While virtual reality (VR) has been applied to educational settings for quite some time, its increasing accessibility has facilitated the expansion of VR into a wider range of educational areas, one of these being language learning. In 2022, there are now a number of VR apps targeted toward language learning specifically [1] and consumers are even adapting social VR apps for language learning goals [2]. However, in order to understand how best to learn a language in VR, there are a number of open areas to investigate, but of interest to my research background are the virtual humans (either powered by a human or a computer) one encounters as a language partner or teacher. Specifically, in this project, I hope to provide some initial direction on the following research questions:

This project is ongoing and in the early planning stages. I’m currently collaborating with other researchers at the UCF SREAL lab to plan a user study. Additionally, I am planning to engage members of the online language learning community in qualitative studies to understand how they are already engaging in VR for their studies.