Virtual Reality (VR) offers language learners a valuable environment for practicing language skills and other aspects essential for language development, interaction, and negotiation of meaning. For example, speaking practice in VR using avatars can reduce speaking anxiety and increase users' sense of agency. Social spaces in VR present…

Augmented Reality (AR) bridges the real and the digital. It is part of the Extended Reality (XR) spectrum of immersive technological interfaces. At one end of the continuum, Virtual Reality (VR) immerses users in fully digital simulations which effectively substitute for the real world. At the other end of the continuum, AR allows users to remain…

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)…

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…

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 exploratory post-hoc analysis examined the impact of learners' first language (L1) on learning vocabulary annotated in immersive 360º pictures. This analysis is a part of a larger, between-subjects study (Papin & Kaplan-Rakowski, 2020) in which learners (N=63) of French as a second language (L2) studied vocabulary annotated in (1)…

This volume is an important output of the ASSESSnet, an EU-funded project that aimed at investigating assessment practices in Virtual Exchange (VE) projects in Foreign Language (FL) courses at tertiary level. It starts with the discussion of selected aspects of VE and assessment design, and a summary of ASSESSnet project results. The following…

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 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…

Computer-mediated communication tools facilitate international collaboration projects between foreign language learners and peers abroad (O'Dowd, 2018). Social Virtual Reality (VR) applications allow for synchronous interactions and task-based communication in which learners can experience telepresence and immersion and conversate in a foreign…

This paper investigates the differences between Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) and the webcam (WBC) in the context of a Spanish distance-learning course. Two specific objectives were set: (1) to determine the existence of a relationship of dependence between the device used and the oral interaction, and (2) to analyse the existence of a…