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This study investigated ESL students' attitudes in completing tasks in Second Life, a virtual environment where students interacted via voice-chat using their avatars. Students engaged in three types of tasks during four 45-minute lab sessions. Students of 34 high and low-intermediate ESL classes participated in two surveys during and after the task sessions. 15 students were interviewed after they had finished the last lab session. Researcher's observations were also used as data source. Overall, low-intermediate students had a more positive attitude toward Second Life than high-intermediate students as the lab session went by. For low-intermediate students, using avatars was interesting because it did not require much English proficiency, and they had control to manipulate these functions. However, for high-intermediate students, who were more focused on task completion, the novelty effect of using avatars disappeared. Because they already had enough English proficiency to complete the tasks, using avatars or other affordances of Second Life became annoying factors that did not contribute to task completion. Moreover, technical troubleshooting and clear instruction were raised as prerequisites for better communication in Second Life. Task difficulty also affected students' motivation. |
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