Virtual reality as a tool for foreign language vocabulary learning

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology for foreign language vocabulary learning, based on the motivational theories of affect (SCHUMMAN, 1997) and flow (CSIKSZENTMIHALYI, 1990). From the theoretical framework a model was developed to guide the making and analysis of VR language learning scenarios. This model was applied to analyze the collected data from three virtual environments implemented for this research: a mobile VR tour, an immersive VR healthcare training program, and its desktop version. The first environment, a mobile VR tour at the Frida Kahlo Museum, in Mexico, was conducted with 18 students from English courses at Faculdade de Letras (UFJF). The second experiment, a comparative one, had a sample of 14 students from undergraduate healthcare courses at UFJF. These experiments also considered the proficiency levels of its participants in relation to their quantitative and qualitative results. The results of both experiments support the evidence that VR, both in its mobile modality and immersive one contributes to the learning of foreign language vocabulary. As for the comparative study, it was seen that immersive VR had a learning significance advantage over the desktop environment, except for the participants categorized with an elementary level of fluency, in the immediate post-test. In the late post-test, after 21 days, the results suggested that both the desktop and the immersive VR learning environments had the same rate of retained learned words, except for the intermediate group which scored better among participants from the experimental group. Thus, immersive VR showed to be more relevant for this level in a long-term recall of FL vocabulary. Concerning the qualitative data, this thesis focused on the influence of affect in the way participants learned from the VR environments. Both experiments retrieved data from the categories of motivation contained in the model, with an emphasis on novelty and pleasantness. The exception was the category of flow, which could only be hypothetically verified in Experiment two. A fourth environment, in which improvements on immersive techniques were made and the variable flow would be verified, is described in this thesis at its methodological level, since its testing could not be implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.