Emerging Technologies for TEFL and How to Use them in Your Classroom
Emerging technologies, such as VR and augmented reality, are taking off in the English Language Classrooms globally.
The Benefits of VR in a Classroom
VR and Augmented reality allow us to create environments of mixed learning where virtual and real objects are combined and incorporated into the Classrooms around the world with the objective of enhancing, enriching, reinforcing, and amplifying experiences in order to increase learning.
VR can be truly amazing for English Language lessons since it creates an environment in which the integration of the virtual and the real world becomes almost real. Students don’t only learn English, but they also experience it! The lesson plans that include an element of VR allow students of a second language to “see” that target language in action and practically apply what they have learned or are learning in real-time.
Recent studies show that Virtual reality can improve foreign language education by providing students with memorable experiences that would otherwise not be possible since it can all take place within the classroom. The fact that we could immerse students in a different country or expose them to different landscapes while learning is very innovative, and it adapts to all learning styles.
How VR can Enhance your Classroom
There are two main ways how VR could be implemented in the classroom- and I have seen it work like a treat: VR headsets and immersive classrooms.
Immersive English classrooms are one of the most effective ways of using VR in education. But what is it? It is a teaching room in which images are projected onto the internal walls of the classroom while creating a virtual environment. Students can be “transported” to a different place without having to leave the classroom. Unlike VR headsets that many students might find difficult or uncomfortable to use, immersive classrooms have benefits for all types of students. The students are able to enjoy the VR content in a more familiar environment.
VR headsets are super practical, and they require minimal cost, equipment, and space. The Language School can purchase one or two and have them booked by the teachers to be used in their lessons. These headsets don’t have to be connected to any other device, such as a computer. The main benefit of VR headsets is the high level of immersion they provide together with an incredibly realistic experience.
Here are two spectacular ways you could implement them in your English classroom:
Students could explore different locations and scenarios, interact with items in the VR world, and work together to respond to challenges and solve problems as a team while learning and improving English. With complete sensory, actional, and narrative immersion, students participate and respond to tasks inside a VR lesson. By actively living a lesson, students feel more involved and, as a result, learn more, both linguistically and socially. VR provides realistic travel experiences.
Inspire students to write is another of the benefits that VR provides. We all have reluctant writers in the English classroom that need plenty of motivation and ideas to help them write creatively. VR could be used to inspire your students’ creativity and give them a unique experience to write about. For example, the experience could be as simple as a farm full of animals. For higher or more advanced levels, VR could take them to an unknown location and see what they observe! VR provides them with engaging experiences that are then used to inspire their own original story about the topic.
VR promotes a dynamic, fun, innovative, creative, and interactive language teaching-learning process. Students tend to be more motivated to participate in the process of learning activities, as they are more interactive, flexible, dynamic, versatile, and in which the learner can experiment and manipulate different situations.
VR promotes a dynamic, fun, innovative, creative, and interactive language teaching-learning process. Students tend to be more motivated to participate in the process of learning activities, as they are more interactive, flexible, dynamic, versatile, and in which the learner can experiment and manipulate different situations.
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