SOCIAL AGENTS FOR L2 LEARNING

Serious Games (SG) represent a widely used tool to support learning at different ages and in several fields of knowledge. According to this definition, a SG involves players in activities designed for the improvements of their knowledge and skills through engaging learning paths. Within such a perspective, computer-assisted second language learning has recently become a specific field of application that requires specific methodologies and suitable solutions that SG can provide. In particular, by exploiting SGs it is possible to contextualize and situate second language learning processes in a simulation of the cultural and social world along a narrative stream. In this paper, we present the re-design of VIRGIL2 (VIRtual Guide for Immigrants in second language learning) serious game in the light of a Social Practice Theory based framework, named S.A.L.V.E. (Social Agents for Learning in Virtual Environments). The S.A.L.V.E. framework is exploited to support illiterate and semiilliterate immigrants in learning of a second language by interacting with a conversational agent. The interaction is managed according socially accepted practices in a supermarket scenario.