REAL AND PERCEIVED AFFORDANCES OF IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS IN A LANGUAGE TEACHER-TRAINING CONTEXT: EFFECTS ON THE DESIGN OF LEARNING TASKS

Abstract

Research suggests that Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) offer potential solutions to transform experiential immersion into language competence and knowledge. Instead of accepting the theoretical considerations at face-value, the present study questions the sometimes superficial infatuation with IVEs by proposing a hands-on teacher-training classroom experiment. 18 teacher-participants enrolled at a Master’s teacher training course for pre- and in-service English and Spanish teachers propose teaching scenarios that integrate IVEs in language tasks. In order to understand how future language teachers make use of this novel technology at hand, the researchers question how the “real” affordances of IVEs (extracted from our literature review) are perceived by the teacher-participants. A mixed analysis of eleven learning scenarios reveal utilization schemes that demonstrate how IVEs are “instrumentalized” (RABARDEL, 1995) for use and perceived by participant-teachers as a potential support for language and culture learning. The results open the floor for questions that discuss whether IVEs are indeed a complementary resource among other authentic resources used in the classroom and whether they lead to a renewal of language learning practices.