Day 2: Understanding Japan

Immersive language-learning tools can help students connect language to visual context, sound, movement, and place. For this lesson, we are continuing our immersive field trip to Japan with an exploration of immersive experiences for language learning.  Research on VR-assisted language learning suggests that immersive environments can support vocabulary learning, engagement, and learner motivation when they are connected to clear learning tasks (Chen et al., 2022; Dhimolea et al., 2022). For Japanese learners, this is valuable because students can encounter vocabulary in meaningful settings rather than only studying isolated word lists. 

According to Dhimolea, Kaplan-Rakowski, and Lin (2022), research on high-immersion virtual reality for language learning suggests that immersive environments can support vocabulary learning, engagement, and learner confidence when connected to clear classroom tasks. Not only can educators use tools like Noun Town to immerse students in a 2D language-learning world, but carefully planned lessons using YouTube 360 can add another layer of immersion to language learning, whether or not a VR headset is present. 

Noun Town supports this through structured vocabulary practice, pronunciation activities, and repeated exposure to words in a game-like environment. This connects well with research on vocabulary acquisition and spaced practice, since students benefit from repeated opportunities to retrieve and reuse language over time (Alfadil, 2020; Kim & Webb, 2022). YouTube 360 supports a different but related goal: it gives students access to authentic cultural and spatial contexts, such as Japanese streets, shops, shrines, stations, and neighbourhoods.

These tools are most effective when the immersive experience is followed by a classroom language task. For example, students might describe what they saw using あります(ARIMASU) and います(IMASU), give directions using 右(MIGI) and 左(HIDARI), identify katakana on signs, or write a short travel-journal response. In this way, immersion becomes a bridge to Japanese communication.

Noun Town provides a more structured form of immersive language practice. Students can explore a game-based environment, interact with objects, hear Japanese vocabulary, and practise saying words aloud. In this lesson sequence, Noun Town works best as a vocabulary and pronunciation tool that helps students move from recognition to active use.

YouTube 360 provides a low-cost way to bring Japanese places and cultural environments into the classroom. Students can explore a variety of locations using a Chromebook or VR headset. In a language-learning lesson, YouTube 360 works best as a cultural observation and place-based language activity.

For this short activity, we'll do a scavenger hunt for colours at specific points in the following video. Click the YouTube 360 video, then open the link to the questions in a new window. Can you correctly identify the colours of the items indicated?

Click here or use the embedded window below for the scavenger hunt questions.

Though the above activity is just a brief example of incorporating language into a VR field trip, the opportunities to connect students to authentic, immersive experiences are endless.  In addition to the VR activity itself, a well-sequenced lesson can include pre- and post-experience activities to reinforce learning.  Please fill out the Google Form below with your thoughts.