Multilingual immersive communication technology: repurposing virtual reality for Italian teaching
Billy Brick, Tiziana Cervi-Wilson, Sean Graham, Tsvetan Tsankov, Michael Loizou, Nina Raphaela Godson, Kelly Ryan · 2019
This paper will report on a pilot Virtual Reality (VR) projectwhich repurposes an existing scenario-based VR asset for healthsciences. The original scenario aims to prepare health care students for home visits by allowing them to experience a semi-linear conversation with a virtual Non-Player Character (NPC). This provides a safe, non-threatening environment for students to hone the necessary skills they will need once they begin their professional careers. The NPC{\textquoteright}s simulated emotional state and reactions are changed based on the student{\textquoteright}s choice of responses. The original scenario was written in English but the opportunity to convert it into an Italian language learningresource by changing the audio files was identified and implemented. The scenario involves learners to be recurrently selecting from a number of possible responses in order to help the virtual character with his grievances regarding his father{\textquoteright}s care package.