Project+Proposal

=**Project Proposal** = Group: E2J2 Team Members: Jen Ellis, Jennifer Hall, Erin Higgenbotham, Eddie Kline

The need for ESL (English as a second language) programs in America has risen in the last decade. A survey conducted by NCELA found that the percentage of ESL students in American schools has grown 52% since 1998 (Growing Number of English Learners 2007-2008, 2010). In addition the U.S Census Bureau statistics show that the majority of children in America have (other than English), Spanish as their first language. Chinese, French, German, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Italian, Korean, and Polish (Hyon, B. et al, 2003) are cited as the other leading foreign languages spoken in America. These statistics show that there is a dire need for ESL programs to accommodate the needs of these children.

More often than not, however, programs created to assist children in gaining English as a second language fail to either: 1) Help maintain the child’s native language and 2) Support the child in their quest to achieve a functional use of a second language. It is important that ESL software programs will either assist in facilitation of language learning or provide excellent supplemental material for the learner to use in order to learn the second language while maintaining use of their native tongue. The use of interactive media or virtual reality, will allow the user to become engrossed in the digitally created world and allow students to practice their language skills in a low anxiety environment, allowing bilingualism to freely be developed.

For this project, we will create an educational language game containing relevant, everyday scenarios that children will encounter in real life. Topics such as weather, food, animals, etc., will be covered and presented in an engaging and meaningful context for children. The age groups this project will be aimed towards are 4-6 grade (elementary/early middle school) children. The learning theory, which our project will be based on, is constructivism. Constructivism is where the learner constructs their understanding of the world through experience (Wilson et. al, 1995; cited by Peterson, 2001). This theory allows students to grow and learn through socially mediated activities and collaboration. The following brief literature review will cover previous research conducted in the field of ESL and virtual reality, which will assist us in completing our project.

** Literature Review **

 * Second Language Acquisition research has focused on the role of interaction in the negotiation of meaning, an important factor for L2 (the target language) acquisition. Negotiation of meaning is: **

** “ a term that has been used to characterize the modifications and restructurings of interaction that occurs when learners and their interlocutors anticipate, perceive, ** ** or experience difficulties in message comprehensibility. As they negotiate, the work linguistically to achieve the needed comprehensibility, whether reputing a message ** ** verbatim, adjusting its syntax, changing its words, or modifying its form and meaning in a host of other ways" (Pica, 1994; cited by Peterson, 2001). **

** The earliest merger of second language learning and technology occurred in the 1990s with the development of MOOs (MUD: Multi-User Dimension): a VR based multiuser, object-oriented domain. More commonly, they are known as text-based adventures. These allowed users to role-play create interactive fiction and conduct online chats. MOO is based on the constructivist approach that postulates that the learning environment must be socially situated to allow learners to collaborate in order to procure new knowledge. MOOs encouraged users to create their own meaningful artifacts and multimedia objects (Peterson, 2001). MOOs have primarily been used in Japan for ESL learning before software or programs like Rosetta Stone or Active Worlds was introduced; the latter actually being a very popular program for University-level Japanese ESL students currently. **

** Using this computer technology for language learning purposes (CALL), students have shown greater scholastic achievement and it has encouraged greater interaction between teachers and students and students and their peers, thus helping them connect to the greater world. It fosters wonderful stimuli for second language learning as it can provide communicative activities, games (Lai, 2006), and grant a motivating learning experience for students. **

** Technology advances has allowed newer virtual products to produce real-life practice for children. One example is the interactive narrative WebQuest ‘Panique a Bord’ a LanguageQuest situated on a 3D model of the Titanic which centers on a detective-like problem solving task, involving integrated training of language skills and triggering interviews with the avatars of the story characters (Koenraad, 2008) in another language. These two examples show that VR allows students to become immersed in a problem and enhance learner involvement and enlarge global understanding. **

Virtual reality can create an environment for students that is low anxiety since they are working in a world all their own. They can learn and explore at their own pace, and repeat items if needed for extra practice (Morton & Jack, 2005). Virtual reality also supports dogme style teaching. The dogme approach doesn’t focus on extremely structured lessons and puts the learner at the center of the lessons. It creates a relevant world for the language speakers and encourages them to create their own conversations (Vickers, 2010). Zon, an extremely successful game for students learning Mandarin, takes this approach by allowing players to explore the world at their own pace and complete realistic scenarios such as arriving at the airport or going shopping. All is done in the comfort of your home and it does not matter if you make a mistake.

**Project Overview** From this initial research our group has decided to create an interactive game for targeted towards ESL students in grades 4-6. The game would invite students into various scenarios that would simulate real life situations and allow students to explore. We have received four topic areas suggested by an ESL teacher which are: weather, sports, food and animals. Our final piece will be a working prototype, which would include a description of the entire project, and have 2-3 scenarios created for demonstration.

An ESL teacher and students from the Delaware City School system will give us feedback on both the content and design of our product. Our team also includes two group members who teach languages who will be extremely helpful as we develop our project.
 * Reviewers**

Currently we are considering using Alice or Second Life, but are open to suggestions. Exploration and training of whatever software we decide to use has been worked into our development timeline.
 * Software**

Jen E - Designer/Developer Eddie - Writer/Content Designer Erin - ESL/Content Designer/Tester Jennifer H. - Designer / Tester
 * Team Roles**

**Proposed Schedule/Timeline**
Final due date for Pre-Survey
 * Friday, February 11th**

**Sunday, Febuary 13th** Tutorials and/or exploration of software completed Scenarios for game decided <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Complete research

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Sunday, March 6th** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Complete first scenario <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Send out to target audience for feedback

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Sunday, April 3rd** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make changes to first scenario based on feedback <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Complete second scenario and send out to target audience for feedback

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Sunday, May 1st** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Prototype complete which includes three scenarios <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Include teacher/student feedback <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Description of project

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**References** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Growing Number of English Learners 2007-2008. (2010). <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//National Clearinghouse for English// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Retrieved Jan 28, 2011 from <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/uploads/9/growingLEP_0708.pdf__

Koenraad, Ton. (2011). How can 3D Virtual Worlds contribute to language education? Focus on the Language

Villiage format. CALL in PRACTICE. Retrieved from: [].
Lai, CC., & Kritsonis, W. (2006). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Technology in Second Language Acquisition. //National Journal for Publishing and Mentoring Doctoral Student Research, 3//(1).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Morton, H., & Jack, M. (2005). Scenario-Based Spoken Interaction with Virtual Agents. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Computer// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Assisted Language Learning// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, 18(3), 171-191. doi:10.1080/09588220500173344.

Peterson, M. (2001). MOOs and Second Language Acquisition: Towards a Rationale for MOO-based Learning. //Computer// //Assisted Language Learning 14//(5), 443-459.

Shin, H.B,. & Bruno, R. (2003). Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000. Census 2000 Brief. Retrieved Jan
27, 2011 from http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vickers, Howard. 2010. VirtualQuests: Dialogic Language Learning with 3D Virtual Worlds. CORELL: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Computer Resources for Language Learning 3, 75-81.