English City was created using the principles of student engagement, that the environment should be immersive and fully interactive to maximise the learning experience. It is a virtual city based in Second Life that replicates environments where language interactions take place. It has everything you find in a physical city: an airport, hotels, cafes, art galleries, museums, business centres and much more. Classes are taught by qualified English teachers from the UK, USA and Australia and are scenario based. The survey results demonstrate that the methodology is effective, with students seeing study as a leisure activity.
“All lessons are in a contextual setting and students role-play and practice everyday interactions in the environments that they would normally occur”. “How much easier is checking in at a hotel once you’ve done it a dozen or so times? In English City students can practice this and any number of other scenarios until they are comfortable that they can handle it for real.”
Mike Solly, an English language expert who has been involved in developing English language training programs all over the world agrees with Languagelab’
“For me, the great thing about Languagelab is that you can bring the language learning experience (interacting with real people for a real purpose) into your own home. You can learn a language around the busy lives that we lead nowadays, and become a part of an exciting community of learners in a way that you could never do in the traditional classroom…when you think about the ability to create whatever scenario you want in a virtual world, the educational opportunities are endless.”
About Languagelab.com
Languagelab.com was founded in 2005 in London, and now teaches English online to students from 70+ countries. Pioneers in virtual-world teaching, Languagelab has conducted research programs involving dozens of experts, including teachers, course book writers, and game developers, to discover the most effective way for students to
