By the age of 17 the average child has learned 5,000 words per year for 15 years, largely through encountering the new words in everyday situations. Learning new words in classrooms occurs at a much slower rate. This presentation talks about how this style of learning can be stimulated using virtual worlds.
What makes this rapid learning possible? Is it possible to replicate in an online environment? The circumstances required to achieve such learning are explored along with the characteristics of virtual worlds that make this possible.
The speaker will use examples of Languagelab.com students to show how this learning style is replicated in a virtual real time environment. The presentation will highlight how living in the virtual English City, making friends and lasting relationships, peer-to-peer problem solving and discovery of the built environment allows students to naturally acquire vocabulary and grammar structures.
Shiv co-founded Languagelab.com in 2005. Since then Languagelab has spent more than 5 years developing virtual worlds as a Language learning platform, conducting tests with hundreds of students from dozens of countries. Shiv has a Masters degree in Digital Culture & Technology, a background using technology for a variety of purposes, and is a lifelong gamer.
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