MIST Graduate Capstone

2016
School of Computing & Design
California State University Monterey Bay

Virtual Immersion Study Support

Juliana Shajari
Advisor: Dr. Rosalie Strong

Summary

Teaching a second language in an immersive way is the purpose of this Camstone. Virtual
Immersion Study Support programs is focusing on helping students, to gain a pedagogical
approach towards learning the language to increase their learning ability. Virtual Immersion Study
Support is an eLearning program that helps students at Defense Language Institute to practice their
speaking, reading, and listening skills, mainly after school hours.
The Study Support program gives the opportunity to the learner to perform in scenariobased role-plays, and stage performances in a simulative act. The lessons are on the daily life
subjects, and students are the main producers of the performance. The library of suggestions is
open to the students, and they have the opportunity to select the subject of their interest.
Here and now, the capstone project Virtual Immersion Study Support is being execute
at DLI, where the belief is language acquisition depends on how well one understands the
culture, religion, belief and value system, economic strata, and geopolitical climate of the target
language population".
I believe that true language comprehension is not reciting memorized phrases; it is the
understanding of proper grammar and vocabulary to the point of correctly conveying ones exact

thoughts in the target language. The plan is to create schoolwide Virtual Immersion Study Support
at DLI level for all 24 languages taught.