Learning Japanese through VR Technology. The Case of Altspace VR

Abstract

Through this paper, I intend to analyse the state of Japanese learning through virtual reality technologies, avoiding as much as possible the analysis of prototypes and laboratory experiments, focusing instead on a case study that implements software and hardware already present on the consumer market. After analysing the VR technology currently available to end-users and its hardware, which has lately increased in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the specificities of virtual reality compared to other communication technologies, I will proceed to the analysis of the case study Altspace VR, a social VR software used also by an active Japanese learning community, to try to identify the characteristics that could make this technology particularly suitable for language learning. © 2021 ;cb Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License