Virtual Reality in ESL Teacher Training: Practical Ideas

The use of technology, such as Virtual Reality (VR), has started to take place in K-16 classrooms. Research indicates potential advantages of embedding VR into the curriculum in terms of higher motivation, increased self-expression, better achievement in content knowledge, and improved linguistic knowledge and higher order thinking skills. As a response to the call that more effort is needed to examine how teachers use technology in working with ELs, this preliminary work attempts to shed some light for teacher educators by providing curriculum examples in which teacher candidates collaboratively design teaching materials using VR with K-12 ELs. Grounded in multimodality, Second Language Acquisition (SLA), sociocultural theory, and cooperative learning, the paper explains the relationship between theories and practices, provides a literature review on the use of VR in education, and shares curriculum examples. The paper discusses how VR may be implemented in K-12 ESL classroom settings and reminds teacher educators to take consideration of a variety of factors.