Design for Learning Activities in a Specialised Language with Opensim

Abstract

The use of virtual platforms in foreign language teaching has experienced a boost in recent years, although little has been said about its usefulness as an educational tool. This paper presents the experience gained with third-year students of Tourism in the learning of French for Specific Purposes, through the use of OpenSim. The teaching prototype, which is part of the Abant Project (Analysis of avatar behaviour based on knowledge integration, Ministry of Science and Innovation, TIN2010- 19872/TSI), aims to reinforce the French vocabulary and syntactic structures typically found in airportrelated conversations. I will elaborate on the teaching strategies used for individual and collaborative learning and I will address the advantages of using virtual worlds, the great asset being the student projecting themselves in an avatar and their self-perception, as well as its many disadvantages, from technical issues (e. g. significant investment of time in construction and development of the sim) to didactic aspects (e. g. the student perceives the world primarily as a social network). Teachers are confronted with a new form of teaching which they sense to be useful, but they need to succeed in making the conception of the process of language acquisition both adapt to and go beyond the limitations imposed by platforms.