Language learning beyond the borders: Virtual space development with Spatial.io

Various methodologies, including the Grammar-Translation method, Audio-lingual method, and Communicative Language Teaching, have shaped the understanding of teaching a foreign language. Communicative Language Teaching is one of the most popular foreign language teaching methodologies, providing learners with a contextualized, authentic, and interactive language learning experience. Virtual reality (VR) technology, one of the advancements in technology, serves a similar purpose. This technology helps yield interactive, contextualized, and immersive virtual experiences for learners learning a foreign language. Although there are two types, high-immersion and low-immersion virtual reality, the latter is preferred due to the affordability concerns about the former requiring technological equipment, such as headsets, which can be costly. Several researchers (Balcikanli, 2012; Muñoz, 2013; Sadler, 2017) investigated the potential of a low-immersion virtual reality platform, Second Life, and found that the virtual reality increased student engagement, motivation, and interaction when learning a foreign language. When the literature was reviewed, it was seen that Spatial.io, one of the free web-based immersive virtual platforms, was not studied in terms of its potential use for language teaching. Similarly, a unified model for designing virtual spaces for language learning was missing. This focus group interview study included three different groups of ESL instructors grouped based on their technological competency. It investigated the features of virtual environments designed for language teaching in a feedback-driven development process where the researcher created the International Language Chat Consortium Island (ILCC) for formal and informal language learning using the Unity game engine and Spatial.io Toolkit. The design and development aspects were shaped by the Cognitive Behavioral Game Design Model by Starks (2014) and the Essentials of Gamification in Language Teaching in Virtual Reality Model based on Reinhardt’s (2019) Gameful Second and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. The study found that a virtual environment designed for language practices should have basic communication features, including voice and text-based chat and video-share, and be accessible across different platforms, and the ILCC Island successfully incorporated them. Based on the frameworks mentioned above, the virtual island, which was considered valuable for formal and informal language practices, mainly addressed their elements except logical patterns and humor. Lastly, the Spatial.io Toolkit was found to be sufficient to design immersive and interactive virtual language learning environments.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Teaching of English Sec Lang

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Durmaz, Ogulcan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sadler, Randall W
• Starks, Katryna
• Cermak, Dan

• Virtual Space
• Spatial.Io
• Language Exchange
• Intercultural Exchang
• Virtual Space Development
• Language Teaching In Virtual Spaces
• Virtual Reality

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Ogulcan Durmaz

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125525

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F125525