Comments on Virtual Environment

Original article: Roed, J. (2003). Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 16(2-3), 155-172.

In this paper, Roed (2003) investigates the behavior of foreign language learners’ communicating through computers and internet. 13 first and second year college students of Danish participated in this study. They all sit in the same computer lab and were given an identity of a famous person. The participants needed to interview each other and find out other students’ identities by communicating via computer and internet. Through the communication record, the researcher concludes a number of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that in the virtual environment, there is no accent to be distracted by, no time pressure, no interruptions from classmates or teachers, no immediate reactions like giggles or raised eyebrows, and increased participation. This anonymous way of communication is a definite advantage to those introvert and shy students. To the contrary, one of the disadvantages is that exchanging the classroom for a virtual one may change the existed group dynamics. There may be also some technology problems such as limited access to computer or internet, delay of message because of internet speed problem, and a consideration of the students’ computer skills. Moreover, there may also exist a concern that the introvert students remain introvert and the extrovert students are still playing a dominant role.



Personally, I quite agree with the conclusions of this paper. The students’ behaviors may be different from their usual performances. Before the virtual teaching, there are still many preparations to do including training the students who are not familiar with computer or internet, ensuring the access to computer and internet, and setting a suitable topic. During the virtual teaching, the teachers also need to assist the students if they have questions and maintain the smoothness of the discussion. As a matter of fact, in Mainland China, it is nearly impossible for the teachers and students to teach and learn in an entire virtual environment due to the limitation of syllabus and equipment. However, I think discussion board can be an alternative. It is more practical since it’s an asynchronous communication tool. It can be used as an assistant to our daily teaching and learning by posting comments, discussions and questions on it. Although participation is still a concern, I think using discussion board is a good beginning of virtual teaching and learning.