Virtual Tabadul
Florida International University’s Tabadul has developed a Language-Learning Community through Virtual Reality (VR). The project brings together 1,200 college-aged youth in the United States and in the Middle East and North Africa for language learning and community building with VR.
Participants engage in one-on-one exchange meetings in VR spaces that are entirely accessible from their cell phones and that represent everyday scenes in their home countries (e.g., an outdoor market, a restaurant, a university classroom, etc.). By completing real-world pedagogic tasks together in both English and Arabic, participants develop language proficiency, socio-cultural openness, and cultural humility. As the first study of its kind to examine the impact of dosage as well as the learning environment for the acquisition of Arabic as a foreign language, Tabadul brings together interdisciplinary areas of expertise to scale language learning virtual exchange and to contribute to knowledge on virtual exchange efficacy.
Keywords
Virtual Learning, Virtual Reality, WebVR, Language Learning
Website
Credits
Grant PIs: Melissa Baralt, Stephanie Doscher, and Lakhdar Boukerrou
Senior Personnel: Biayna Bogosian, and Shahin Vassigh
Student Researchers: Giancarlo Perez, Fernando Arana, Colin Mele
Acknowledgments
Year
2019-2023