A virtual walk through London: culture learning through a cultural immersion experience

Abstract

Integrating Google Street View into a three-dimensional virtual environment in which users control personal avatars provides these said users with access to an innovative, interactive, and real-world context for communication and culture learning. We have selected London, a city famous for its rich historical, architectural, and artistic heritage, as the location of choice for culture learning. Using avatars, learners walk the virtual streets of London under the guidance of a native English-speaking instructor, and interact with each other using text and voice chat functions. The study examines the effects of this virtual environment on culture learning. Specifically, a qualitative case study combined with a time-series design is used to investigate the virtual context's impact on culture learning in terms of learner knowledge and attitudes, and to track associated change processes across the three research phases (baseline, treatment, and maintenance). The results show that all four English learners involved in the study benefitted from their cultural immersion, to varying extents, in the virtual environment. Four contributing learner factors, namely linguistic proficiency, motivation, character traits, and attitudes were found to correspond to the learners' levels of acquaintance with the target culture.

Review of Studies on Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Teaching

“…Learners generally use headgear to enter the virtual world. An avatar is created in the VR for each learner, and then learners use it to walk through various locations and interact with other avatars in the target language [59].…”

“…Hassani, Nahvi, and Ahmadi [61] argued that, after using VR, there was an increase in the number of proper replies and proficiency level, but a decrease in the grammatical errors that students made. Shih [59] reported that learners' interest in the target culture was enhanced through the virtual platform. Yamazaki [62] revealed that students acquired contextualized communicative competence.…”

Review of Research on Technologies for Language Learning and Teaching

“…Cultural immersion allows FL learners to learn target language meaningful and effective by observing, participating, and engaging with language and culture. Shih (2015) [17] did a research that combined a qualitative case study with a time-series design to investigate the impact of virtual context on culture learning. The results show that all of the participants involved in the study benefitted from their cultural immersion in the virtual environment.…”

Social and Cultural Focus in EFL Learning. Does Understanding Target Language Culture Increase Interaction in the EFL Classroom?

“…If there is no understanding of how language reflects the target culture, there is a greater potential for errors, social mistakes and the potential erection of communication barriers, and misunderstandings as Forman (2014) and Ahmed, (2014) note. Traditionally, the most effective way to develop this understanding was immersion in the foreign culture, but as (Shih, 2015;Lee, 2009;Boxer and Cortes-Conde, 2000), this is neither practical nor possible for every EFL student. However, with the advent of web technologies and evolutions that include virtual reality simulations the potential for virtual immersion to be incorporated in the classroom makes exposure to target culture far easier to achieve.…”

“…For the students in all these studies, there was a feeling of authenticity and genuine interaction with the target culture, and an improvement and enhancement of their language abilities. Clearly therefore, the utilization of technology as evidenced by Shih (2015), Wang (2014) and Hsieh et al, (2016) recognize not only the value of social and cultural components but also the role that technology can play in delivering these into the EFL classroom. Indeed, techniques such as this are also being applied in other industries to enhance and develop increased intercultural competence, underlining their value in many spheres, including EFL teaching (Mohsen, 2016;Ghadiri et al, 2016).…”