Pedagogical Considerations for Successful Implementation of Virtual Reality in the Language Classroom

Introduction

Rapid technological advance is leading the world closer to a future where digital methods can enhance and even supplant some common aspects of reality, while providing hitherto unimaginable opportunities. Since the advent of personal computers, technologies have pushed the boundaries between reality and digital worlds. In the past, these digital worlds were presented via a number of different methods including computer screens and head mounted displays, and virtual reality (VR), the replacement of one’s physical environment with an immersive digital world, emerged as the term for such experiences. Following the introduction of modern immersive headsets in the 2010s, the term is now most commonly used when referring to virtual worlds experienced through head mounted displays. VR sets itself apart from other media in that it attempts to provide a sense of presence within digital environments. This is achieved via a headset and a set of sensors that are able to react to user movements, presenting them with “a simulated environment in which a perceiver experiences telepresence” (Steuer, 1992, pp. 76-77). VR provides numerous benefits beyond other media, such as textbooks and video instruction, as it “replaces interaction with immersion; it replaces the desktop metaphor with a world metaphor; and it replaces direct manipulation with symbiosis” (Psotka, 1995, p. 410). VR can achieve a multisensory experience to promote learning by connecting it with physical action and shows the most potential when these interactions are just not practical, permissible, or possible in reality.

From its early days in the 1980s and 90s, VR has been envisioned as having a future role in educational practice (Bricken, 1990; Hedberg & Alexander, 1994; Helsel, 1992; Wickens, 1992). Joseph Psotka (1995) outlined the then current state of VR technology and predicted a future where it could be applied universally in classroom education: “Because [the student] experiences it and does not just think it cognitively, abstractly, it has a profound and lasting effect on her perception of herself and her place in the universe, without leaving her home” (p. 422). However, due to technical limitations and costs of the time, VR was unable to find a footing in the consumer market and the public’s interest in VR soon faded. However, governments and research institutions continued to conduct numerous research projects exploring VR’s potential. In fields where realistic training was expensive, impractical, or outright dangerous, the potential of VR outweighed the significant costs and technical limitations. Military, aerial training, and surgery are some fields that have benefited from VR’s immersive capabilities (Bhagat, Liou, & Chang, 2015; Gallagher et al., 2005; Winick, 2018). Fortunately, thanks to the advent of the technology present in smartphones, consumer level VR is now possible. Untethered, self-contained VR headsets with full positional tracking and motion controls are now available at all electronics retailers, raising VR into the public consciousness once again (Jenkins, 2019).

Futurists’ visions in the 1980s and 90s of VR becoming a tool for creating fully immersive learning environments for classrooms by 2020 is now in many ways possible. VR, once an emerging niche technology, has begun to mature and find widespread market adoption. Though its role in consumer and professional environments has now been largely defined, VR in education remains an evolving space. VR has the potential of being a boon to the progressing educational sector as it allows for affordances such as heightened awareness of pragmatics (Alsever, 2015) and simulating novel environments inaccessible within classrooms (Luckey, 2016).