| Project/Area Number |
21K00778
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
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| Research Institution | Hakodate National College of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
taquet david 函館工業高等専門学校, 一般系, 准教授 (50710901)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
小野 真嗣 室蘭工業大学, 大学院工学研究科, 准教授 (10369902)
オレクサ ロバート 函館工業高等専門学校, 一般人文系, 准教授 (40803713)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2022)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
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| Keywords | Virtual Reality / Iconicity / Language / Education technology / 多文化コミュニケーション |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
The availability of 6DOF and enhanced hand tracking provides an unprecedented opportunity to document the form-meaning mapping at the intersection of body movement and spoken language. What we call “Virtual Ryugaku” refers to creating the opportunity for students to participate in cross-cultural experiences inside of virtual worlds. By documenting and analyzing the data from this interaction, we hope to gain insight into EFL acquisition and also break ground on what is potentially an innovative solution for overcoming the modern restraints students face when looking to study abroad.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
One of the focus of the R4 year, was the diffusion of our research which would in turn allow us to make contacts with researchers from other universities in related field (language learning, ED tech, bio measurements, etc..). We have participated and presented in 5 conferences. First the JALT CALL 2022 (Playful Call) which was geared towards using fun and lucidicty in classrooms to imporve on language speaking. Gamification, board games, and VR were very appropriate subjects. Our presentation, titled “Usability factors of commercially available Virtual Reality applications for EFL” listed and explained several VR applications which can be used to encourage, stimulate, and enhance the EFL learning experience of Japanese students.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
We have selected a few students (3 so far, but we are hoping for 6) who are planning to go abroad to Belgium in a few month and are curently getting familiar with the VR headset as well as a VR Chat room. This room, JAP-EN chatroom is a safe environment and has been used for several years for people who would like to study both English and Japanese. We have devised a research protocol that would allow us to compare the language use of these students within VR, and later, after they come back from their internship abroad. We will give them specific questionnaire and compare the answers with students who have only done the VR part of the research. Finally, in order to understand the effect of visual fidelity and realism on leanring in VR, we have started taking the free Unity course, using powerful PC hardware. This would later allow us to develop our own chat room.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In February of 2023, we attended a forum at Sojo University: the “Teaching and Learning Forum: Reflections and Reconfigurations”. There we were able to give a demonstration of the iconistic abilities of the VR devices, and some potential uses for students to improve on their crosscultural communication skills, while increasing motivation and lowering anxiety. In the future, we want to collaboarate more with Sojo university, and make full use of their IOT lab which includes full body tracking and 3D cameras. Also, since we are having difficulties recruting students within our own colege, I believe that Sojo university’s students, and their higher level of English would provide a good sample of participants for our research. We also plan on working hard to connect with other researchers from related field such as Ed Tech, second language acquisition, and ludic application to language learning.
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