Brocca

Social Language Learning in Virtual Reality

Team: Rayna Allonce, Gabrielle Gayles, Nur Icel, Swarnakshi Kapil, & Molly Vierhile

Role: Product Designer

Timeline: 3 months, February 2019 - April 2019

Virtual Reality, UX/UI Design, UX Research, Experience Prototyping

Overview

Learning a new language can be exciting and rewarding. It exposes learners not only to new vocabulary, but also to new cultures. However, learning a new language to the point of fluency is very difficult. In fact, less than 1% of American adults are proficient in a language they studied in school. Furthermore, though language-learning apps like Babel and DuoLingo are extremely popular, they aren’t enough on their own to help users become fluent.

To tackle this, during the course of three months my team researched, designed, and prototyped Brocca, a VR social language learning platform that facilitates learning foreign languages and cultures in an immersive context.

THE PROBLEM

Language is best learned in an immersive context, yet few currently accessible solutions to language learning facilitate this

As a team of multilinguals (proficient in 14 different languages all together!) we all had personal experiences with language learning, both in and out of the classroom. Validated by a thorough literature review, competitive analysis of available technological solutions, and series of semi-structured interviews, it became apparent to us that currently available systems of language learning do not consistently provide the immersive context that is crucial for effective language learning.

Our research showed that language is best learned when learners can observe and interact with native speakers in real-life scenarios and that learning is further enhanced when users are embedded in their target language culture. This enables them to make connections between words and phrases they are learning and real-world situations and objects. However, methods both in and out of the classroom fall short of language learners expectations, leaving users frustrated and disengaged, and foreign travel and language immersion can be costly and time-consuming.

With this understanding, our team sought out to understand the following:

“How might we better facilitate language learning and cultural immersion?”

THE SOLUTION

Social Language Learning in Virtual Reality

We introduce Brocca, a VR language-learning platform that not only facilitates immersive language learning, but the sharing of authentic, user-generated cultural artifacts to provide an experience that is social, educational, and accessible.

Language learners logging into the platform will have the ability to both learn their target language, and contribute to content from their native language and cultural context. By leveraging key gamification concepts, users are motivated to explore virtual cities where their target languages are spoken, apply words and phrases to real-life scenarios, and interact with and contribute to content curated by the community, including photos, music, stories, and popular phrases.

Check out our concept video below!