A comparative study was carried out from April 2021 to January 2022 to determine the effectiveness of interaction using only VR or interaction on the ZOOM platform with young adults from overseas. Both groups took the pre-and-post-OPIc speaking tests and questionnaires. The first VR group (n=60) took part in the 45-minute VR lesson in groups of five or more twice a week during two semesters. Feedback indicated that students’ anxiety levels decreased through the VR lessons, and they gained more confidence in speaking English. There was no significant difference in improvements between pre and post-OPIc speaking tests. However, enthusiastic students made progress in OPIc from level 6 to 8. The second ZOOM interaction group (n=17) took part in the English lessons for two semesters with flipped lessons, including nine invited CCC (Campus Crusade for Christ) members who interacted with the students. Now and then, the members joined the virtual lessons to assist the students in making presentations and discussions, even assessing students’ presentations using the PeerEval software. As a result, the students’ mean scores of the OPIc speaking test improved from 6.7(SD:1.36) to 7.4 (SD:1.97). Finally, detailed feedback from the pre-and-post questionnaires of both groups will be reported.

Technology enhanced language learning (TELL) has evolved considerably since its early days, and immersive technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality will significantly transform the way we approach learning moving forward. It is therefore important for academics and professionals to know about immersive learning and how it can help reimagine the future of TELL. In fact, immersive technologies have made their way into different sectors and industries such as entertainment, arts, manufacturing, marketing, healthcare, and education. Aside from their use in content knowledge acquisition, immersive technologies provide affordances that are highly valuable for learning such as sense of (co-)presence, embodied interaction and communication, and emotional engagement. However, their use is still limited in language education due to reasons such as low access to resources and unfamiliarity of teachers with immersive learning design. In this talk, I will introduce immersive technologies and argue that these technologies will immensely change the way we interact with digital media in future iterations of the Web. In the rest of my talk, I will connect that introduction to recent trends of research and practice in immersive learning and the affordances and challenges of these technologies in creating novel learning experiences. I will also touch upon the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on development and implementation of immersive technologies in learning contexts.