Potential of Social VR for Learning Spanish Conversation Opening and Closing

High-immersion virtual reality (VR) has gained much interest in recent years as a promising technology for creating a productive L2 learning environment. Yet, research documenting L2 learners’ interaction abilities in a social VR space is still limited. To fill this gap, this preliminary study¹ assessed L2 Spanish learners’ development in conversation opening and closing in social VR. Twenty-six beginning-level Spanish learners in a US university engaged in four social VR sessions over a 2-week period. They completed a survey assessing their knowledge of Spanish conversation opening and closing expressions prior to and after the VR sessions. In addition, the participants’ performance in conversation opening and closing was evaluated using a rubric. The survey results showed that the participants reported a greater variety of opening and closing expressions after their VR sessions. Their performance data also demonstrated some improvement from their first and last VR sessions.