Virtual worlds as arenas for language learning

Traditionally, technology seems to have had a rather clear function in language learning: for example to practise grammar, provide information about target countries, make long-distance communication possible, bring in the outside world and access digital corpora. The computer can thus be seen as a versatile and widely applicable tool, and the learner could be described using Levi-Strauss’s concept of the bricoleur who ‘is adept at performing a large number of diverse tasks’ (1966:17). This paradigm can be contrasted with a view of technology as an automaton (Skinner 1968), according to which technology plays an important role in giving feedback and reinforcing material that is taught. In language learning,…