Using Janus VR with Oculus Rift to enhance Second Language Learning: Analyze the Correlation Between the Sense of Immersion and Learning Second Languages

I created a Virtual Reality (VR) website in Janus VR, a VR web browser, to enhance second language learnings. By using Skype and this VR website in Janus VR, it is possible to create a business to teach second languages, by which students do not need to make an appointment to meet up with teachers, and while students taking a lesson they can see teacher’s avatars. This research is to find the correlation between the sense of immersion and learning second languages. In order to analyze the actual effect of learning second languages in a virtual reality setting, specifically Janus VR, an experiment was conducted to measure the following: change of the trade-off effect by learning vocabulary in virtual reality and the effect of the sense of immersion in learning second languages. Each subject was given two lectures to learn basic Japanese words. One lecture is the traditional online-chat based lesson in which subjects will talk to the teacher via Skype. The other lecture is taught in one of Janus VR’s website I created specifically for learning Japanese. In this environment, subjects talked to the teacher’s avatar via Skype. After each lecture, a short quiz is taken by subjects to compare respective lectures; the online-chat based lecture and Janus VR based lecture. Also, subjects were given an interview to evaluate the importance of 24/7 accessibility of the virtual reality web browser for continuous study.