The state of virtual reality: A virtual reality me
ta-analysis tool for learning a second language
Abstract:
Virtual Reality (VR) tools play an increasingly important role in instructional design theory, although the importance of VR tools and their underlying concepts has been ignored in CALL. In the following sections, we will first give a preliminary definition of VR and then outline the high-end and low-end VR applications acquired in a second language. In particular, text-based virtual reality programs have shown how today's learner autonomy (Wolff, 1994) incorporates most of the most important concepts in VR theory and second language acquisition that evolve beyond language learning and can enhance Design and Education CALL Software. In our last part, we reflect on the current CALL research VR location. Since the existing empirical research is not sufficient to make any convincing statements at this stage, we have prepared some avenues for further research to be necessary and promising.
- Virtual Reality - A Preliminary Definition
The term virtual reality (VR) is synonymous with artificial reality, virtual environment, cyberspace. According to Pantelidis, "virtual reality is defined as a highly interactive world that makes it possible for users in computers and multimedia environments to become a near-real-world player and a computer" (Pantelidis, 1993, p. 23). Foster defines VR in a social context as "a real world in which some form of immersive, synthetic world creates an incredible presence or suspension that feels enough to make the user feel that they seem to live (Foster & Meech, 1995, p. 210). Carr shows that "all (Bishop, 1999) is concerned with the impression that the stimulation of human experience of perception gives the impression that it is not real" (Carr, 1995, p. 5). Coull said: "In a broad sense, virtual reality describes such a fast and intuitive interactive computer system that computers disappear from the user's mind and leave the computer environment" (Kendrick, 1996, p. 145). Markley cites Marcos Novak's definition of cyberspace: "Cyberspace is a complete visualization of all information in a global information processing system, providing a way for communication networks now and in the future to allow full coexistence and interaction among multiple users, allowing input And output and sensory organs throughout the human body, allowing simulation of real and virtual reality, remote monitoring and control of remote data acquisition, and total integration and internal communications with a full range of smart products and environments in real world "(Markley, 1996, p. 3 pages).
In summary, we can say that the concept of virtual reality, including collaboration and interaction among users, is an intuitive, computer-generated environment that appears to be a true, fully integrated product and information tool with AI. Many early researchers and theorists, especially in early publications and in the mid-1990s, were optimistic that virtual reality, and especially new input and output devices and new interface paradigms, would soon radically change the way human-computer interaction and computer-mediated communicate with. Since then, a similar development in artificial intelligence research, this optimism has been re-evaluated, there are two main reasons. First, high-end technology is still too expensive, too cumbersome, or too unreliable to find a broader distribution. Second, the emphasis on 3D virtual reality research, the multisensory system, and the new input and output devices have replaced various forms of existence as a means of a virtual reality goal (see Sheridan, 1992, 1992). Relatively low-end text-based environment studies have shown that many of the functional virtual reality can be realized in a text-based environment, such as:
- use spatial metaphors for organizing information resources;
- The creation and manipulation of virtual objects with different behavioral actions and their use as cognitive tools;
- The users of the virtual characters and virtual identities represented are totally different from the "real" people behind them;
- The locations of users in a shared environment that form their frame of reference, for example by enabling them to use an indexing language in face-to-face interactions;
- The creation and use of proxies or robots based on some form of artificial intelligence that can be similar to user behavior because they are able to initiate, respond to, and change the topics in the conversation.
The inclusion of a text-based environment under the heading of virtual reality is now widely accepted and does not virtualize the notion of virtual reality but helps to re-evaluate its goals and characteristics (Foster & Meech, 1995; Jones, 1995; Lombard & Ditton , 1997; Roberts, Smith, & Pollock, 1996; Towell & Towell, 1997; Turkle, 1995).
- The role of human resources in learning a second language
Why use VR for language learning? In a foreign language environment, language learning has several drawbacks, not the second language environment. More significantly, outside the classroom and beyond the physical distance to the target language community, few are exposed to real target language input, especially synchronous communication. VR, at least conceptually, promises to federate conversational partners in a common and neutral virtual learning environment, such as those in the In-Line Learning Partnership (see Little & Brammerts, 1996). Current concepts in language learning, such as learner autonomy, also encourage learners to control their learning and reflect the learning process, yet many CALL applications have little to say in supporting the learner's reflection process, which will allow them to plan, monitor and Assess their development as language learners. This is also a key factor in synchronous face-to-face communication with native speakers of the target language; in face-to-face conversations, learners seldom provide conversational records, which may give her the opportunity to monitor and evaluate real simultaneous target language input or learners My own efforts in the target language. Here, a virtual reality tool, such as an automated recording facility or a virtual tape recorder, can provide valuable data as a future learning resource for reflective tasks.
There are very few experimental studies on VR that have been used for language learning purposes (for an overview of single-user, graphical VR applications in other educational fields, see Youngblut, 1998). Those VR tools used in second language acquisition include high-end tools from various multi-mode audio-video interfaces and artificial intelligence to low-tech, text-based virtual environments. High-end or immersive VR tools include head mounted displays (HMDs), DataGloves (special gloves that can be used as input devices by tracking finger and hand movements), and other VR tools, or instead of traditional input and output devices . Low-end VR refers to text-based VRs, such as object-oriented multi-user domains (MOOs).
The following overview of existing work in VR often includes anecdotal reports that are inevitably affected by the author's over-zealous contamination of VR's promises. However, there is some useful empirical research on low-end VR tools that have demonstrated the potential of technology and its concepts. Therefore, our analysis in conclusion is intended to point to a promising starting point for research, rather than providing conclusive evidence of the benefits of using VR in second language acquisition.
VR interactive and interactive potential
Recent redirects of the CALL study for the CALL environment (Egbert & Hanson-Smith, 1999) demonstrate paradigm shift rather than single-user or one-on-one CALL tools. Including VR and CMC research may change our approach to CALL not only in human-computer interaction but also in human-human interaction. Regarding interactivity, three interface examples are usually combined in VR. One of them is the principle of direct manipulation that allows users to manipulate computer data without having to repeat external metaphors: "Virtual reality reduces the need for abstract, externally-centric thinking by presenting the information processed in an obvious three-dimensional space And allow us to interact with it as if we were part of that space, in this way the evolutionary derivative process we use to understand the real world can be used to comprehend synthetic information "(Carr, 1995, p. 1). The second is the principle of the session interface, which has similarities with the command line interface. The dialog interface allows us to manipulate the interface by direct communication and is mostly represented by the realization of artificial intelligence and NLP (as in robots) in today's VR research, but with still serious language limitations (see Kurth, 1997; Levy, 1997; Post, 1999). Third, at the core of the current widespread paradigm of hypertext (mainly on the Internet) is author / designer-user interaction and communication (see Engelbart, 1968; Nelson, 1965), although it has been shown that large information resources , 1990). Brennan (1990) and Bardini (1997) argue that these different interface paradigms can be combined and indeed related: "Design should be open and subject to changes in the interaction between designers and users." Just as hypertext modification authors and Readers, and blurring the difference between them (Landow, 1992; Tuman, 1992), the implementation of the hypermedia interface in the virtual space design should allow for a real connection between the user and the designer. This will be the ultimate meaning of the interaction " (Bardini, 1997).
The second important contribution VR can make is to improve user interaction. More than two decades ago, Short, Williams and Christie (1976, pp. 158-9) discussed the social existence of telecommunications tools when they considered that "even a full-color life-size 3D moving image is transmitted through some future television system, remotely The complete body of a person, though fully duplicated face-to-face, reproduces both in its nonverbal and linguistic cues according to the method of social existence, is identical to face-to-face contact, as long as the interlocutor knows that they are separate. The physically separated knowledge may be sufficient Telecom interactions are more like other telecom interactions, not like face-to-face. " From this point of view, optimizing the CALL environment for interaction is virtually irrelevant for adding photos via video. Instead, VR can provide a common reference framework and shared applications. For a long time, discussions have been made on vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary acquisition in L2 acquisition: "The topic's current and present directions allow learners to use the direct context to interpret the meaning of words" (Ellis, 1995, p. P. 259; see also Gaies, 1982; Long, 1980). VR can help us overcome the physical separation between language learners and the target language culture by bringing learners together in the "third" place of bilingualism and tandem or monolinguality.
In this respect, there are many similarities between VR and the current second language acquisition method, preferably under the heading of learner autonomy (Wolff, 1994). One of the purposes of this is to support as many autonomous language users as possible in communication scenarios and language variants that are encouraged to interact as frequently as possible in the target language. Learner autonomy also aims to support autonomous language learners. Therefore, she needed to be supported to take control and responsibility for her learning process by planning, monitoring and assessing the reflection process of learning.
In VR and especially text-based MOOs, this can be achieved mainly in three different areas. First, enable learners to communicate synchronously and asynchronously with various native speakers and AI in a common frame of reference that enables the virtual environment. Second, she was encouraged to reflect on language and language learning through the use of written media, online diaries, and automatic conversation records. Curriculum tools become a source of future learning activity, both asynchronous communication tasks and data-driven learning tasks using synergies (Johns, 1991a, 1991b; Tribble & Jones, 1990). The creation of AI implementations and subsequent experimental robots) can also help with this. Third, VR allows her to visit an environment that allows for genuine involvement through authoring tools, in addition to which potential native speakers and other language learners can access and manipulate other real and authentic Internet information in an intuitive environment Resources. She can also create cognitive tools or amplifiers (Bruner, 1972; Jonassen & Reeves, 1996; Little, 1999), allowing her to evaluate her own language learning strategies and assumptions about the target language. This learning experience is the most striking similarity between the recent MOO projects. Like all CALL software, VR tools need to be integrated into and interact with physical classroom activities. They can then support learners to become more fluid and effective communicators and improve their reflective ability as language learners.
However, it should be clear that at this stage, the study of VR in Second Language Acquisition can only show the potential, a promise. Instead of providing conclusive evidence of the usefulness of VR, we limit the areas in which we point here to future research:
- How to use spatial metaphors to build information resources?
- How to use a virtual object with a specific behavior as a cognitive tool?
- What is the role of virtual identity as a learner? Does it enhance the process of separation and awareness? How do learners relate to their virtual identity? Can virtual identities reduce emotional filtering? Does virtual identity have more or less control over learners?
- What is the role of shared environment in the language used? Will the neutral environment lead to an increase in the participation rate of non-native speakers? How to use index language?
- What is the role of artificial intelligence in this environment? Can creating and using robots and proxies be a useful tool for practicing spoken language features in a second language?
Most of these areas have so far largely been undeveloped, but the preliminary reports at least show that they are a prospect and a necessary issue in the design and implementation of future CALL projects and tools. The initial phase of speculation is over; rigorous empirical research and careful discussion of virtuality are now needed, especially given CALL's strong move toward telecom. Integrating VR concepts into CALLs may be an important step in bringing language learners closer to the target language culture while providing additional tools for control, reflection and assessment that learners may not even be in a "real" world.
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