Using Interactive Virtual Reality Tools in an Advanced Chinese Language Class: a Case Study

This case study explored college students’ use of interactive virtual reality tools (Google Cardboard and Expeditions) for learning Chinese as a foreign language. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to probe into students’ perceived benefits and challenges of using VR tools for Chinese language and culture learning. Twelve students were paired and role-played as virtual tour guides for six locations throughout a semester. Every two weeks, each dyad studied a particular Chinese tourist attraction or location and presented orally in Chinese as virtual tour guides by using the VR tools. Data collection included class observations of all presentations by each dyad, 24 reflections (two per participant, after the first and fifth presentations), and individual follow-up interviews. The study indicated that the real-life view VR tools offered an authentic context for Chinese language learning, sparked interest in the virtually presented locales, and encouraged students to further explore the target culture.

[1]  Chan-Sik Park,et al.  A Social Virtual Reality Based Construction Safety Education System for Experiential Learning , 2014, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems.

[2]  E. Horwitz,et al.  Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety , 1986 .

[3]  G. Lakoff,et al.  Why cognitive linguistics requires embodied realism , 2002 .

[4]  E. Rosch,et al.  The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience , 1993 .

[5]  Zahira Merchant,et al.  The learner characteristics, features of desktop 3D virtual reality environments, and college chemistry instruction: A structural equation modeling analysis , 2012, Comput. Educ..

[6]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  Experiencing Nature: Embodying Animals in Immersive Virtual Environments Increases Inclusion of Nature in Self and Involvement With Nature , 2016, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[7]  Richard C. Atkinson,et al.  Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control Processes , 1968, Psychology of Learning and Motivation.

[8]  Nicholas P. Holmes,et al.  The body schema and multisensory representation(s) of peripersonal space , 2004, Cognitive Processing.

[9]  Hsiu-Jen Cheng,et al.  Integrating Second Life into a Chinese language teacher training program: A pilot study , 2010 .

[10]  S. Melchor-Couto.  Foreign language anxiety levels in Second Life oral interaction , 2016, ReCALL.

[11]  Michael A. Rupp,et al.  The effects of immersiveness and future VR expectations on subjec-tive-experiences during an educational 360° video , 2016 .

[12]  T. Xie.  Tools for teaching Chinese in the virtual world , 2010 .

[13]  Mei-Ya Liang,et al.  Foreign ludicity in online role-playing games , 2012 .

[14]  Sigal Eden,et al.  The impact of Virtual Reality on the awareness of teenagers to social and emotional experiences of immigrant classmates , 2007, Education and Information Technologies.

[15]  JoAnn Difede,et al.  Development and early evaluation of the Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan exposure therapy system for combat‐related PTSD , 2010, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[16]  Richard Lisichenko.  Issues Surrounding the Use of Virtual Reality in Geographic Education , 2015 .

[17]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[18]  Frans A. J. Verstraten,et al.  An objective measure for the visual fidelity of virtual reality and the risks of falls in a virtual environment , 2016, Virtual Reality.

[19]  A. Collins,et al.  Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning , 1989 .

[20]  Maxime T Robert,et al.  The effect of viewing a virtual environment through a head-mounted display on balance. , 2016, Gait & posture.

[21]  Hamish G. MacDougall,et al.  Maintaining Balance when Looking at a Virtual Reality Three-Dimensional Display of a Field of Moving Dots or at a Virtual Reality Scene , 2015, Front. Neurol..

[22]  Anita R. Bowles,et al.  Technologies for foreign language learning: a review of technology types and their effectiveness , 2014 .

[23]  Ton Koenraad,et al.  Verbal interaction in Second Life: towards a pedagogic framework for task design , 2011 .

[24]  Ying Xie,et al.  Mobile-Based Virtual Reality: Why and How Does It Support Learning , 2018, Handbook of Mobile Teaching and Learning.

[25]  Silke von der Emde,et al.  Technically Speaking: Transforming Language Learning through Virtual Learning Environments (MOOs) , 2001 .

[26]  Steve Downey,et al.  The effects of Second Life on the motivation of undergraduate students learning a foreign language , 2011 .

[27]  Seung Hwan Lee,et al.  Assessing Google Cardboard virtual reality as a content delivery system in business classrooms , 2017 .

[28]  J. Creswell.  Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches, 2nd ed. , 2007 .

[29]  Francisco J. Varela,et al.  The Embodied Mind , 2018 .

[30]  Madeleine Keehner,et al.  Web-Based Virtual Environments for Facilitating Assessment of L2 Oral Communication Ability , 2017 .

[31]  P. MacIntyre,et al.  Anxiety and Second‐Language Learning: Toward a Theoretical Clarification* , 1989 .

[32]  Mónica Marcos-Llinás,et al.  Effects of Language Anxiety on Three Proficiency‐Level Courses of Spanish as a Foreign Language , 2009 .

[33]  Mark Peterson,et al.  MOOs and Second Language Acquisition: Towards a Rationale for MOO-based Learning , 2001 .

[34]  Yu-Ju Lan,et al.  Language Learning in Virtual Reality Environments: Past, Present, and Future , 2015, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[35]  A. Clark.  Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again , 1996 .