An Empirical Study of the Effect of Non-Immersive Virtual Reality on College Students’ English Writing

Foreign language virtual reality applications have long existed, and have been referred to as “3D virtual contexts”, “3D virtual language learning environments”, and so on. Previous studies have shown that virtual reality technology has great potential in assisting foreign language teaching, and has applications in foreign language vocabulary, speaking, listening, cross-cultural communication, and other aspects. At present, the application of virtual reality technology in empowering foreign language teaching in language learning is still in its infancy, and only a few studies have examined its special advantages in second language learning, mainly focusing on vocabulary learning and communication, while research in writing is relatively insufficient. Moreover, current research on virtual reality technology assisted foreign language teaching mainly focuses on head worn virtual reality devices, with few empirical studies based on desktop virtual reality devices. Therefore, this thesis takes first-year non-English major undergraduate students from a certain university as the experimental subjects, and explores the advantages of virtual reality technology in promoting English writing through comparative media research. The results show that learning based on non-immersive virtual panorama can improve the overall performance of writing, but has no effect on students’ learning satisfaction.