Into the Real World: Autonomous and Integrated Chinese Language Learning Through a 3D Immersive Experience

Abstract

To find ways to promote out-of-class autonomous Chinese language learning with technology, the Chinese programme at a regional Australian university provided its undergraduate Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) student with an additional learning opportunity in order to practice and thereby reinforce communicative language skills in an extant immersive 3D multiuser virtual world (3D MUVW) created in Second Life (SL), Chinese Island (CI) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EYZueyp1go&t=2s) developed by a major Australian urban university. This chapter presents a semester-long pilot study that aimed to investigate students’ perceptions of this learning resource, particularly to explore whether this integrated approach can assist Chinese language educators in fostering autonomous learning out of the classroom. Through analysis of individual and group interviews, the study found that the resources afforded by CI were beneficial for students’ learning of Chinese language and culture beyond the classroom. In addition, the findings could inform Chinese language educators about how to better prepare students for intensive and immersive study abroad. The chapter concludes with pedagogical implications and directions for further research.