Week 4 Reading—Language learner behavior in virtual environment

Roed (2003) first pointed out that people usually behave differently when they communicate with people online compared to face-to-face interactions. In this paper, text communication among students in the virtual environment was analyzed.
From the research, the writer found that learners have much more confidence in communicating with others in a virtual world instead of the real communications. It is because on the one hand, people usually judge others from one’s appearance and for those who are not very attractive in appearance, they may suffer from low self-esteem and seldom talk with others. On the other hand, low proficiency in L2 will hinder students’ participation. With only the text messages, those with low L2 speaking proficiency can communicate with others “fluently” and they can get rid of the problem of anxiety.

Be that as it may, the virtual environmental is not without its drawbacks. Suggested by Roed, students found it was boring when they have to wait for a long time to get responses because typing takes time. Therefore, it will hinder the pace of communications. It may also create some sorts of misunderstandings due to the lack of body gestures and the tone of the utterances.

In conclusion, though a virtual environment provides another good platform for students to learn English, I still think face-to-face communication is of the utmost importance. Communication should be carried out with the real people but not the virtual ones.