FOREIGN LANGUAGE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Informations projet

VIRLAN

N° de convention de subvention: MM1029

Projet clôturé

Date de début 1 Janvier 1998

Date de fin 30 Juin 1999

Financé au titre de

• Specific programme of research and technological development and demonstration in the area of telematic applications of common interest, 1994-1998

Coût total Aucune donnée

Contribution de l’UE Aucune donnée

Coordonné par

EXODUS SA
Greece

Résultats exploitables

Virtual Reality Language Learning Network (VIRLAN)

The VIRLAN project is a Virtual Reality network that is composed of more than 90 different virtual rooms and several applications. The visitor travels through VIRLAN using an airship and gains access through CENTRALIA, the central node. CENTRALIA provides the user with an overview of Europe and allows access to all VIRLAN country sites, functions and services. These are common sites for all users. Four identical (in terms of architecture and functionality) country sites are developed for VIRLAN that vary in linguistic content. The user selects the particular country in which he wants to practise the relative language. In each country there are 2D and 3D linguistic game-like activities such as the 3D city, 3D zoo, Supermarket, Clothshop, Greeting Room, the Project Room, the school sites and three language supporting applications which are: the text generator, the poster generator and the online picture/sound vocabulary, all designed according to the teaching linguistic materials of the pupils' relevant age. Individuals wishing to visit VIRLAN can only access all six areas with a password and ID. These six areas constitute introduction of self to others, expressing plurality and numbers, likes and dislikes such as food and drink, describing appearance such as clothes and colours, describing places, expressions of location and giving directions and ordinal numbers. For all of the six notional areas, a vocabulary was constructed containing more than a 1000 words, which are translated/transferred in all the four languages of the network. Linguistic activities were designed and implemented for all of these notional areas. The four identical sites for all countries in terms of functionality include 2D and 3D practice areas for the six notional areas. The activities developed are based on application sharing. The users have a common area of action on which they all have equal rights. Depending on the game/activity, the users may have the same role and take turns in playing (2D games) or they have different roles, which can be exchanged (3D games).