Designing a VR Speech Simulation Game for Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

This design-based study focuses on a fully immersive Virtual Reality (VR) language learning game developed for Nordic higher-education students of Finnish and Swedish. The study was conducted in collaboration with language teachers, researchers from three universities, and a software engineering laboratory. The study complements existing research, e.g., by focusing on a fully immersive VR game, the higher-education context, and languages other than English. Our objectives are to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the aims and benefits of our language learning game in the Nordic higher-education context? 2) What is the linguistic content of the game? 3) What is the nature of the visual and interactive game world? 4) How does the linguistic and audiovisual content of the game world support learning? Our study identifies speaking and listening practice as one of the key skills needed by the target audience, university students of Finnish in Sweden and Swedish in Finland. We reflect on the thematic and linguistic choices we made when developing the game scripts. We also detail the types of multiple-choice and gap-filling exercises that the real-life-resembling scenarios contain. We discuss the audio-visual aspects of the game, including software, audio recordings, motion capture, speech-to-text, and summer cottage environment. Our game supports developing speaking and listening skills through pedagogical guided independent learning and contextualized multimodal learning. Our data comes from the game itself as well as user surveys.