support during the focus shifts ................................... 194
Figure 7-3 Languaging episodes during the focus shifts ..................................................... 199
Figure 7-4 Use of communication modes during the three sessions .................................... 204
Figure 7-5 Use of modes of communication to initiate a focus shift episode ...................... 205
Figure 7-6 Reason for using Local Chat .............................................................................. 207
Figure 7-7 Groups that used Local Chat and for what ......................................................... 211
Figure 7-8 Different instances of VC use ............................................................................ 213
Figure 7-9 Other technical affordances that emerged during the focus shift episodes ......... 216
Figure 7-10 Instances of Virtual Corpsing .......................................................................... 221
Figure 7-11 The Hover Tips episode and the actions related to it ....................................... 228

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