Teaching With Immersive Virtual Reality

Abstract

Immersive virtual reality (iVR), an emerging technology, is starting to lead and shape the future of education. Yet, due to technical, financial, or pedagogical reasons, this novel technology has been seldom applied directly in classroom teaching by language learners and teachers. The present study attempts to contribute a qualitative understanding of language learning in the iVR environment from trainee teachers' perspectives. These trainee teachers, armed with basic pedagogical knowledge, designed and practiced teaching with a commercial VR platform. Through analysis of interviews and reflective journals, insights were gathered from the participants who organized teaching in a completely new setting. Findings suggested a great line of contributing and hindering factors of using iVR in language education from teachers' perspectives. Implications are discussed at the end of the article to guide future learning and teaching with immersive technology.