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Introduction
Statement of Problem and Goal
Many of the problems of foreign language instruction can be traced to the students' physical isolation from native speakers of the target language (Dornyei, 1990). It will be suggested that a particular Internet communications program, called MOO (Multi-user domain Object Oriented), is a partial answer to the problems stemming from the isolation of foreign language students. On a theoretical level, using MOO can be supported by currently accepted hypotheses about second/foreign language instruction relating to: acquisition, motivation, anxiety, simulations/role plays/fantasy/games, schema theory in reading, and computer mediated communications (CMC). This dissertation will also posit that the cost of using the MOO is within the reach of financially hard pressed high schools once they are connected to the Internet.
The Situation of Second Language Students
Foreign language (FL) instruction is distinguished from second language (SL) instruction primarily by its physical situation and the implications stemming from that physical situation (Brown, 1993; Dornyei, 1990, 1994). Students of a second language usually live in an area where that language is used for general needs by a large segment of the population. This means that the students can immediately practice their newly obtained linguistic knowledge in authentic situations, outside of the classroom. Often this real-life language practice can focus on the interests of the students, rather than those of the classroom teacher, and can last as long as the students choose. Current theory maintains that this type of natural, student-centered use of language is more effective in reinforcing language acquisition than traditional teacher-centered frontal lessons focusing on rules and forms (Krashen, 1997; Meunier, 1997).
Very often, the students of a second language study in a class with peers from different countries, speaking many different languages. They have all traveled to a new place to study, work, live, or experience as visitors. Given their various native languages, the social needs in the class, as well as the teacher-defined academic needs, will be dealt with in the target language. An experienced teacher will use this natural need to communicate in order to accelerate language acquisition. High quality classroom exercises often will include linguistic realia and prepare the students to become independent learners outside the class. Part of that preparation is the development of cultural-linguistic empathy for people who are trying to make themselves comprehensible (Brown, 1993). Interacting in a supportive classroom environment with non-native speakers will prepare students to interact with native speakers in a less supportive environment outside of class.
Thus, the student of a second language can access the target language by choice outside the class and by necessity inside the class. This situation fits nicely with current theory that posits the acquisition of a new language through authentic interaction with native speakers, more fluent non-native speakers, or both. Authentic use of language allows the students to construct a mental model of the new language, examine that model in the light of new linguistic input, and then modify the mental model. In this way, students move along the interlanguage continuum from the first language to the target language, gradually refining their mental model (Krashen, 1997; Long, 1983; Pica,1994; Selinker, 1972; Swain, 1985). The condition of a low-stress environment in which these processes occur is critical. Much of the current theory posits that low levels of anxiety and high levels of motivation are key indicators of students' success in the second/foreign language classroom (Gardner & MacIntyre, 1991; Krashen, 1997; MacIntyre, 1995).
The Situation of Foreign Language Students
Students of a foreign language live in an area where there are few, if any, speakers of the language which they are studying. Thus, outside the classroom they have little, or no, contact with the language, its speakers, or its culture. The quality of the classroom teacher, working within the timetable and the physical limitations of the school, determines the quantity and quality of the foreign language experience. Because of the nature of school schedules, most students of the a foreign language do not even have the opportunity to practice with more advanced students of the language. Even if such meetings were organized, students speaking the same native language would find it highly unnatural and unnecessary to communicate in the foreign language. Moreover, not only does the isolation from native speakers and from more fluent non-native speakers exclude the possibility of practice of forms and lexis, it also excludes the possibility of developing the necessary cultural-linguistic empathy that makes advanced communications possible in a second/foreign language (Brown, 1993; Dornyei, 1990, 1994). Although instrumental motivation (i.e., profiting from knowledge by getting good grades in required courses) may be enough for foreign language students to do well on an introductory level, research indicates that such instrumental motivation alone will not be enough for success on more advanced levels. Here integrative motivation (i.e., the desire to associate with speakers of the language and their culture) appears to be a more important factor (Dornyei, 1990, 1994). The isolation of foreign language students leads to a lack of commitment towards the speakers and culture of the new language, thus inhibiting the development of integrative motivation needed to reach advanced communicative competency in that language (Brown, 1993; Dornyei, 1990,1994). Obviously, geographic isolation puts students of a foreign language at a distinct disadvantage compared to students of a second language.
The Case of International Languages
A special case of has been made for international languages, existing between second languages and foreign languages (Kachru, 1986). Here a specific segment of a population uses a language for specific purposes. In India and other former colonial countries, the bureaucracy often uses the colonial language to conduct its business, particularly if the local population is divided along ethnic-linguistic lines. The use of a different language (even an imperialistic language) is politically expedient, bridging linguistic diversities, rather than proclaiming one local language superior to the others (Brown, 1993; Finegan & Besnier, 1989). In addition, many specific commercial groups use particular international languages for doing business among themselves as well as with foreigners. For example, pilots and air controllers routinely use English, regardless of their native languages.
Although the existence of international languages must be noted, the students of international languages are not in a unique situation In fact, they are quite like foreign language students. Their motivation is instrumental rather than integrative: knowing the target language can be extremely profitable. Moreover, there is little desire to become like native speakers because the students' role models are usually non-native speakers. Despite this, the students usually find themselves isolated from the speakers of the international language, unless they are fortunate enough to have work or apprenticeships with the target language population. These students usually can not walk into a government office or into a corporate office for a chat in an international language setting as they could walk into a grocery store or a cafe in a second language situation. Thus, the students of an international language will be included with students of a foreign language.
Telecommunications as a Possible Solution for Foreign Language Students
The emerging synchronous and asynchronous technologies of computer mediated communications (CMC) offer a partial solution to the problem of geographic isolation of foreign language students. (This is particularly true for students of English as a foreign language because the prevalent language of the Internet is English.) In addition, research indicates that computer mediated communications can facilitate second/foreign language acquisition by creating low-stress and student-centered environments (Warschauer, 1998; Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1996). In particular, textual programs may offer lower-stressed interaction than programs with live video, audio channels, or both. In what Beauvois (1992) called conversation in slow motion (i.e., textual conversations), students have more time to contemplate the form and content of the input and the output. Oral/aural conversation in real time, whether face to face or computer mediated, increases the anxiety of students trying to understand rapid input and respond with meaningful output. Research suggests that the extra time granted in textual communications facilitates comprehension, interaction, examination of the mental model of the language, and the modification of that model based on the interaction (Beauvois, 1992; Warschauer, 1998).
There is a plethora of procedures available to foreign language teachers (Warschauer, 1995a), but the awareness of these procedures is less than it could be. Some of them are so novel that no empirical literature exists about their efficacy in the classroom. Moreover, because of monetary considerations and institutional conservatism, many schools throughout the world have not yet connected to the Internet, making awareness of computer mediated procedures in the foreign language classroom hypothetical or irrelevant (Cummins & Sayers, 1995; Holderness, 1994). Furthermore, in schools now taking their first steps into cyberspace, it would be presumptuous to expect widespread knowledge of the empirical literature. In addition, most of the existing empirical work has been about asynchronous Internet-based procedures used at the college level, substantially ignoring both synchronous possibilities and the needs of secondary schools (Warschauer, 1996a, 1996b; Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1996).
Supplementing the still incipient body of research; position papers have appeared in print, or as ephemeral web pages, expressing the authors' unsubstantiated enthusiasm about computer mediated communications in the second/foreign language classroom (Frizler, 1995). Yet, these technophile position papers do not represent (or influence) the majority of teachers and administrators who operate in a conservative environment that systematically retards the implementation of technological procedures and the radically different pedagogical styles they embody (Hodas, 1995; Jacobs, 1992).
Time and funding are two crucial limitations which structurally impede the implementation of technological solutions by foreign language teachers (Cummings & Sayers, 1995; Holderness, 1994). Like all teachers, they strive to reach certain goals, using what they perceive as the most efficient procedures, within a certain amount of class and homework time, given the technologies that the schools offer. This means making choices between methodologies, procedures, and the specific programs that embody them (Hodas, 1995). The limitations of time and funding are particularly true in the field of computer-aided language learning (CALL), where foreign language teachers are in school-wide competition for computer access and face a quickly changing marketplace of computer hardware and courseware (Holderness, 1994).
The problem of limited funding is particularly acute for high school foreign language teachers, whose schools tend to be poorer than local universities (Cummins & Sayers, 1995). The relative poverty is even greater for EFL (English as a foreign language) high school teachers whose schools usually cannot afford the same computer hardware and software as their counterparts in ESL (English as a second language) environments. Most high schools in Africa, Asia, and Latin America cannot compete with the technological level of high schools in most English speaking countries (Cummins & Sayers, 1995; Warschauer, 1997). As a result, many EFL teachers (like other foreign language teachers) throughout the world have limited access to computer and Internet technology; and what technology does exist tends to be years behind the cutting edge (Holderness, 1994). The technological inferiority of EFL learning environments should be considered neither marginal nor trivial because many, if not most, schools in the world offer EFL rather than ESL (Kachru, 1986).
A Definition of MOO in the EFL Context
MOO (Multi-user domain Object Oriented) may alleviate many of the problems stemming from the isolation of foreign language students. Technically, MOO is a database program kept on a proprietary server and accessed via the Internet, mixing synchronous and asynchronous features. Although a MOO site can be accessed directly with a telnet program, this creates the problem of the users not being able to see their input before they send it. A more manageable situation is created by using a server-client arrangement where the MOO-client offers a separate buffer for user input (Falsetti, 1995; Hahn, 1996; Reid, 1994).
MOO sites have their historical origins in the computer version of the Dungeons and Dragons game, first developed for single computer users at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the early 1970's. In 1978, Roy Trubshaw, a student at the University of Essex (England) created the first MUD (Multi User Dungeon). This program allowed users from all over the real world to log into a computer-based imaginary world, simultaneously via telnet. In this virtual world, the participants could slay dragons, foil villains, or die trying. This was all done with a textual interface, as if the users had stepped into the pages of a novel and had become characters in that novel. In the original MUD program, the virtual world was fixed by the original programmer. Subsequent modifications in the MUD format allowed the users to modify the virtual world as they played. Further modifications eliminated much of the combative competition and created virtual worlds that stressed social interaction and cooperation. One of these modifications was called MOO (Multi-user dungeon Object Oriented, later Multi-user domain Object Oriented) and was installed on many university servers to encourage collaborative telecommunications. In some cases, the collaboration was dedicated to specific academic subjects, such as rhetoric, biology, history, or language studies. In most cases, MOO sites were set up by universities or commercial organizations as a place for people to meet and socialize (Bruckman, 1997; Falsetti, 1995; Hahn, 1996; Reid, 1994).
A MOO site can be visualized as a virtual world with a geography made up of interlocking locations. People entering a MOO are represented by self-created (i.e., potentially anonymous and fictional) characters and can meet in pairs, or groups, in the various locations. The users can also expand the MOO site by building additional locations and filling them with virtual objects which can be examined and manipulated by all the characters (Reid, 1994). Most MOO sites are still primarily textual, demanding the users to imagine the virtual world as it is described on the screen. As stated before, entering a MOO site is like stepping into the pages of a novel and participating, as a character, deciding with the other characters how the plot should develop (Bruckman, 1997; Hahn, 1996; Reid, 1994).
The basic metaphor of a MOO site is a community, whose members frequently visit and meet with each other (Turkle, 1995, 1998). Depending on the MOO site, there are various types of synchronous and asynchronous forms of communications. Characters may synchronously say things to each other in the same location, or page someone in a different location. (Both saying and paging are performed by typing messages and then sending them to the MOO site.) In addition, many MOO sites offer special channels, something like a CB radio, to enable synchronous communications to a predetermined subset of the characters currently online. Once again, depending on the MOO site, there are a number of asynchronous possibilities for communication. All the descriptions of locations and objects are, in fact, asynchronous messages for other people (usually unknown audiences) to read sometime in the future. Some of the objects, such as whiteboards and graffiti walls, have a dual asynchronous nature. Their descriptions are created for future readers who then can leave their own asynchronous messages on the objects for other characters to read. Another form of asynchronous communication is MOOmail, which functions like e-mail within the MOO site, enabling characters to leave messages for other characters currently not present. An additional form of asynchronous communication is the MOO newspaper, which exists within the MOO site, publishing current information that may be of interest to the registered characters. All these forms of synchronous and asynchronous communications strengthen the MOO site's primary metaphor: a permanent community (Reid, 1994).
Students' repeated visits to the MOO community foster a feeling of membership, which is indicated by their social/functional climb in the ranks of the community: guest, registered character, room owner, builder, programmer, wizard. Moreover, the creation of objects fosters a feeling of ownership within this community (Bollier, 1995; Bruckman, 1997; Hall, 1998). This dual feeling of membership and ownership in such a fantasy-based virtual world potentially offers foreign language students a low-stress environment, filled with meaningful, negotiated interaction. This interaction exists on four levels: interaction with other characters (representing people from all over the world), interaction with the MOO environment itself (reading the various descriptions and writing the commands to manipulate the objects), interaction with the underlying MOO program in order to build new locations and objects (reading instructions, writing commands, and composing descriptions), and interaction with online MOO experts (wizards, programmers, and more experienced builders) to seek aid while building complex objects. In short, the MOO environment offers foreign language students endless opportunities to read and write meaningful language, and learn about their peers around the world. Through these interactions with native speakers, physically isolated foreign language students will have the chance to develop positive attitudes towards the target language, its speakers, and its culture. Although interaction with more fluent non-native speakers may not reinforce commitment to the culture of the target language, it will offer opportunities to negotiate meaningful communication in that language. The more fluent non-native speakers, like the native speakers, will help the students along the interlanguage continuum. This is particularly true if the non-native cyberfriends speak first languages radically different than the students' first language, forcing both groups to break away from mistakes caused by local first language interference (Dornyei, 1990, 1994; Kelm, 1996; Krashen, 1997; MacIntyre, 1995).
Thus, ESL/EFL teachers can direct their students to properly chosen MOO sites for authentic experiences in English. Although MOO has a dual nature, a communications program and a fantasy world, teachers are advised to see MOO as a holistic learning experience. Language instructors looking for a textual communications program, without a virtual world, can find technically easier programs, such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Likewise, teachers simply searching for interesting reading passages could have their students use the World Wide Web. On the other hand, MOO combines communications in English with contextualized reading passages in order to create a dynamic ESL/EFL instructional environment. Teachers should encourage their students to meet people from all over the world and to explore, with their cyberfriends, the elements in the virtual world (e.g., a cafeteria, an art gallery, a swimming pool, a scrabble game, etc.). This way the students will participate in authentic conversations about cross-cultural matters while they use authentic language relating to their surroundings in the virtual world.
In addition, because MOO is basically textual, it has minimal bandwidth requirements and does not need powerful computers, multimedia equipment, or massive connectivity to the Internet (Allison, 1997; Sanchez, 1996a; Turbee, 1996). Thus, on a technical level, MOO offers a partial solution for financially pressed high schools. In fact, a single second-hand computer operating with a dial-up modem can effectively bring small groups of students to a virtual world inhabited by speakers of the target language.
There are many MOO sites (and similar sites with related names such as MUD - Multi User Domain, MUSH - Multi User Shared Hallucination, MUVE - Multi User Virtual Environment, CVE - Collaborative Virtual Environment, etc.), each with its own theme, content, technical options, and population of users. Some are educationally oriented while others are definitely not suited for school use (Turbee, 1997). Rein (1998) listed 39 educational MOO sites out of a general list of more that 125 sites. Five of the educational MOO sites were specifically for students of second/foreign languages. Thorne's (1996) partial list of MOOs, MUDs, and MUSHes included 10 language education sites including first, second, and foreign languages. One MOO site designed specifically for ESL/EFL students and teachers is schMOOze University (Falsetti, 1995; Awaji, 1998). Despite the paucity of empirical literature, this MOO site seems to be a logical choice as an instructional tool with high school EFL students, and thus becomes a logical location for empirical work to validate (or discredit) the choice. (Other educational MOO sites were rejected in this study because the target population of the MOO was too young, or would be in school during different times than the experimental population in Israel.)
Restatement of the Problem and Goal
In conclusion, the proposed dissertation responds to a two-fold problem: the isolation of foreign language students (particularly students of English as a foreign language) from speakers of the target language, and the paucity of empirical evaluation about MOO, which could alleviate that isolation. The goal of the proposed dissertation is to evaluate one particular MOO site, called schMOOze University, as an effective environment for EFL language acquisition. The dissertation will be grounded in current second/foreign language theory, related educational theories, and empirical research. While dealing with foreign language instruction in general and ESL/EFL instruction in specific, emphasis will be placed on EFL teaching at the high school level.
Relevance of Study
Since the 1980's, an increasing number of second/foreign language teachers have integrated computer technology into their work, despite the financial problems and the general technophobe attitudes of many schools (Freiermuth, 1998; Frizler, 1995; Hodas,1995; Holderness, 1994; Jacobs, 1992; Meunier; 1994; Warschauer, 1996a, 1996b). During this period, the use of computer aided language learning (CALL) has shifted from behaviorist "drill and kill" and multiple-choice programs, to text-manipulation programs (e.g., Cloze and Storyboard formats) concurrently with using the computer as an open tool (wordprocessing, databases, etc.), and most recently to using the computer as a communications tool (Barson & Debski, 1996; Tella, 1996). With the move to computer mediated communications (CMC) procedures, it has been claimed that such procedures reduce anxiety and increase motivation in the foreign language classroom (Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1996).
It is reasonable that foreign language teachers know the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the various communications programs, such as MOO, before they allocate time and other resources in order to use them in class. This coincides with the demands of school administrators to know the best way to exploit the newly purchased technology (Dunkel, 1991).
Up until now, most of the empirical studies that have been published about the use of MOO in second/foreign language instruction (Lundstrom, 1995; Pinto, 1996; Sanchez, 1996a) have focused on the "chat" element, basically ignoring the program's fantasy/simulation/game aspect and its implications in the affective domain of language acquisition. Although enthusiastic position papers about using MOO in language instruction (Awaji, 1998; Davies, Shield, & Weininger, 1998; Falsetti, 1995; Sanchez, 1995, 1996b; Turbee, 1996, 1997) deal with the fantasy/simulation/game aspect in theoretical terms, by definition, these position papers do not offer empirical proof for their claims. Yet, many teachers, with limited time and funding, want to read about the details of MOO, and of other Internet programs, before investing time and energy exploring these procedures.
In addition, most of the empirical studies published about MOO as an instructional procedure for second/foreign language deal with college level students, ignoring high school students. Beyond the obvious differences in age and maturity, there are other factors that may affect the applicability of MOO in high school classes. For example, long term EFL studies are often mandatory in many, if not most, public schools in the world. Being forced to study a language year after year (unlike minimal college language requirements) may affect the motivation of the students in the high school class in a way that does not appear in college level language classes. In addition, it would appear that the personality types (as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - MBTI), and therefore the learning styles, of university foreign language majors is considerably different from those of the total university population (Moody, 1988). Once again, since EFL studies are often required for all high school students, the findings about self-selected college foreign language students may not be applicable to the high school EFL setting.
Another question is that of resource allocation. The teacher has to assign priorities to all possible instructional procedures, deciding the amount of time to allot to each and the amount of preparation time required for each. Although in-class use of some procedures may lead to the students' voluntary use of those procedures outside of class, reallocating procedures is a zero-sum game in terms of finite class time. A teacher choosing to use MOO, or any new procedure, must decide which procedures will lose class time.
In conclusion, the proposed dissertation will attempt to advance the body of knowledge about using MOO as a foreign language procedure at the high school level. In specific, it will deal with the affective issues of anxiety and motivation entailed in language acquisition while using MOO. The dissertation will also address the question of which procedures will lose some, or all, of the currently allocated classroom resources if the foreign language teacher decides to use MOO.
Barriers and Issues
Technical Issues
There are a number of technical and pedagogical problems that have impeded the research about, and implementation of, educational MOO sites used as foreign language instructional environments. Most of the technical problems stem from the novelty of the procedure and the lack of Internet connectivity in the schools and colleges. There have been few locations and little time to research the theoretical implications and empirically test the procedure. Thus, teachers are not aware of the MOO environment and how to exploit it with second/foreign language classes. This is particularly true for using the MOO environment at the high school level. However, the technical problems are marginal in comparison to the pedagogical problems.
Pedagogical Issues
Many second/foreign language teachers, wary of the rapid changes in didactic approaches and classroom procedures that have characterized the profession since the mid 1960's (Brown, 1993), have chosen conservative survival strategies. Many other second/foreign language teachers, who are more open to change, have been disappointed with the unfulfilled promises of educational technology. Language laboratories, educational television, video, and early use of computers have failed to live up to their original revolutionary promises (Baines, 1997; Oppenheimer, 1997; Van Horn, 1996). Other teachers are wary of venturing into a technological world in which their students often know more than they do. In addition, many teachers fear the profound pedagogical changes that accompany certain procedures, moving the teacher from the center stage and allowing much greater student autonomy (Hodas, 1995; Jacobs, 1992). Finally, even teachers ready for such fundamental changes are often stymied by their social and political implications. The Internet transcends the walls of the schoolyard and the local community. The students may encounter opinions, images, and other types of information that run contrary to local norms. Many school districts in America have become battle grounds between liberal educators and conservative moralists. The former would empower the students to freely search for and evaluate information while the latter would shelter students from the darker side of cyberspace in specific, and life in general (Lloyd, 1998). This cultural conflict over the Internet will probably be replicated throughout the world as more and more schools come online. In Israel, for example, many religious schools have chosen not to connect to the Internet, despite the existence of intranets that are suitable to the schools' philosophies.
In the area of ESL/EFL instruction, there are particular pedagogical problems. Many teachers do not want to expose their students to nonstandard English on the Internet, which can include the texts of non-native speakers, uncorrected mistakes of native speakers, the ubiquitous dialect of Cyber-English (Frizler, 1995; Lundstrom, 1995), and the obscenities encountered in many of the synchronous communications programs (Lloyd, 1998). In addition, in this age of high-speed, visual video games, some teachers may question the primarily textual content of an educational MOO site and belittle the ASCII drawings, maps, and diagrams often found in the MOO environment (ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange - is the basic set of symbols used by most computers in the world). The question here, of course, is whether a primarily textual procedure is the best environment available for second/foreign language acquisition, particularly at a high school level. In addition; many teachers, trained in their profession well before the advent of computers and the Internet, question the value of using procedures based on virtual reality fantasies, whether they are graphical fantasies or textual fantasies (Rieber, 1996). As a result of all these objections, many teachers are predisposed against using the MOO environment.
These pedagogical issues, in addition to budgetary considerations, weigh heavily when school administrators decide in which technologies to invest and which to ignore. Thus, a practical evaluation of the educational MOO environment must confront these issues and analyze their validity and importance.
Research Questions and Hypotheses
The purpose of this study will be to increase the practical understanding of how a properly chosen MOO environment can function as an foreign language instructional procedure, particularly at the high school level. Because much of current second/foreign language acquisition theory focuses on two general elements, the student's processing the target language via interaction and the affective factors influencing the student, research on MOO should address one, or both, of these issues to be relevant for the second/foreign language teaching community. The present study will focus on the affective constructs of foreign language anxiety and foreign language motivation (Dornyei, 1990, 1994; Kelm, 1996; MacIntyre, 1995) reported by students who use MOO as a classroom procedure. Due to theoretical and technical considerations explained below, in the section on Limitations and Delimitations, the cognitive aspect of how well the MOO environment facilitates the processing of linguistic input, will be left for future research.
The decision to concentrate on motivation has been taken with the knowledge that both general second/foreign language acquisition theory and second/foreign language motivational theory are in a state of flux (Brown, 1993; Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Kelm, 1996; Long, 1990, 1993; Oxford & Shearin, 1994). Brown, Long, and others analyze the frequent and radical changes in general second/foreign language acquisition theories since the Second World War. Crookes and Schmidt along with Oxford and Shearin review how the specific concept of motivation in second/foreign language acquisition have been defined and redefined, leading to a lack of consensus in the field. Nevertheless, Dornyei's (1994) taxonomy of foreign language motivation offers a reasonable division of course-specific motivational components. These components are: interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction. Interest is the students' basic reaction to class material and how it is presented: Was it fun? Was it interesting? Relevance refers to the perceived importance of the procedure to the students' lives, both in and out of the classroom. Expectancy reflects the students' expectations of doing well and feeling in control of the material. Satisfaction addresses the students' feelings of intellectual satisfaction and feelings that the procedure was worthwhile.
Along with motivation, anxiety is a key factor in the affective domain of language acquisition. Most recent language-anxiety research has overwhelmingly supported the view that anxiety plays a major role in directly and indirectly effecting language learning and acquisition. There seems to be a bidirectional negative correlation between anxiety and linguistic performance. Many students enter a downward spiral in which the awareness of their cognitive problems (apparent with slower and less successful performance) leads to greater anxiety which further impedes cognition. This developmental process often coincides, and interacts, with the appearance of students' strong self-consciousness during their adolescent years. Research has indicated that language learning anxiety is weakest for children and strongest for adolescents and adults (MacIntyre, 1995: MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). While communication apprehension may exist in natural environments outside of the classroom, inside the classroom there are additional types of anxiety: the worries about being formally evaluated (test anxiety) and the worries of looking foolish in front of peers (social anxiety) (Ely, 1986; MacIntyre, 1995: MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991; Young, 1991). The reviews of literature have consistently pointed to significantly higher levels of anxiety in language classes as compared to other academic subjects, supporting the hypothesis of a separate language learning anxiety construct. In fact, several of the empirical studies reviewed by MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) indicated that "anxiety provides some of the highest correlations of attitudes with achievement" (p. 103). Thus, it seems obvious that MOO should be put to the anxiety text: does using MOO in the foreign language class increase or decrease students' anxiety?
It has long been recognized that within a single class, second/foreign language students have different personality traits and corresponding learning styles (Ehrman & Oxford, 1988; Moody, 1988; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989; Skehan, 1991). Meunier (1996) and others have used the Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and alternative instruments to search for correlations between affective differences and the successful use of computer assisted instructional procedures in language class. However, research findings based on these instruments have little relevance for most high school teachers because administrators are adverse to spending the money and time on yet another standardized test, this time not required by the school districts. Until such learning style indicators become standard instruments in high schools, more accessible criteria must be sought for effective differentiation in computer-aided second/foreign language instruction. Research indicates that gender, keyboard skills, and general computer anxiety may be fruitful and accessible indicators for success in computer-aided second/foreign language classrooms (Meunier, 1996; Warschauer, 1996a; Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1996). For the second/foreign language teacher contemplating MOO for a class, or for part of a class; it would be indeed relevant to know how gender, keyboard skills, and general computer anxiety influence the students' levels of motivation and anxiety while using this procedure.
Thus, the specific research questions of this study will be:

Are high school foreign language students motivated to use MOO to the extent that merits the adoption of this procedure?

If MOO is adopted as a foreign language procedure on the high school level, can the students indicate which of the preexisting procedures should be replaced by MOO?

Do gender, keyboard skills, or general computer anxiety influence the students' motivation to use MOO as a foreign language procedure at the high school level?

Based on the research questions and the review of literature, presented in chapter 2 of this dissertation, the following hypotheses (phrased in terms of expected outcomes, rather than null hypotheses) will be addressed:

The students will report less than average anxiety and more than average interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction about using MOO in high school foreign language class in comparison to other instructional procedures used.

Gender will not be significantly related to self-reported anxiety, interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction while using MOO as a foreign language procedure at the high school level.

Self-reported keyboard skills will correlate negatively with self-reported anxiety and positively with self-reported interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction while using MOO as a foreign language procedure at the high school level.

Self-reported general computer anxiety will correlate positively with self-reported anxiety and negatively with self-reported interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction while using MOO as a foreign language procedure at the high school level.

The students using MOO in class will report lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction about foreign language instruction (in general) than students not using MOO.

In terms of anxiety and motivation, students will express clear opinions about which foreign language procedures should be displaced in order to include MOO in the curriculum.

Limitations and Delimitations
Limitations
The following limitations to the study will be noted:

Linguistic input found in MOO is bimodal, presenting itself as synchronous conversations and asynchronous descriptions and messages previously left by other characters. Although a MOO log, recording characters' activities, may indicate the quality of synchronous interaction; it might not accurately reflect the quality of processing asynchronous input. A log cannot distinguish between reading a text that requires no observable reaction as opposed to not reading the text in the first place. This problem is compounded by the uncertainties involved in comparing oral output with the typed output of students with varying keyboard skills. Thus, it would be erroneous to compare transcripts of small group oral interaction in class with the logs of MOO users.

There is a technical/administrative factor impeding research on participants' linguistic interaction in the MOO environment. According to the rules of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Nova Southeastern University, all participants in a research project must give prior consent to participation. In a MOO program, there are two types of interlocutors, registered characters and guests. Although it is conceivable to contact all the registered characters before a research project begins, it is impossible to predict which guests will appear on any particular day. These guests are totally anonymous and can not be identified, thus prior consent cannot be asked for, nor granted.

Another limitation of the study, once again arising from the Institutional Review Board requirements for prior participant consent, is the problem of the Hawthorne Effect. The participants may change their normal patterns of activity and speech because they know that they are being observed. The very act of asking for prior consent may influence the students' activities during the experiment.

The Internet lab at the experiment site has 15 stations. This requires dividing the experimental population into subgroups accessing the MOO site at different times, and at different hours of the day. Thus, it will be impossible to ensure absolute uniformity of the quantity or quality of potential interlocutors for each session. As a result, some students will be forced to interact with preexisting written texts more than interacting with written utterances from online interlocutors. (Although this is always an option, when there are no potential interlocutors, it becomes the only option.) This difference may influence the type of linguistic input the students receive, the strategies of processing the input, and the levels of motivation. In addition, the difference in time during the school day might affect the students' ability to concentrate on the MOO task in a uniform way.

The English staff at the experiment site decided to maintain a special remedial Five Point Bagrut (National Matriculation) class. This decision was taken due to instructional problems over the previous two years, placing 25 students outside the potential experimental population. As a result, there will be only three classes available for the project: two experimental and one control. It is recognized that having two control groups would have been preferable, but the project is being undertaken in the real world, with real world considerations. Nevertheless, having a smaller experimental population (N=62), with two experimental groups and only one control group may influence the results of the project.

Due to scheduling considerations, the three classes participating in the experiment will have different teachers. Although the teachers will be working according to the national syllabus of the Ministry of Education, and have agreed to coordinate their instruction as much as possible, differences in teaching styles and attitude will probably influence the results of the research.

The Har V'Gai Regional School (the experiment site) does not offer touch-typing courses either in Hebrew or English. As a result, few teachers demand typed papers from their students. Thus, many of the students have minimal hunt-and-peck keyboard skills. Those students who frequently use computers may have developed more efficient one-finger or two-finger keyboard skills, but it is assumed that an insignificant number of students know how to touch type. For the purposes of this research project, the lack of typing skills in a foreign language (English), which has with a different character set than the students' first language (Hebrew or Russian), might influence the results of the study.

Delimitations
The following delimitations to the study are noted:

Only 11^th grade students on the Five Point English Bagrut level in the Har V'Gai Regional School will participate in this project. (Bagrut is the National Matriculation Examination, where Five Points is the highest level in English.) Generalizations stemming from this study may not be relevant to lower grades or lower levels of the 11^th grade.

SchMOOze University, a MOO site created for students and teachers of English as a second/foreign language will be the only MOO site used in class during the project. Because the experimental students study English as a foreign language (EFL); research findings might not be the basis of generalizations for students of English as a second language (ESL), students using a different English MOO site, or students of other languages visiting non-English MOO sites.

Previous studies done at the Har V'Gai Regional School (the experiment site) indicate rapid student fatigue with questionnaires and a tendency to sabotage questionnaires once interest has been lost. Israeli schools are less oriented to standardized exams than their counterparts in many western nations, thus the students seem to have less respect for surveys which are not reflected in their grades. As a result, the instruments for this project must be designed with brevity as an overriding prerequisite. To encourage the students' rapid understanding of what is required, each subsection will be preceded by a short explanation of the theoretical concepts (anxiety, interest, relevancy, expectancy, and satisfaction) and will be structured in the same manner as each of the other subsections. Once the students have understood the construct, it is hoped that they will be able to proceed quickly through the subsection. Also to increase student comprehension of the questionnaire and decrease time needed to answer the questions, all questions and answers on all the instruments will be in Hebrew. In addition, a Russian translation of the questionnaire will be provided for Russian speaking immigrant students in the experiment. Nevertheless, the required brevity of the questionnaires may influence their quality.

The need for a short, and unequivocally clear, instrument eliminates the possibility of reverse coding of questions as a check for internal consistency of students' answers.

Definition of Terms
Affective filter - The affective filter is a term used by Krashen (1985) to refer to a psychological construct impeding language acquisition. This construct is a composite of a number of psychological, social, political, cultural, and economic factors that would cause a student of a foreign or second language to resist both language acquisition, language learning, or both. (Brown, 1993).
Because the construct of the affective filter has not been quantified, the strength of a student's affective filter cannot be measured directly. For the purposes of this study, the strength of the affective filter, while using a certain teaching procedure, will be judged indirectly by measuring the subject's willingness to use that particular teaching procedure in comparison to other teaching procedures. In addition, evidence of voluntarily use of a teaching procedure outside of class will be considered supporting evidence of weakening of the affective filter while using that particular procedure.
Bagrut - The Bagrut Exams are the national matriculation examinations for the State of Israel (Chief Inspector for English, 1996). They are constructed, administered, and corrected by the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel. The English Bagrut is usually administered in the 12^th grade, although some advanced classes receive permission to take it in the 11^th grade. The four levels of the English Bagrut, in descending order, are: Five Point, Four Point, Three Point, and One Point. The Five Point and Four Point exams are Israeli university entrance level exams, with most universities preferring the Five Point exam.
Comprehensible input - Krashen (1985) defines comprehensible input as language that students are able to understand. If i represents students' linguistic competence, then i+1 is the language a bit beyond the current level, which still can be understood with the aid of contextual, social assistance, or both. This is the linguistic parallel to Vygotsky's (1987) Zone of Proximal Development. Long (1983a), Pica (1987, 1996), Swain (1985), and others have refined Krashen's definition of comprehensible input to include an i+1 obtained by negotiated interaction. This parallels another of Vygotsky's concepts, stressing the basic social nature of learning. Without a caregiver (an adult or more advanced peer) trying to make meaning out of the students' output (oral or written), the students have little chance to improve current linguistic competencies.
Comprehensible output - After Krashen posited comprehensible input as a prerequisite for second/foreign language acquisition, researchers began to focus on comprehensible output as an opportunity for students to attend to the various elements of the target language. Output that is not comprehensible calls for negotiation and for further input to help the student along the interlanguage continuum (Pica, 1994; Swain, 1985).
EFL - Studying English as a Foreign Language occurs in a non-English speaking environment. The students in an EFL class usually all speak the same first language so there is no natural reason to use the target language, English. In addition, students of EFL typically have exposure to English only a few hours a week, usually in the confines of an institutional setting. (Brown, 1993)
ESL - Studying English as a Second Language occurs in classroom surrounded by an English speaking environment. Students must practice English, after class hours, to function in the host community. In addition, the students in an ESL class often come from various native language backgrounds, so they must use English to communicate with the teacher and with peers. (Brown, 1993)
Instrumental motivation - Students feel that knowing a certain language is somehow profitable. This view motivates them in their studies in an instrumental manner. This type of motivation is distinct from integrative motivation (Brown, 1993).
Integrative motivation - Students may want to associate with the speakers of a language and their culture. This desire will motivate their language studies in an integrative manner (Brown, 1993).
Interlanguage continuum - Speakers of a native language do not suddenly become speakers of another language. They go through a process of making and testing hypotheses about the target language, with or without the assistance of formal instruction. They begin with knowledge about language in general, gained from their native language, and move toward the target language. Bit by bit, they readjust their mental model of the new language, improving their communicative competency in that language. Successful hypotheses become mental constructions that correspond to the rules of the new language. Unsuccessful hypotheses are revised or discarded. At any particular moment, the language student is located on an interlanguage continuum between the native language and the target language (Selinker, 1972). Truly successful students make the journey to a high level of competency in the target language, while less successful students become fossilized somewhere along the interlanguage continuum (Brown, 1993).
Language acquisition - This paper will accept the modification of Long (1983a), Pica (1987, 1996), Swain (1985), and others of Krashen's (1981) definition of language acquisition. Krashen defined language acquisition as a natural, subconscious, and intuitive process of mentally constructing the system of that language. The medium in which this process takes place is low-stress meaningful use of language, where the student is presented with comprehensible input. For Krashen, merely being exposed to language in this type of environment was enough for acquisition. Long, Pica, Swain, and others refined this definition by stating that input is made comprehensible by a process of negotiation of meaning with others who have a higher level of competence in the target language. As part of negotiated interaction, comprehensible output allows for hypothesis testing and cognitive awareness of the language. The concept of a subconscious and intuitive process in a low-stressed environment remains important in this modified definition.
Language learning - For Krashen (1981), language learning is a conscious process of memorizing forms and rules of the target language. In this process, the students' monitor checks for correct use of these forms and rules in controlled situations such as exams and essays. According to Krashen, this monitor inhibits the students from testing hypotheses in real life situations. As a result, Krashen (1982) claimed that language learning and language acquisition are, in fact, mutually exclusive processes. Disputing this extreme position, Gregg (1984) pointed out that conscious knowledge can become subconscious, and the reverse. Therefore, there was no justification for Krashen's strict division between learning and acquisition. In addition, Long (1983b) demonstrated that formal language learning could lead to greater communicative competency in the target language. Nevertheless, while Gregg, Long, and others challenged Krashen's extreme position about the mutual exclusivity of acquisition and learning, they basically accepted the conceptual dichotomy of in-class conscious learning vs. natural (usually out of class) subconscious acquisition.
MOO environment - MOO (Multi-user domain Object Oriented) is a computer-based, textual virtual world, made up of interlocking locations that may contain objects (Reid, 1994). People who use the MOO environment choose self-described characters that can move through the locations and manipulate the objects. Each MOO site has a general theme (e.g. a college campus, the Wild West, a forest, an ocean, etc.) and the locations and objects tend to reflect that theme. People experienced in MOO can extend the MOO site by building additional locations, objects, or both. An important aspect of MOO is the potential for synchronous internet communications that allow people from all over the world to gather in the various virtual locations and converse with each other via their MOO characters. Conceptually, visiting a MOO site is like stepping into the pages of a book, becoming a character in the book, and being able to influence the plot from the inside the book.
Although having its origin in the game Dungeons and Dragons, many MOOs have developed away from competitive and violent games towards social, cooperative, and occasionally educational activities (Reid, 1994). There are MOO sites for language education, and schMOOze University is the most well-known MOO site for ESL/EFL students and teachers. For the purposes of this paper, schMOOze University is the appropriately chosen MOO environment for EFL students.
Negotiated interaction - Negotiated interaction is a term put forth by Long (1983b), Pica (1987, 1996), and others in order to expand and refine Krashen's (1981 & 1985) concept of comprehensible input which facilitates language acquisition.
Target language - The target language is another term for the second or foreign language. The target language is found on the opposite end of the interlanguage continuum from the native language. (Brown, 1993)
Summary
Students of a foreign language have two major problems that stem from their isolation from native speakers and more fluent non-native speakers of the target language. First, foreign language students have little opportunity to interact with speakers of the target language. They can not get input in order to examine their own mental models of the language, nor can they test hypotheses about the language in the form of output. Second, the isolation of foreign language students impedes the creation of positive attitudes towards the target language population and culture, and therefore impedes the development of motivation to learn the target language itself.
Bringing foreign language students to a properly chosen MOO site may be a partial solution to these two problems. The foreign language students may develop a positive attitude toward the virtual community speaking the target language and be motivated to visit the MOO site in their free time. This would increase the opportunities to interact with native speakers and more fluent non-native speakers. In addition, the game like quality of MOO fantasy and the inherently interesting possibility of meeting peers from all over the world may lower the students' affective filter and facilitate greater language acquisition.
The proposed project will examine the opinions of 11^th grade students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). How will they report their levels of anxiety, interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction while using MOO as opposed to other foreign language procedures? The students will also indicate which procedures they would prefer to displace in order to allocate time for using MOO. In addition, an attempt will be made to ascertain the influence of gender, keyboard skills, and general computer anxiety on the student's attitudes towards using MOO as an foreign language procedure.

Chapter 2
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