Task-based Teaching Approaches of Chinese as a Foreign Language in Second Life through Teachers’ Perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to describe the integration of two task-based language teaching (TBLT) approaches in the 3D multi- user virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life and to discuss the benefits and challenges from the perspectives of an expert user in Australia and three novice users in Taiwan. A qualitative research methodology was conducted as the research design in the study. Participants included the four instructors from two countries and 144 Chinese language undergraduate students at a major Australian university. Three activity units based on information gap and reasoning gap teaching tasks were created. It was found that conducing TBLT in Second Life can help instructors provide opportunities for the students to set clear goals, ensure student- centred and authentic approaches to learning, and provide multiple opportunities for input, production, and feedback. Furthermore, the lesson configuration (with the expert taking care of technical issues in the physical classroom and the content instructors focusing on teaching virtually) helped reduce common technical issues in Second Life and thus promote a comfortable learning environment for both the instructors and students to solely focus on the learning content of the language class.