MOOrituri te salutant? Language Learning through MOO-Based Synchronous Exchanges between Learner Tandems

Abstract

This paper describes and analyses some of the salient features of a MOO-based language learning project which involved 29 students from a graduate course in applied linguistics at the University of Münster in Germany and from an undergraduate German seminar at Vassar College, USA. From October to December 1998, learners collaborated in tandem partnerships of three or four students in this text-based online environment to work on various culture- and language-related projects whose results they presented to the full group in the concluding sessions. Learners met twice a week for about 75 minutes, usually using English in the first half of a session and German in the second half or vice versa. Each learner thus benefited from her partner’s expert knowledge about her own linguistic and cultural community. At the same time, partners improved their own communicative competence by conversing with native speakers of their L2 in a non-threatening environment, by receiving instant and sometimes extensive feedback that enabled them to test their hypotheses about the L2, and by receiving authentic input and expert advice on a broad range of linguistic and cultural issues. This paper begins with a brief introduction to the MOO. Next, I will discuss the pedagogic framework adopted for this project and analyse selected aspects of the learner interaction as captured in the electronic transcripts or logs participants saved of their online encounters. The paper concludes that, far from being destined for doom, as the title suggests, MOOs are very suitable as a venue for culturally and linguistically challenging language learning experiences through online tandem partnerships.