A quasi-experimental study on the use of virtual reality in English vocabulary learning of 2nd grade Turkish EFL students

Date

2025-12-29

Author

Krasnov, Ivan

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

114
views

0
downloads

Cite This

This quasi-experimental study investigated whether a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) application, Language Lab, can support English vocabulary learning in young EFL learners in Türkiye. Ten second grade students at a private laboratory primary school were divided between an experimental VR group (n=5) and a control non-VR group (n=5). Both groups learned the same 24 target words over four lessons. Vocabulary learning was measured with a picture-word matching test given as pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. Semi-structured interviews were individually conducted with the VR group participants and thematically analyzed to document their experiences in using VR, and help contextualize the quantitative test results. Both groups showed clear gains from pre-test to post-test, and retained most of these gains at the delayed post-test scores. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the VR and non-VR group, due to the small sample size. The descriptive statistics slightly favored the non-VR group. Interview findings indicated that VR lessons were perceived by the VR group as highly enjoyable, motivating, and helpful for learning and remembering new vocabulary. They also revealed minor usability issues, classroom management challenges, and physical discomfort related to VR. Overall, the study suggests that immersive, headset-based VR can be motivating and pedagogically viable as a complementary tool for primary EFL vocabulary instruction in Türkiye, but cannot outperform the traditional, teacher-led, board-based lessons within the limited scope of this study.

Subject Keywords

Virtual reality (VR), Immersive language learning, EFL vocabulary learning, Primary school learners, Quasi-experimental mixed-methods

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118253

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis