This VR experience is designed for beginning learners of Japanese. The goal is for learners to first memorize a script situated in the communicative act of assigning or accepting work then internalize it by interacting with an avatar for approximately 45 minutes before demonstrating what they can do in class in front of their instructor.

Immersive Virtual Reality (I-VR) is a powerful medium that allows students to authentically develop their competency in their target culture anywhere. However, much of what we see today, approximately 47.6%, is primarily just vocabulary acquisition in Technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) (Chang and Hung, 2019). In my dissertation, I tested the efficacy of I-VR material designed specifically to enhance learning outcomes for beginning level learners of Japanese. Using a communication-focused autonomous I-VR pedagogical material that infuses replayable performances with rich and authentic environments, learners developed their ability to use Japanese demonstratives while exploring and performing script 2-4 from NihonGo Now! Volume 1 (Noda et al. 2020). Once students memorize the script, they will perform it in a virtual space with an avatar in VR, preparing for a class session with their instructor. The instructor will evaluate how well learners can perform the script and improvise, using standard daily grading policies and oral interviews that are already in practice for the course. The avatar that learners will be conversing with is a string parsing system that is constrained by the target script. In this way, the pedagogue can carefully control what feedback to give to a student's performance without having to worry about infinite possible interactions. My goal is to enhance the original target lesson’s goals by integrating interactivity and learner agency in VR.