Exploring the Impact of Virtual Reality Experience on University EFL Students' Intercultural Awareness, Autonomous Learning, and Language Performance

Abstract

台灣和印尼長期以來保持緊密的關係，最近的台灣新南向政策顯著增加了兩國之間的互動。因此，瞭解印尼文化對台灣學生來說至關重要。不幸的是，大多數教學資源只強調以母語為講者的國家文化，剝奪了學生提高對其他國家（尤其是印尼）的跨文化意識能力的機會。為了提高學生的跨文化意識能力，幫助他們能夠融入多元化的社會，EFL教師必須為學生提供適當的真實學習資源。良好的跨文化溝通能力中，其中一項最重要的能力是聆聽。具有強大的聽力理解能力可以提高生產力，增強學生在沒有誤解的情況下進行清晰溝通的能力。聽眾必須啟動長期記憶，以生成理解訊息所需的正確連接，這可以通過虛擬實境（VR）提供的存在感來實現。此外，由於拼字、語言理解、詞彙和解碼方面存在困難，EFL學生在閱讀理解方面面臨困難（Shore&Sabatini，2009）。因此，本研究的目的是探討虛擬實境學習平台"CoSpacesEdu"如何增強EFL學生的跨文化意識、學習者的自主能力和語言表現，特別是在聽力和閱讀理解方面。本研究的參與者是台灣中部的72名大學新生。學生被分為實驗組和對照組。學生有四個場景可供探索，並在探索場景時可以使用聽力功能聽到所讀的材料。還提供了當地語言的真實影片、圖片和語音錄音。收集了前後跨文化意識問卷以分析學生的跨文化意識。進行了前後聽力和閱讀理解測驗，以評估學生的語言表現。學生還被要求每週在線寫反思日誌，以分析他們對學習經驗的感知。之後，學生被要求通過"CoSpacesEdu" VR應用程式進行六週的自主學習。所收集的數據使用SPSS-T檢定進行分析。研究結果顯示：（1）"CoSpacesEdu"顯著提高了VR學生的聽力和閱讀理解能力，（2）"CoSpacesEdu"通過提供真實而身臨其境的文化學習環境，增強了VR學生對印尼的跨文化意識，（3）VR學習經驗發現在引導學生成為自主學習者方面更為有效。因此，研究結果可能激發研究人員和EFL教師積極將虛擬實境融入語言和文化課堂，以提高學生的表現和知識。Taiwan and Indonesia have long maintained a close relationship, and the recent Taiwan New Southbound Policy has increased interaction between the two nations significantly. Thus, learning about Indonesian culture is crucial for Taiwanese students. Unfortunately, most teaching resources only highlight the cultures of the native speaker’ nations, denying students the chance to improve their intercultural awareness (ICA) skills of other nations, especially Indonesia. In order to improve students' ICA abilities and help them become ready to integrate into diverse society, it is crucial that EFL teachers give their students access to the proper authentic learning resources.One of the most important abilities to have for good cross-cultural communication is listening. Having strong listening comprehension skills can boost productivity and enhance students' ability to communicate clearly without misunderstandings. Listeners must activate long-term memory in order to generate the right connections necessary to comprehend a message, which can be accomplished through the sense of presence afforded by VR. In addition, due to difficulties with spelling, language comprehension, vocabulary, and decoding, EFL students struggle with reading comprehension. (Shore & Sabatini, 2009). Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine how "CoSpacesEdu," a VR learning platform, enhanced EFL Students' ICA, learners' autonomy, and language performance, especially for listening and reading comprehension.The participants of this study were seventy-two university fresh-man in central Taiwan. Students were divided into two groups: experimental and control group. There were four scenes for students to explore, and while exploring the scenes, students have access to listening features that enable them to hear the material being read out. There were also authentic videos, images, and voice recording of the local languages. Pre- and post-ICA questionnaires were collected to analyzed students’ ICA. Pre- and post-listening and reading comprehension tests were administered to asses students’ language performance. Students were also asked to write online reflective journal every week to analyze their perceptions of the learning experience. After that, students were given an instruction to study autonomously through the CoSpacesEdu VR application six weeks. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS –T-Test.The results of the findings were (1) "CoSpacesEdu" significantly improved VR students' listening and reading comprehension, (2) "CoSpacesEdu" enhances VR students' ICA about Indonesia by providing an authentic and immersive cultural learning environment, and (3) VR learning experience was found to be more effective in guiding students toward becoming autonomous learners. Therefore, the research findings may inspire researchers and EFL instructors to actively incorporate VR into the language and cultural classroom to improve students' performance and knowledge