Julian Chen – författare

This insightful book offers language teachers and teachers in training the opportunity to delve into 3D virtual worlds and see the benefits they provide for effective language teaching. Based on a decade of experience teaching and researching in Second Life (SL), Chen demystifies the dos and don’ts of SL teaching and research, whilst vividly walking readers through each step of the journey.

Written in an accessible, jargon-free, and personalised tone, the book is divided into three parts. Part I builds the foundation in SL research, task-based language teaching (TBLT), and understanding fundamental skills for SL teaching. Part II showcases the author’s SL teaching blog that generously unveils their task-based, SL-enabled lessons, participant observations, critical reflections, and lessons learned from each SL session. Part III is complete with the highlights of the author’s SL research and hands-on resources and tips for readers. Each chapter also features a "Checkpoint" section to gauge reader understanding of chapter content, followed by a "Your Task" section to promote learning by doing in SL.

Teachers and curriculum designers will find the well-detailed and guided lesson planning useful when starting their first SL class. Graduate students and novice researchers will also find the systematically recorded data collection helpful for their SL research.

This insightful book offers language teachers and teachers in training the opportunity to delve into 3D virtual worlds and see the benefits they provide for effective language teaching. Based on a decade of experience teaching and researching in Second Life (SL), Chen demystifies the dos and don’ts of SL teaching and research, whilst vividly walking readers through each step of the journey.

Written in an accessible, jargon-free, and personalised tone, the book is divided into three parts. Part I builds the foundation in SL research, task-based language teaching (TBLT), and understanding fundamental skills for SL teaching. Part II showcases the author’s SL teaching blog that generously unveils their task-based, SL-enabled lessons, participant observations, critical reflections, and lessons learned from each SL session. Part III is complete with the highlights of the author’s SL research and hands-on resources and tips for readers. Each chapter also features a "Checkpoint" section to gauge reader understanding of chapter content, followed by a "Your Task" section to promote learning by doing in SL.

Teachers and curriculum designers will find the well-detailed and guided lesson planning useful when starting their first SL class. Graduate students and novice researchers will also find the systematically recorded data collection helpful for their SL research.

This timely volume addresses issues pertaining to language teaching, learning and research during the pandemic. In times of a global emergency, the aftermath of emergency remote teaching (ERT) cannot be ignored. The question of how language educators and researchers unleash creativity and employ strategies vis-à-vis ERT still remains to be answered. With practitioners in mind, it covers a broad spectrum of educational settings across continents, target languages and methodologies. Specifically, it reveals viable ways of utilizing digital technologies to bypass social distancing while highlighting the pitfalls and challenges associated with crisis teaching and research. 

This volume comprises two parts: Teacher Voice vicariously transports readers to practitioners’ compelling stories of how teacher resilience, identity and professional development are crystallized in adaptive pedagogy, online teaching practicum, virtual study programs and communities of practice during ERT. The second part, Researcher Corner, showcases innovative approaches for both novice and seasoned researchers to upskill their toolkits, ranging from case study research and mixed methods designs, to auto- and virtual ethnography and social media research. The array of food for thought provides a positive outlook and inspires us to rethink our current practices and future directions in the post-COVID world.

Regardless of their backgrounds and experiences, readers will be able to relate to this accessible volume that harmonizes research and practice, and speaks from the hearts of all the contributors.