Game-based learning is gaining popularity in language education. For the present study, three games were developed with a central focus on intercultural interaction to be played internationally in dyads or small groups using Video-Communication (VC) tools or a Virtual World (VW). The interactions were carried out in Spanish as a Lingua Franca (LF)…

Nowadays, we live in an ever-evolving technological world. There is thus a growing need to explore the use of modern technology in education in general, and in higher education in particular. The present paper investigates the use and effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) in higher education from the perspective of Saudi faculty at the College of…

This paper delves into the underlying phases involved in designing, developing, and deploying Augmented Reality (AR) applications and game-based scenarios that will be implemented during intercultural exchanges among students in two different academic institutions in Sweden and Cyprus. Building on principles of design-based research (Barab &…

Social Virtual Reality (VR) applications enable real-time interpersonal conversation and allow users to perform activities together. They have the potential of changing the ways learners practise speaking a foreign language. Following a previous study (Jauregi Ondarra, Gruber, & Canto, 2020), we designed the present study to explore how…

Many language learners lack the motivation to read complex texts. Because high-immersion Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly reported to be highly motivating, the goal of our study was to compare English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' (N=79) motivation while reading a story with subtitles in VR (experimental group) versus reading the same…

The present study explored whether the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology can help lower public speaking anxiety in the L2. To this end, we conducted an exploratory effect-of-instruction study using a one-group pre-test/post-test design with nine learners of English as an L2. The results from the post-test show that using VR in combination…

In this article, the developers of seven Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs), Icelandic Online (IOL, https://icelandiconline.com/), describe the technological and pedagogical principles that have contributed to the program's longevity. Development began in 2001 with a courseware system later upgraded to a multiplatform app. Over 80,000…

This paper reports our preliminary observations of a pilot project carried out from February to April 2019 with a group of students learning Spanish at the University of Central Missouri and students learning English at the University of León. The project combines challenging escape room activities with intercultural and interlinguistic…

This paper reports on the rationale for the implementation of a pilot project using a scenario-based Virtual Reality (VR) resource, originally developed by Health Sciences at Coventry University and now being repurposed for Italian language learning as a collaborative project with Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton.…

This short paper reports the findings of a study exploring English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students' behavioral intention to use a high-immersion Virtual Reality (VR) system for learning paragraph structure. The study measured relationships between variables that may lead to learners' intention to use the high-immersion VR Reality system…

This paper presents a research proposal that aims at examining the impact of communicative tasks mediated by Virtual Reality (VR) on second language (L2) Willingness To Communicate (WTC) outside of the classroom. The study will take place in Montreal, a Canadian city known for its regional variety of French and the bilingualism of its population,…

This case study describes the development of a free-to-use online platform for storing, sharing, and accessing 360-degree Virtual Reality (VR) videos. Although in the past VR was mostly used for gaming purposes, in recent years it has become increasingly popular in numerous areas, including education. In the field of language learning, little is…

Teaching culture out of context may not be the optimal approach, yet it could be achieved by immersive technologies. This study uses an immersive theme-based environment and focuses on cross-cultural interactions between learners of different cultures in goal-oriented scenarios. We collected interactions among learners with different cultural…

In this preliminary research study, Japanese university students created two dimensional (2D) interactive posters and 360° Virtual Reality (VR) presentations using Thinglink software. Students can use Thinglink software to annotate images with photos, videos, and descriptions. Researchers explore the extent to which students believed that creating…

This case study presents the results of an interdisciplinary Virtual Exchange (VE) that was arranged between Finnish and Polish students in 2019. During their six-week collaboration, the students of language studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, worked in teams together with their Polish peers specialising in information and…