Multi-User Domain
Object Oriented (MOO)
as a High School
Procedure for Foreign Language Acquisition
by
James A. Backer
December 1998
Isolation of foreign language students from native speakers and from the culture of the target language is a serious obstacle to these students' advanced acquisition of that language. The problem is greater for foreign language students than for second language students, who live in, or near, target language communities. Foreign language students lack opportunities for authentic interaction with native speakers. In addition, school schedules usually prevent beginners from getting assistance from more advanced foreign language students. The literature suggests that beginners can succeed because of extrinsic/instrumental motivation such as academic requirements and the desire to succeed. However, advanced language students need the integrative motivation of wanting to be with and be like the speakers of the target language.
Multi-user domain Object Oriented (MOO) may offer a partial solution to this problem. MOOs are Internet-based virtual worlds in which participants from all over the real world meet for synchronous textual conversations and interact with the asynchronous objects found in the virtual worlds. By using MOOs, normally isolated foreign language students can overcome geographical limitations and interact with native speakers and more fluent nonnative speakers. Students who enjoy MOO may voluntarily return to the MOO site, join its virtual target language community, and find the integrative motivation necessary for advanced language acquisition.
This study will be a true experiment with a pretest-posttest control group design, focusing on the affective nature of MOO as a high school foreign language procedure. Using questionnaires, participants will indicate their anxiety and motivation towards various classroom procedures. Motivation will be divided into course-specific components: interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction. After repeated visits to schMOOze University, a MOO site for English as a Second/Foreign Language, the experimental group will respond to MOO as a classroom procedure. This experiment will address the following questions: Will MOO cause a significant difference in the attitudes towards language class on the part of high school students? Will gender, keyboard skills, and general computer anxiety influence the students' attitudes towards MOO? Finally, if the students consider MOO a worthwhile procedure, which preexisting procedures should be displaced in favor of MOO?
