Computer-Assisted EFL Writing Development

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"I. EFL Writing Development in Virtual Environments"

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Virtual Environments 3 Features of Interaction in Virtual Environments 4 Conclusion 5 References

[edit] Introduction

Writing is a sociocultural phenomenon that reflects a community's values. According to Murray (2000), writing is "not a set of skills, whose absence or presence in individuals or communities automatically leads to particular outcomes" (p. 44). In other words, writing is not a context-free, value-neutral set of skills but a set of social or cultural practices and its participants as a community of practice" (Reder, 1994, p. 33).

Vygotsky (1978) argues that all learning is inherently social in nature. In fact, Vygotsky's theory implies that writing arises out of and retains the functions of social uses of language. A particular discourse community is characterized by the particular conventions of creating and interacting with texts. Therefore, in order to acquire writing, one needs socialization or acculturation into the distinctive conventions of the particular discourse community.

Obviously writing practices are not only social but also mental and individual: writing involves a lot more than inscribing words. It is a linguistic process that relies not only on knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, but also on knowledge of textual organization beyond the sentence level, knowledge of genres, and knowledge of conventions of spoken and written language. It is a cognitive process that involves creating links between our knowledge and textual forms and ongoing critical assessment of the quality of those links. It is a social practice, interwoven into larger social practices, that is developed through apprenticeship and shaped by its users to conform with social needs. In sum, writing is seen as a dynamic set of linguistic, social and cognitive processes that are culturally motivated (Kern, 2000).

Furthermore, writing is now situated within computer networks, and the most profound effects of computer technology on writing arise from social interaction made possible by computer networks. Social use of computer technology, especially virtual environments such as MOO and WOO, present a new opportunity to enable EFL learners to interact with native speakers in a social community for developing EFL learners' writing ability.

Seen in this context, virtual environments on computer networks and writing are closely related. Therefore, the basic premise underlying this study is that EFL writing education can be empowered by the potential of virtual environments on computer networks. I examine in more detail the question of how activities in virtual environments enhance EFL learners' writing acquisition.

[edit] Virtual Environments

Many virtual environments are socially oriented. Communication in virtual environments allows for a safe environment to share ideas and cheap access to people worldwide. Virtual environments also allow foreign language learners to make native speaker friends from their homes. They can meet native speakers worldwide in a free space designed to promote discussion of a specific topic or simply socialization.

By the same token, educators are excited by the possibilities that this new technology offers. They have a new way of encouraging students to write, and they can connect classes worldwide. Virtual Environments offer a new way of examining language and writing.

Communication tools to enchance EFL learners' writing ability in virtual environments

• E-mail
• Bulletin boards
• Real time on-line text and voice chats and whispering chat

Other features in virtual environments

• Choosing and creating an Avatar
• Expressing emotions and actions
• Creating one's own rooms

Resources

For EFL Learners

• Worlds Chat: "Through the creation of 3D Internet sites, Worlds Chat creates communities of users who form the basis for multi-user chat, e-commerce and advertising forums in a broad range of categories. Worlds 3D internet technology provides a contextual environment to online users, moving the current HTML print paradigm of the Internet, i.e., paging up and down, to a new level of spatial environments more akin to the real world. Within Worlds' immersive environments, online users can speak to each other through voice to voice telephony, standard web pages can be launched from within these 3D environments, supporting archived audio and video streams as well as live feeds. All these features offer a new value added layer to the current 2D internet experience" (quoted from www.worlds.com). Furthermore, this virtual community offers some on-line classes about how to create rooms, and each room has a host to help new users. However, Worlds Chat has a weakness: poor quality audio chat.

• Active Worlds: "Active Worlds, the web's most powerful virtual reality experience, lets learners visit and chat in incredible 3D worlds that are built by other users. Learners can also create fascinating 3D worlds that others can visit and chat in minutes. The Active Worlds Universe is a community of hundreds of thousands of users that chat and build 3D virtual reality environments in millions of square kilometers of virtual territory" (quoted from www.activeworlds.com).

• The Palace: The Palace is a vast online community of graphical interactive sites for Mac and Window users. "With the Palace User Software, learners can visit a diverse range of communities such as business, training, and learning resources; entertainment and gaming centers; gathering points for special interest groups; and also personal sites where you simply can go to chat and socialize with friends and family. In addition, if learners download the Palace Server, they can even build and customize their own personal Palace site to host other people" (quoted from www.thepalace.com). The weak points of this virtual community are 1) few avatars 2) environments just like pictures 3) no specific guidelines or guiders for new users 4) usually for children, so chat contains slang difficult for EFL learners.

• schMOOze University: schMOOze University is a small, friendly college. Learners studying English as a second or foreign language could practice English while sharing ideas and experiences with other learners and practicers of English. Students have opportunities for one-on-one and group conversations as well as access to language games such as Scrabble and Boggle, an on-line dictionary, a virtual library and a grammar maze.

• enCore : enCore is "an online virtual learning environment system built on LambdaMOO. It comes with a built in server-side client called Xpress. enCore was primarily designed for educational use, but can also be used for other purposes" (quoted from lingua.utdallas.edu/encore). It is perfect for digital community building, online writing projects, online conferencing, distance education programs, or just about any educational endeavor that aims to incorporate a rich and versatile online presence.

• LambdaMOO: LambdaMOO is a network-accessible, multi-user, programmable, interactive system well-suited to the construction of text-based adventure games, conferencing systems, and other collaborative software (quoted from ftp.lambda.moo.mud.org/pub/MOO/ProgrammersManual_toc.html).

• Diversity University: "Diversity University MOO campuses are Internet locations for serious experimentation in network-based, interactive teaching, learning and social services" (quoted from moo.du.org:8000/).

• Planet Oit: Planet Oit is a geology educational MOO created by the Geology Explorer Project at North Dakota State University.

• Zora: "Zora is a 3D graphical multi-user environment to explore identity and values through storytelling and programming. Learners are graphically represented as an avatar and can navigate around the city. In Zora, learners can create their own spaces and can populate the city by creating objects and symbols as well as characters with stories and cherished values. They can program them with storytelling behaviors to engage in conversations with the visitors. At the same time, learners can communicate with each other in real-time" (quoted from xenia.media.mit.edu/~marinau/Zora/).

• WebChat Broadcasting System: "WBS has hundreds of online communities where its two million members gather to exchange ideas, get advice, and just chat" (quoted from www.wbs.net/forums/). Learners can post individual community announcements; set up a free homepage; or participate in online events. The weakness of this communities is empty chat rooms despite active forums.

For Virtual-environment-using Teachers and Colleagues

• Tapped in: Tapped in is an on-line community mainly for teachers, development staff, university faculty, and researchers. It has various classes, clubs, and discussions via synchrouse chat, bulletin boards, and e-mail. Even though this community doesn't have any graphic functions, it has many strengths. First, because many members of this community are educators, chats are very valuable for deep conversation and starndard language. Second, the chat log emails the users automatically. Finally, a receptionist in the entrance helps new users.

• TeacherBridge : TeacherBridge is an innovative set of collaborative resources for educators. The system allows for very simple access and advanced interactive tools for teachers. Supported activities are "1) Field work: several classes take part in monitoring local wildlife and water quality. Data can be collectively updated in TeacherBridge charts and table: 2) Online Discussion: set up chat workgroups for students to discuss any number of topics. Integrate chat windows with a text or problem to be discussed. These chat sessions can be secured and monitored by teachers: 3) Class management: easily publish assignments, activity guides, due dates, and the like: 4) Curriculum: share lesson plan ideas and collaborate on what works/what doesn't within various contexts: 5) Go Virtual: science fairs, gardens, journals, field trips, quizzes/tests... 6) Online Portfolios: class projects, groups, or individual portfolios can be created and edited within TeacherBridge. 7) WebQuests-Classes/students can organize internet research with comments within TeacherBridge" (quoted from teacherbridge.cs.vt.edu/public/).

[edit] Features of Interaction in Virtual Environments

The features of interaction shown below, based on an ESL/EFL literacy researcher's personal experience, support the potentials of virtual environments to improve not only EFL learners'writing ability but also language development. Furthermore, the features will help EFL learners know how to apply virtual environments to English writing development.

1) Learners can join various authentic writing tasks with authentic audiences.

Virtual environments are based on written-language conversation tools such as synchronous chats, e-mails, and bulletin boards. As soon as learners enter virtual environments, they have to write in English for the purpose of communication or to deliver their opinions. In that sense, virtual environments enable EFL learners to engage in authentic writing tasks with authentic audiences.

 WORLDSMASTER> Welcome to Worlds! 
 ylim5> hi, there!  

 Rating Thread           Thread Starter     Last Post       Replies  Views
 True Doctor Stories     Tex_Bugman         by Tex_Bugman      8       52 

2) Learners receive direct or indirect feedback on the target language writing from their partners.

The feedback plays an important role in language development. However, it is not easy for EFL learners to receive feedback because they do not have many chances to use English, and there are few people who are proficient in English in the environment of the learners. Thus, virtual environments are good places for EFL learners' writing and language development because they allow EFL learners to use English. In addition, the native speakers that the learners meet in virtual environments correct EFL learners' English errors in the natural situations and in the various ways.

 A: right click on my body and you will see some options (Native speaker) 
 B: opetions? (EFL/ESL literacy researcher) 
 A: options (Native speaker) 

 I made an exam paper. (from a EFL leanrer's e-mail) 
 -> Did you set an exam, or prepare an exam paper. (from the response of a native speaker)

3) Learners can learn about the target language society and culture as well as language.

Many researchers (e.g. Kern, 2000) in literacy education prove the importance of learning about target language society and culture to develop literacy ability. Virtual environments make possible that EFL learners can learn about them through various communication tools: synchronous chat, e-mail, and bulletin board.

 Member   Join Date: Jun 2004   Location: Whitehorse, Frozen North   Age: 41   Posts: 396   
 4 minutes of silence 
 Four RCMP officers were shot and killed after conducting a raid on a marijuana grow operation northwest of     
 Edmonton on Thursday.
 It's the single deadliest incident for Canada's national police force in 120 years. 
 At a news conference in Mayerthorpe, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bill Sweeney said: "As you can well imagine,  
 the loss of four police officers is unprecedented in recent history in Canada. . . . It's devastating." 
 He added that not since the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 have so many police officers been killed in the line 
 of duty. (From a native speaker) 

4) Learners experience a sense of place, a setting similar to face-to-face conversation with native speakers because learners show what they look like and express their feelings. Furthermore, interaction is much more similar to the discourse and behavior of people gathered anywhere for the purpose of socializing.

 B: can I keep in touch with you? (EFL/ESL literacy researcher) 
 A: we have a meeting on this Sunday evening (Native speaker) 
 A: really??? (EFL/ESL literacy researcher) 

 B: nice to meet you (EFL/ESL literacy researcher)  
 A: nice dance (Native speaker)
 B: thanks (EFL/ESL literacy researcher)

 KaiteB: do your students connect internet? (Native speaker)
 WangZ: Yes, but their computer skills are not good. (EFL/ESL literacy researcher) 
 KaiteB: if so, it will be not easy because you have to teach everything in detail (Native speaker) 
 WangZ: Do you have any good ideas? (EFL/ESL literacy researcher) 

5) Both the feeling of object ownership as learners create spaces and the permanence of the environment motivate learners to return for continued conversation and community building. it is cooperation that encourages learners to continue developing their writing ability.

  Virtual environments look like real life places. For example, when I go back to a virtual environemnt, nothing has really changed. 
  My own rooms and objects represent me, so I need to always take care of them. 
  (From interview with an EFL/ESL literacy researcher)

[edit] Conclusion

As I have shown so far, EFL learners engage in various interactions in virtual environments for EFL writing development such as 1) authentic writing tasks with authentic audiences 2) direct or indirect feedback from native speakers 3) learning English and English society and culture as well as language 4) involving simulated society 5) creating avatar and various own objects and rooms.

However, because the primary goal of virtual environments is not to help EFL learners to improve their writing, all interaction and activities are not helpful to them. For example, sometimes, virtual environments expose EFL learners to inappropriate relation with partners and improper language input. Thus, I suggest some guidelines to obtain the desired results.

 * Find someone to talk to and ask three questions.
 * Interview a native speaker at some length
 * Gather information from other users or from items, and write a report.
 * Log and print out a conversation, highlighting new vocabulary or idiomatic expressions. 
 * Build rooms in response to an in-class reading. 
 * Hold a party; invite on-line friends. 
 * Start an e-mail correspondence with someone you meet in virtual environments.
 * Design your own tasks, as individuals or in groups. 
 * Keep a journal of activities in virtual environments. 
 * Write a simple program that helps others learn the language (Lonnie, 1999)

[edit] References

• Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-442162-7.
• Murray, D. F. (2000). Changing technologies, changing literacies communities. Language Learning & Technology, 4(2), 43-58.
• Reder, S. (1994). Practice-engagement theory: A sociocultural approach to literacy across language and cultures. In B. M. Ferdman, R-M. Weber, & A. G. Ramirez (Eds.), Literacy across languages and cultures (pp. 33-74). Albany, NY: State University of New York. ISBN 0-7914-1816-2.
• Turbee, L. (1999). Classroom practice: MOO, WOO, and more-Language learning in virtual environments. In J. Egbert, & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 17-26). Alexandria, VA: TESOL. ISBN 0-939791-79-X.
• Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-57629-2.