Ogma: A Virtual Reality Language Acquisition System

Abstract

One of the traditional methods of learning a new language, or Second-Language Acquisition (SLA), is immersion, seen today as one of the most effective learning methods. Using this method, the learner relocates to a new place where the target language is the dominant language, and tries to learn the language my immersing themselves in the local environment. One of the disadvantages of this method is that relocating to a new place is not always a viable option. That's where Virtual Reality (VR) can come to our rescue. VR is an immersive technology that allows the user to wear a head-mounted display to be immersed in a life-like virtual environment. In our research, we explore the possibility of utilizing the power of VR for SLA by building a system called Ogma, which helps users immerse themselves in an environment representing a foreign place. In our pilot study, we built a VR system and performed user studies by comparing learning performance using VR against the traditional method. In both cases, users were given a set of ten Swedish words to learn. Results indicated that percentage retention using our VR method was significantly higher than that of the traditional method. In addition, the effectiveness and enjoyability ratings given by users were significantly higher for the VR method. This proves that our system has potential impact on SLA by using VR technology, without suffering the disadvantages of the traditional method.