Not All ESL Sites Are Created Equal in Second Life

Although ESL sites abound in Second Life, not every site is created equal.  Most areas are open for free and unencumbered exploration with many activities and displays open for anyone’s use.  Obviously, one must behave in a respectful, truthful and generally civil manner.  The rules of netiquette are not particularly difficult to learn or utilize.  There are, however, a significant number of commercial, private sites that also hold classes and have paying participants that are not open to the general public.  

One such destination is Drive Through ESL.  The name is attractive and shows up on searches for ESL sites on Second Life near the top of the search results.  When I dropped in I was greeted almost immediately by Giovanni Tweak.  Not knowing who he was, I hesitantly responded to his questioning about what I was doing at Drive Through ESL.  After I enquired, he let know me that he was the owner of the site and handed me a notecard with rather terse rules for dropping in.  I was polite in my interaction with Giovanni through "chat," but I was taken aback after reading the following rules:

* This is a private, commercial school. It is not a public place.  

* By conducting a research without authorization you might be breaking International Laws about Copyright Protection, violating Terms of Use and Community Standards of Second Life. 

* Your ignorance of the English language or Second Life, the general lack of understanding of the situation and context is NOT an excuse for violating these rules.

When I presented by "credentials" as a graduate student in a MA TESOL program, he did offer a link to his website, and a bit friendlier.  The rule does say that the site experienced visits from many rude and offensive people and developed the rules to protect the privacy of the paying students and the productivity of their teachers.

There is an extensive schedule of both text based and voice based classes.  An initial class is offered free of charge, there extensive help files on the website, email based support and multi-lingual staff to help newcomers feel more at ease.  Since I didn't have a chance to take an actual class at this site, I cannot comment on the quality of the instruction.  However, I would like to point out that there are numerous sites on Second Life that offer both free information as well as free access.