O n f e r e n c e

Joan-Tomàs Pujolà, Cristina Palomeque 
Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
[e-mail], [e-mail] 
Researching MUVEs: Unravelling the Complexity of Interactions in 
a Multifaceted Digital Environment 
Bio data 
Joan-Tomàs Pujolà
holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh 
and is currently teaching at the Faculty of Education in the University of Barcelona. He 
trains teachers in the area of CALL and his current research aims at the use of web 2.0 
technologies for teaching and learning purposes. He is also interested in the learning 
processes in relation to learner autonomy and in the metacognitive development of 
language learners and teachers. 
 
Cristina Palomeque
is a PhD student currently undergoing research on the study of 
communication strategies in the 3D virtual world of Second Life. She taught for 5 years 
at the Faculty of Education in the University of Barcelona. Her areas of interest include 
CALL and teacher-learner interaction in a foreign language. 
Abstract 
A growing body of research is developing on the study of communication in Multi-User 
Virtual Environments (MUVEs) (Örnberg, 2005; Molka-Danielsen & Deutschmann, 2009; 
Sweeney, P. et al., 2010, González, D. et al., 2011). These 3D virtual worlds have 
particular features that make communication different from other online contexts, i. e. 
multiplicity of tools, multitasking, multichannels and multimodality. Thus, the analysis of 
the communication strategies participants use to engage in interaction in 3D virtual 
worlds should consider the multifaceted nature of this digital environment. 
One of the challenges in CALL research is how to describe and analyse the complex 
interactions that occur in a language lesson within a 3D virtual world such as 
Second Life
. 
On the one hand, the interaction among avatars (of teachers and students) is as complex 
as the one in face-to-face classroom interaction. On the other, the MUVE interface also 
plays a role in this interaction while performing a teaching or learning task.
This paper, first, delineates the challenges of researching MUVEs for language learning, 
regarding the methodology to record the sessions, to transcribe the interactions in this 
multifaceted digital environment and to analyse the data. We then propose a two-staged 
method (Pujolà & Palomeque, 2010) to transcribe the participants’ interaction and the 
user-interface interactivity in a multilayer way. Examples will be shown from an on-going 
investigation on teacher and student communication strategies in the 3D virtual world of 
Second Life. 
 

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-285- 
2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
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