Developing a virtual reality information gap activity for collaborative language learning

One of Virtual Reality’s affordances is the ability to hide and show synchronized information to the users. This thesis documents the research, design, development and testing of the transfer of a popular communicative ESL teaching activity, the “information gap” activity, from its physical paper and pen origins into the medium of virtual reality. This activity uses affordances, signifiers, instructions, set theory, and a game engine to create an interactive and immersive activity for language learning. The implementation of the technical components and development process are documented so that other developer-instructors can gain a viewpoint on developing ESL activities in the new medium of virtual reality with the goal of providing learners with interactive and collaborative learning experiences.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Teaching of English Sec Lang

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Grzywacz, Peter

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cermak, Dan
• Sadler, Randall

• Virtual Reality, Development, Information Gap
• Developer Teacher
• Language Learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Peter Grzywacz

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129950

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129950