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This article attempts to shed some light on the possible learning benefits for language acquisition and intercultural development of authentic social interaction with expert peers through computer mediated communication (CMC) tools. The environments used in this study are video communication and the 3D virtual world "Second Life." For this research study 41 students of Spanish were randomly allocated to three conditions: (1) face-to-face control group, (2) experimental interaction group with video communication, and (3) experimental interaction group with "Second Life." All students were following the same language course at B1 level and carried out 5 communication tasks. Different data sources were gathered to measure the impact that integration of CMC has on the development of the intercultural and communicative competence of L2 learners: (1) pre- and post-oral tests to measure the communicative growth of L2 learners; (2) surveys to gather participants' experiences; and (3) recordings of communication sessions for qualitative in-depth analysis of interaction. Significant differences in the development of communicative competence were found, with experimental groups scoring significantly higher than the face-to-face control group.

Within a European project on Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research (NIFLAR), "Second Life" was used as a 3D virtual world in which language students can communicate synchronously with native speakers in the target language, while undertaking action together. For this context, a set of design principles for interaction tasks was developed aiming at maximizing authentic social interaction and intercultural awareness, while exploiting the specific affordances of the virtual environment being used. These design principles were applied and tested in a case study in which two foreign language learners of Spanish and two pre-service teachers carried out four interaction tasks in the virtual world of "Second Life". In this article we first present and discuss the framework for task development and assessment. We then show the results of the case study conducted in "Second Life" which aimed at: (1) applying and assessing the design principles for task elaboration, (2) analyzing the kind of interaction the tasks elicited in the virtual world, (3) exploring whether the specific affordances of the virtual environment were adequately used for enhancing interaction, and (4) studying whether and how the condition anonymity versus familiarity may play a role in modeling virtual interaction. (Contains 1 note and 4 tables.)