Week 5 reading review- Language Behaviour in a Virtual Environment

As Roed (2003) stated that working in a virtual environment is different from learning in a classroom. I agree with it. Students in my school need to do some online reading exercises regularly. They would get a result monthly. One of my students, Ian, is good at English. He does the online reading exercises everyday both in Chinese and English without my reminding. He is always the second in Primary 3 among my school in the online exercises. However, he seems not to participate a lot in class. He is quiet, quite passive and would not raise up his hand actively when answering questions even he knows the answers. He cannot answer the questions immediately. He needs time to think when answering questions. So, I think the virtual environment learning is suitable for him. I have a doubt that the development of virtual environment would reduce the communication with others in authentic situation. Their social skills become lower. They become weak on communicating with others and cannot manage interpersonal relationship fluently. Speaking and listening skills become powerless. How can we enhance their speaking and listening skills in such environments. On the other hand, they would use the virtual languages, such as msn languages or short forms of words in their writing in classrooms. Do teachers correct them?