English Language Teaching Through the Use of Immersive Environments Supported by Virtual Reality

The use of technology in education is growing rapidly due to its wide acceptance and advantages. Technology-enabled learning environments allow students to acquire knowledge effectively because traditional teaching models can be complemented with new teaching strategies, thus improving content comprehension and student motivation. Learning English as a second language plays an important role worldwide, as it is known as a global communication medium that has now integrated different technological platforms to allow students to achieve their learning objectives comprehensively and interactively. One of the technologies used is virtual reality, which allows partial or total immersion in a digital simulation, thus enabling the learning process through a three-dimensional simulation of organized information and allowing direct interaction with the user. In the present research an immersive virtual reality environment was developed to learn English, Unity and Vuforia were used for the design of the environment, and HTC VIVE PRO glasses were used as hardware. A 3D virtual classroom is presented with audiovisual resources, animations, and avatars so that students can reinforce what they have learned in class by carrying out the proposed exercises. The results of the validation with experts showed 100% acceptance of the use of virtual reality as a complement to the English teaching process since the tool can be used as a reinforcement that has a positive impact on student learning. Meanwhile, in the students’ survey, 95% of acceptance in the use of the virtual environment was obtained because it is user-friendly and motivates learning, for this reason, they would like to continue using it in other areas of their major.