| Abstract |
The author is a member of a group of researchers at the Faculty ef Languages and Cultures at Kyushu University, undertaking a 3-year research program into foreign language education using the 3-Dimens...ional Interactive Education System. I have been giving extensive consideration to how we could organize English classes with the help of this system, a new cornputer-based device that has never before been introduced in English language education. This system enables students to enter a 3-diinefisional cyberspace named Virtual Campus under the disguise of an alter ego named an avatar. In this space we find two buildings, move around, and have a chat with other people through avatars, without knowing to whom they cerrespond in the real world. Our chat is at present carried out on a written basis although aural communication will also be avallable in the very near future. The auther began to use this system in the middle of May and hereby makes a report on the first five class meetings. I give my students 4-5 tasks in a single class meeting in which they are required to communicate with each other in English. These tasks include free chat on a designated topic, a debate on a topic assigned a week in advance, a role-playing activity (such as gangsters trying to find some places in which to hide their money), story-telling, asking and answering questions, and so forth. These tasks are carefully designed so that the presence of the 3-dimeflsional virtual space is essential to their completion. Our students usually becorne nervous and tend to remaiR silent when asked to speak in English because of shyness, despite the fact that they have studied English for at least six years. The complete anonymity generated by the avatar, and by logging in under a pseudonym, however, makes them feel surprisingly free to express themselves. This effect is one of the advantages that this system generates, an effect that has proved extremely difficult to achieve through more traditional ways of organizing English classes.show more
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