The use of an immersive environment to promote English as a foreign language vocabulary learning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-3652.2025.55719Keywords:
Attention, Motivation, Multimodality, Virtual Reality, Vocabulary learningAbstract
Technological devices have become increasingly present in education, recently leading to the use of immersive environments as pedagogical tools. In this context, this research aims to investigate the use of a 360º immersive environment to promote attention and motivation during English vocabulary learning. Theoretically, the study is grounded in Schmidt's Noticing Hypothesis (1990), Gardner's Motivational Theory (1979; 2010), and Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (Mayer, 2001; Moreno; Mayer, 2007). Methodologically, this is a quasi-experimental study designed to control the use of a 360º immersive environment to promote attention and motivation during English vocabulary acquisition. Three experiments were conducted with 81 high school students from a public school in Juiz de Fora, MG. These students were equally divided into three groups and each group was exposed to a different condition: a 360º immersive environment, a reading environment with a multimodal glossary, and a 360º immersive environment + reading environment with a multimodal glossary. The results indicate learning gains across all three conditions, but students exposed to the third condition demonstrated superior lexical acquisition. This improvement is attributed to the multimodality of the environment, which helped enhance attention and motivation, ultimately leading to better learning outcomes.
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