Second Life...

Before exploring Second Life in class last Monday, I have to be honest, I thought the idea behind Second Life was rediculous! It seemed silly to me that people would want to create a "virtual alter ego". While I still think the idea in general is a little silly, I had so much fun exploring second life through my "avatar"! I got really in to it and found myself wanting to continue even after time was up in class. That lets me know that if I enjoyed it so much then students certainly would be interested and excited to! While I am not sure at this point if I completely agree with pedagogical benefits of using Second Life, I do see the validity of the arguments behind the idea. I can certainly agree that the affective filter would be low using second life because of the degree of anonymity that Second Life offers. Students that may be timid using the language in the classroom setting would probably be comfortable communicating in the TL in Second Life. Also, although it is not genuine "face to face" interaction, communicating on Second Life does resemble the flow of natural conversation. My question is, would using Second Life to communicate in the TL provide opportunities for oral proficiency or just for written proficiency???