Language acquisition in Second Life

Improving self-efficacy beliefs

Abstract

This study found that collaborative language activities in an immersive virtual world improved students’ self-efficacy beliefs about their capacity to use Chinese language in a variety of real-life contexts. However, the complex relationship of in-world and real-life interactions, instructional design, construct validity and other critical issues clearly argue for continuing research in this area. This paper describes a quantitative study of 100 university students enrolled in Chinese language and culture studies at Monash University, Australia. This study focuses on one of the lessons conducted in Second Life which engaged students in a collaborative activity to identify and order food in Mandarin in a Chinese restaurant setting. The results indicated significant improvements between students’ pre and post self-efficacy ratings. In addition, it is proposed that the change in self-efficacy ratings can be explained by the degree of relevance of enactive mastery experiences. This in turn has implications for instructional design.