Brendan’s Voyage: An Immersive Environment for Medieval Language and Culture

FAIN: HAA-287475-22

Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN 37203-2416)
Lynn Ramey (Project Director: January 2022 to present)
Jacob Abell (Co Project Director: May 2022 to present)

The creation of a virtual immersive environment to provide training to students in medieval languages and cultures.

Brendan's Voyage: An Immersive Environment for Medieval Language and Culture emphasizes the link between the spoken and written elements of medieval French in a virtual, interactive, immersive learning environment based on a foundational literary text. Informed by empirical research, modern language pedagogy offers immersive learning experiences through study abroad programs or exclusive target-language use in the classroom. These techniques are not readily available for the teaching of medieval languages. Our project addresses this problem through the creation of a virtual immersive environment that allows the user to learn medieval languages as if they were inhabiting an authentic context. Informed by professional game design and modern language pedagogy, Brendan’s Voyage will offer a revolutionary way to teach and learn a historically influential medieval language in a culturally informed narrative and visual context.