We find ourselves at a pivotal moment where the role of generative AI and other technological tools is reshaping the way we teach and learn languages. The question that lies before us is not whether these innovations will shape the future, but rather how we, as educators, will harness their potential to create meaningful and effective language instruction.
The title of our conference, No Fate: The Future is Not Set, underscores our belief that the future is not predetermined. We hope that our conference will serve both as a platform for collaboration and a catalyst for change as it is via the collective effort of educators, researchers, and innovators that the trajectory of language teaching and learning will be determined. By fostering collaboration, sharing insights, and pushing the boundaries of what is possible, we can shape the future of language education.
Virtual reality (VR) technology, which surged during the pandemic, has been instrumental in facilitating language acquisition by providing an engaging, virtual learning environment. This tool continues to benefit teachers and students in post-pandemic time. The teacher and researcher designed a few VR settings in the XJTLU VR Lab based on textbook material (Road to Success 2). In this presentation, the researcher intends to share the design and utilization of two most favoured VR settings voted by student participants in her class, and the corresponding feedback from questionnaire. One setting is restaurant, where real-life menu photo was shown to participants. International participants were encouraged to interact with their Chinese language partners and exchange knowledge about food culture. The cultural aspect of the restaurant setting empowered international students to express themselves. The other popular setting is library, where learners saw virtual book shelfs, fetched or placed the books as they liked. As they moved the virtual books around, international student participants practiced a new-learned difficult sentence structure “complement of direction” (V+ 来/去). With frequent practice of the structure and instant feedback from Chinese students, international student participants gained more confidence in using this structure, according to their feedback. The VR rooms, especially ones experienced with VR goggles, offer immersive space that is similar to real-life context, but is safer and risk-free for learners to explore new language.
