Virtual Tabadul: Creating Language-Learning Community Through Virtual Reality

This article presents on a multi-institution project that explains the design and development of Virtual Tabadul, an Arabic and English foreign language exchange program amongst 1,200 U.S. and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) college-aged youth. The program involves faculty, staff, and students at four institutions: Florida International University (U.S.), University of Michigan-Dearborn (U.S.), Oum El-Bouaghi University (Algeria), and Ibn Tofail University (Morocco). The project has been developed with generous funding from the Stevens Initiative and is the very first virtual exchange program for Arabic and English foreign language learning in virtual reality.