AN IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGE VOCABULARY

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a new language. The more words you know, the better you understand what you hear and read. However, vocabulary is one of the most difficult aspects for a foreign learner. Virtual reality research focused on education has successfully demonstrated their usefulness in learning and understanding of new concepts. Therefore, this paper presents a prototype of an immersive virtual learning environment to learn vocabulary in other languages. In the immersive environment, different common situations are simulated with realistic and physical effects such as gravity, collision, and friction. The prototype was developed on the Unity3D platform. It was evaluated and analyzed on college students willing to learn English. We achieved favorable results in learning, compared to traditional methods. Furthermore, the designed environment proved to comply with usability heuristics having, therefore, a user-friendly interface. These results also show that immersive environment has a great and promising potential to enhance the learning of foreign languages.