Improved language learning through VR?

With the help of virtual reality, VR, the researchers want to investigate which mechanisms in the brain affect how successful we are when we try to learn a new language. The aim is to create new knowledge about learning and better learning environments.

Learning a new language is more common today than ever before. A global world means travel and migration, which means that we are often faced with a need to quickly learn a foreign language. The researchers in the interdisciplinary project want to investigate whether it is possible to form an idea of how it will go for an individual during their language learning even before they have started their studies. They also ask themselves if it is possible to identify optimal environments for the best possible learning.

The research program, led by Johan Mårtensson, will include three studies of language learning in virtual reality environment. The idea is to create as natural a learning environment as possible for the participants.

In a normal classroom, second language learning takes place by students connecting the new word for e.g. “Cup” to the Swedish term for a physical cup. It is a detour that allows us to learn quickly. But the same detour also means that we miss some of what happens when we learn a language in a richer environment, for example by being in a café and holding a cup in our hand. We learn the word, we feel the cup, we experience the language. With VR as a format for learning, the research group hopes that the participants in the study will come one step closer to a more real learning experience, without leaving Lund University, where the training will be carried out.

The program includes an interdisciplinary approach with a combination of psychological measures of cognition, language measures and measurements of brain structure and brain function. By combining these aspects of learning, the researchers hope that in the future they can optimize the study situation and help to understand how the brain changes during learning.