Design and Construction of a Virtual Environment
for Japanese Language Instruction

by Howard Rose

Chapter V
Discussion

After five to ten minutes of exposure to the English version of the environment, most subjects became familiar enough with the hardware and software interfaces that they were eager to move on to the Japanese version. It took significantly longer, however, for the average user to master the interface to the point where moving and picking objects was relatively effortless. A few subjects commented that it was challenging to simultaneously learn both the mechanics of the virtual environment and maintain concentration on the language learning task.

Subjects' anecdotal remarks touched on many of the design goals for the system. A number of subjects volunteered opinions that Zengo Sayu helped them learn by giving them control over the pace and sequencing of the lesson content. A typical comment was: "I liked that I could do things as many times as I wanted until I understood. For example, I could hear the same words over and over if I wanted to. You just can't do that in a classroom; it would be too disruptive."

While observing subjects using the world, it was apparent that the virtual environment enabled the user in ways which conventional audio and video materials can not. For example, students in the virtual world could repeat actions again and again to practice their listening skills. While the same level of repetition can be accomplished with audio or video tape using the rewind button, the quality of the experience would be dramatically different. Study in the virtual environment has the advantage that language is always closely coupled to a readily perceived context and meaning. In Zengo Sayu, students experience Japanese as an active participant, rather than a passive listener or a mere language sponge, as in TPR.

I found it encouraging that test subjects were actually able to identify language related bugs in the system, such as when the world played sound files which were incongruous with the current state of the environment. For example: a subject noted that a certain red box, when placed in front of a blue box would incorrectly state in Japanese: "The red box is behind the blue box." The ability to detect such errors indicates the subjects understood the virtual interface and how to manipulate it. This also demonstrates these subjects attained an understanding of Japanese sufficient enough to find relatively subtle inconsistencies.

The design and construction of Zengo Sayu was limited by the current level of available technology. Zengo Sayu was programmed using Division's dVise 2.0 authoring system, which significantly cut development time compared to programming the entire environment in low level languages. Authoring systems make it possible for non-programmers to create virtual environments in the same way that multimedia authoring systems enable teachers and students to create their own multimedia presentations. A number of new authoring systems have recently been released which offer greatly enhanced functionality, though they are still too new in the field. It seems evident that virtual reality will not enjoy wide acceptance and proliferation until there is a well designed, flexible and stable authoring package for virtual environments.

What is significant about Zengo Sayu is that, in spite of the above caveat about authoring packages, preliminary testing shows significant learning can be achieved using the current state of this technology. Zengo Sayu is graphically simple; it does not rely on sophisticated animation or visual effects to hold the students' attention. Yet, the majority of subjects who experienced the environment, some for periods over one hour, expressed that they would like to spend more time in the environment. Empirical testing which proves the educational merit of Zengo Sayu would be an encouraging confirmation that educational technologies can hold users' attention and deliver effective instruction without the need for gratuitous special effects.