A Deeper Dive Into the Learning Science Behind IMMERSE

IMMERSE

IMMERSE is a language learning application for adults studying English, Spanish, or French. We offer live, instructor-led classes, instructor-led conversation groups, AI-practice, and member-led social meet ups, which users access via a desktop computer or a VR headset. 

IMMERSE builds learners’ communication skills through instruction and practice in contextualized environments, such as a conference room, doctor’s office, and other real-world settings. IMMERSE has 40+ highly interactive virtual reality scenes, each one designed to facilitate authentic communication in a specific context. Learners develop the language skills they need for their work and personal lives through guided immersion in these environments.

IMMERSE uses a research-backed pedagogy grounded in learning sciences and built upon research that has tested how to best help students learn languages through VR. We have partnered with over 35 researchers from around the world to test and validate our method and have consistently found that learning in IMMERSE helps students achieve proficiency 2-3x faster than traditional classroom instruction and mobile-based programs. 

The design and methodology of IMMERSE are explored in depth in Why IMMERSE Works and How IMMERSE Works. This article offers a deeper dive into the learning science behind IMMERSE’s ability to achieve better results than other apps, language courses or tutoring.

Theoretical Framework of VR Learning

VR has several benefits, or affordances as researchers call them, that are advantageous for language learning. These are the features underlying virtual reality’s power to enhance the rate and effectiveness of language learning. 

Learning Affordances of VR

The learning affordances of VR include: 

• support for embodied learning and kinesthetic engagement
• enablement of non-verbal and behavioral communication
• realistic experiences in a broad range of environments and situations
• collaborative learning and genuine sociocultural interactions
• authentic cultural contexts
• enhanced engagement
• contextualized learning with multimodal support

These affordances result in learning benefits that support language acquisition, such as spatial knowledge representation, experiential learning, engagement, contextual learning, and collaborative learning. 

These affordances have important design implications for learning experiences in VR. In a properly designed platform, learners’ actions within a virtual space are inseparable from their cognition, which ultimately leads to higher order thinking, problem-solving skills, and the ability to collaborate.

Languaculture Learning

The shared physical and sensory environment of learners in a virtual scene also enables a high degree of sociocultural learning, expanding language learning beyond purely linguistic elements to include cultural elements such as non-verbal communicative customs, body language and gesture, and proxemics. Additionally, being immersed in the virtual environment creates a sense that the learner is genuinely engaged in a real situation where communication skills are required. The resulting authenticity of interpersonal interactions provides much-needed context for the learning and practice of pragmatics. 

Thus, VR learners have rich opportunities for learning languaculture, the combined linguistic, pragmatic, and cultural knowledge and skills that comprise language proficiency.

Immersion

The term immersion can refer to both language immersion and VR immersion. Immerse draws on the language learning power of both. 

Language Immersion

Reaching advanced proficiency in a language takes hundreds of guided learning hours. Language immersion is widely viewed as one of the best ways to accelerate and enrich this learning process. 

In an immersion setting, learners gain an understanding of the language as it is naturally used around them, as they are surrounded by language used in context. Immersion may be combined with language instruction, or it may consist simply of frequent, contextualized exposure to language in use. 

For anyone whose ultimate goal is to achieve fluency, it is important to build spoken communication skills right from the start. Language immersion provides the ideal environment for contextualized learning and authentic communication practice.

Immersion in VR

VR users experience another type of immersion because virtual reality can seem very real. When users are immersed in virtual environments, they feel like they are actually there even though they are not physically present in that world. This sensation is generally referred to as “presence.” 

Presence is the key feature of virtual reality that makes it such an effective medium for learning. The sense of reality inside VR allows a learner to experience concepts and knowledge directly, increasing focus, engagement, comprehension, and storage and retrieval of information.

However, VR learning experiences must be properly designed in order to take full advantage of this affordance. To design an effective VR learning experience, it is necessary to incorporate and take full advantage of the features that foster the sense of presence. Four criteria have been identified as necessary for optimal immersion in VR, two technical (sensory and actional) and two pedagogical (narrative and social).

Language Immersion in VR

When guided language immersion takes place in a virtual world and includes live social interaction, role plays, and meaningful tasks that allow a learner to use the objects around their avatar in an authentic way, they experience language immersion in VR. This allows them to reap the learning advantages of language immersion and immersion in VR. This translates to language learning experiences that are engaging, memorable, and meaningful, and students typically learn faster and gain confidence more quickly.

The four aspects of immersion in VR - sensory, actional, narrative, and social - overlap with learning approaches that are known to be effective for language learning, such as embodied learning, task-based learning, communicative learning, and social learning. Language learning experiences that take full advantage of both types of immersion - language immersion and immersion in VR - are unusually effective and engaging.

It isn’t just the device, such as a VR headset or a desktop computer, that makes learners feel immersed. Rather, it’s the design of the virtual experience itself. Crucially, this means that desktop VR can be as immersive as headset VR if done well. Likewise, headset VR experiences can be less immersive if done poorly.

The Role of Interaction in Language Learning

Recent research points to the important role of interaction in language acquisition. Infants learn language solely from interacting with the people around them and their environment, and it is increasingly clear that adult language learners can improve their success when they learn through interaction.

Learning a foreign language the traditional way, by learning word pairs such as “dog” and “chien,” utilizes the brain’s automatic memorization faculties, storing new words the same way it stores any other facts. In contrast, learning a word while it’s used in a social interaction or while interacting with the object it represents, uses different parts of the brain - the same extensive networks that are in charge of the learner’s native language. Encountering vocabulary through interaction recruits the brain’s natural tendency to make sense of the surrounding environment, mapping the new word directly onto an experience that has social, emotional, and physical dimensions. 

Embodied Learning

While people tend to think of learning as an abstract process that takes place deep in the mind, it also has a lot to do with information that the brain takes in from the body. Cognition, including learning, is inextricably linked to our physical and sensory experiences.  This phenomenon is called embodied cognition.

Virtual reality provides high levels of embodiment. How does this help with language learning? Because language and sensory information overlap in your brain. The parts of your brain that process sensory information also process vocabulary for that sensory information. For example, the same part of your brain that lights up when you perceive the color blue also lights up at the word “blue.” 

As far as your brain is concerned, language is connected to your experiences with the world around you. Learning a language through sight, sound, gesture, and body movement is significantly more effective than learning from a textbook or a language app. In fact, the more motor movement you engage in, the better you learn. 

Significantly, research has shown that vocabulary learning is improved by learning through interactions in VR. When learners can pick up vegetables, chop them, and toss them in a pot, they typically learn the vocabulary faster and remember the vocabulary longer and with greater accuracy than when they learn through traditional classroom activities such as labeling pictures or memorizing definitions.

VR makes it easy to pair language with sights, sounds, and movements therefore has unprecedented potential to offer contextualized, culturally relevant learning. This matters, because learning vocabulary in a meaningful context leads to better learning. In fact, research shows that language students learning vocabulary in VR have twice the retention and accuracy of students learning in a traditional classroom. There is evidence that this is because vocabulary learned in VR is stored differently in the brain. ‍

A 2019 study on learners of Mandarin Chinese demonstrated that even just the ability to manipulate and move items around in a virtual kitchen while learning their names led to structural brain changes. This study, which was conducted via desktop VR, also demonstrates that the benefits of embodied cognition for language learning are not limited solely to learners using full-immersion VR. This is great news for learners who do not have access to a VR headset or prefer not to use one.

Social interaction

Multiplayer VR promotes social interaction and social language learning. This is critical because researchers say interpersonal interactions are a major driver of language learning success, improving learning speed and vocabulary retention.

Brain scans of adults exposed to new words through social contexts show far more complex and extensive activity than those of adults just studying new words without much context. Follow-up tests also show that adults who learned through authentic social interactions understood the meanings of the words better in new contexts and remembered them longer.

Social interaction also plays a crucial role in fluency development. Learners can study vocabulary and grammar rules, but to develop the processing speed and confidence to string the words together quickly and correctly requires practice speaking with others.

In addition, learners who are used to studying from books or apps often find that authentic listening situations present a major challenge. Fluent speakers converse quickly, and in a live interaction their speech cannot be slowed down or replayed. Learning through social interaction, on the other hand, allows learners to become acclimated to the speed, intonation, and sounds of a language right from the start of their learning journey.

Psychological Benefits of VR

Language learning requires long-term dedication, and it can be challenging to stick with it when there are no short-term rewards. It can also be intimidating for learners to take risks in a language when they are not fully confident in their speaking abilities. 

VR has been shown to help.  

Studies have shown that VR has a positive influence on how motivated and engaged learners feel. This is significant because these so-called affective factors are necessary for reaching fluency. Indeed, many studies have found that language learners are more motivated and confident and less anxious in VR than in more traditional classroom settings. 

In addition, studying a language in a multiplayer VR platform adds elements of social interaction and community support to the learning experience. When learners get together for practice, group study, cultural discussions, or language games, they secure short-term rewards like having fun, making new friends, and feeling understood. These short-term rewards can encourage learners to engage with the platform more frequently, keep them motivated, build their confidence, and help them recognize how much they have already learned rather than how far they still have to go.

Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA)

Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) is the very real fear of failure at communicating in a foreign language. Learners may find pronunciation very difficult and fear they won’t be understood, or they may believe their vocabulary is inadequate for expressing themselves. They may also be afraid of not understanding the rapid speech of fluent speakers. On top of the fear of failing to communicate, many learners are terrified of embarrassment and ridicule if they make mistakes.

FLA is more than just a mental state. Learners experiencing FLA exhibit physiological symptoms such as racing pulse, sweaty palms, and stomach discomfort. In fact, FLA levels can be empirically evaluated by measuring heart rate and cortisol levels in saliva.

Research shows that one of the greatest advantages of learning a language in VR is that learners experience far less FLA. Cortisol levels and heart rate show lower levels of anxiety while learners are speaking a foreign language in virtual reality, and the learners themselves report feeling much less anxious about it.

In VR language apps, learners are represented by an avatar, a virtual character that represents them in the 3D world.  The avatar creates a kind of “shield” that students can hide behind, providing a safe environment to communicate in without being physically on view. Learners are less worried and more willing to take risks since they are not worried about 'losing face' or embarrassing themselves. This reduction in anxiety and boost in confidence is particularly beneficial when learners are engaging in speaking activities. 

A 2022 study showed that this confidence boost has important learning benefits. First, learners engaged in more speaking in VR, meaning they got more of the speaking practice which is essential to building fluency. In addition, native speakers who evaluated the anonymous study participants’ speech found the learners easier to understand when they spoke in VR. Because they were less anxious, their pronunciation was more clear. 

Efficacy of IMMERSE

The science of language learning is foundational to IMMERSE’s platform, features, and curriculum. From its inception, IMMERSE was designed to incorporate and synthesize all the affordances of live language immersion and VR language learning, such as contextualized speaking opportunities, embodied learning, and engaging, supportive learning environments. IMMERSE has been continually expanded and improved as we learn more from the ongoing research on VR language learning in general and Immerse in particular. 

Research studies on IMMERSE validate our language offerings, showing that our platform leads to more enjoyable language learning experiences and facilitates successful language learning much better than classroom settings, online tutoring, or mobile apps. 

Additional Resources

For further reading on this topic, please check out our Research page or one of the sources below. 

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