This chapter comprises four sections. The first section delineates the background information and distribution of the participants in this study. The instruments used in the study are introduced in the second section. The third section briefly describes the data collection procedures of the study. Finally, the techniques employed to analyze the collected data are presented in the fourth section.
Population and Participants
The present study was to investigate the effectiveness of virtual reality mediation on English vocabulary learning in Taiwan's EFL context. The participants of the research were recruited from one elementary school in New Taipei City. Four intact third-grade classes at this school were randomly selected as the participants.
Originally, two classes consisted of 26 students and two classes consisted of 25 students. However, 6 special cases were further removed from statistical calculation because 3 participants were from special education and 3 participants were absent in one or two sessions of the study. Hence, after the removal, each class was composed of 24 students with half males and half females and there were 96 third-grade elementary school students in total in the present study. With the same mother tongue in Mandarin Chinese, the participants shared similar background in education.
Besides, students with different achievement levels, or dissimilar socio-economic status have been equally arranged in each class. Therefore, each class was basically the same.
A four-group experiment was conducted as follows (Appendix A---lesson plans).
To examine whether the more learner involvement (i.e. the loads of need, search, and evaluation) would facilitate students' vocabulary learning, four intact third-grade
classes were randomly assigned as three experimental groups through VR mediation and one control group in conventional classroom teaching. Within three experimental groups, Individual VR Group and Paired VR Group were in student's autonomous condition while Teacher-centered VR Group was in teacher's facilitating condition.
Further, to explore the role of pair work cooperation within the student's autonomous condition, Individual VR Group was assigned to work individually whereas Paired VR Group was assigned to work cooperatively. Thus, in order to investigate the effectiveness of VR mediation and examine the effects of learner involvement and pair work cooperation on English vocabulary instruction, four groups were presented as below (Table 1): 1) Individual VR Group, 2) Paired VR Group, 3) Teacher-centered VR Group, and 4) Control Group.
Table 1: Four groups G1
Quantitative methods were employed to investigate and analyze the effects of VR vocabulary instruction on the third graders' word acquisition. Research instruments utilized in this study included pictorial flashcards and 3D virtual reality computer program (Institute for Information Industry, 2011). As for the data collection instruments, the multiple choice test with one L1 translation and four L2 word options was used in pretest for 20 target word selection (Appendix B---pretest). To explore
students' learning process, the pictorial, multiple choice test format was adopted in immediate posttest and delayed posttest in two weeks later (Appendix C---posttest).
The following introduced these instruments respectively.
Twenty target words
The use of pictorial vocabulary cards has been widely advocated by many scholars to benefit language learners in two perspectives: vocabulary memorization and self-directed learning (Mueller, 1980; McCarthy, 1990; Teng, 1994; Schmitt &
Schmitt, 1995; Hulstijn, 2001; Nation, 2001). According to the studies summarized by Nation (1990), a word required five to sixteen or more repetitions to be learned. Via the repetitions and a variety of activities and techniques, learners could gradually set up their own target vocabularies according to their individual differences and preferences (McCarthy, 1990; Schmitt & Schmitt, 1995; Hulstijn, 2001; Nation, 2001).
Therefore, through pictorial flashcards, the visual aids could not merely establish learners' association between a word's form and meaning (Schmitt & Schmitt, 1995;
Nation, 2001), lower learners' anxiety (Ye, 2000), provide cultural information, but also offer contextual cues to make comprehension easier (Teng, 1994). Namely, the visual aids acting as the contextual cues could help students construct their linguistic knowledge gradually and systematically (Ausubel, 1968; Hadley, 1993).
Before the actual treatment, the pretest containing 30 items was carried out for 20 target word selection (Appendix B---pretest). In the principles of word removal, three target words without audio input in the VR program were deleted. Another seven words were removed because learners obtained some scores in pretest and might have partial vocabulary knowledge on them. It was crucial for word selection to ensure learners had no background knowledge of those target words. Eventually in this study, twenty target words were utilized in three experimental groups and one control group.
This study employed these 20 target words (Table 2) in an experimental design:
Table 2: Twenty target words
One-syllable words: clerk
seat sink tie
Two-syllable words: luggage
mirror sidewalk sofa T-shirt
Three-syllable words: boarding gate cosmetics luggage cart monitor
passenger Four-syllable words: check-in counter
flight attendant X-ray machine Five-syllable or more than five-syllable
words:
automatic door metal detector overhead compartment
Based upon both the research and pedagogical value, twenty target words in this study were all actual words. For motivational and educational purposes, four words were from simple one-syllable category, five were from two-syllable words, five were from three-syllable types, three were from four-syllable items, and three were from five-syllable or more than five-syllable vocabularies. According to the suggested wordlist in Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines in Taiwan (MOE, 2008), the following theme-based word selection criteria were shown as follows: (1) all were associated with airport setting from the suggested wordlist of transportation category, (2) all were from the same part of speech (i.e., all were nouns); (3) all were without other grammatical clues; (4) all carried concrete meanings and could be illustrated by
distinctive pictorial flashcards. On these criteria, within each syllable category, the target words remained roughly equal at the same difficulty level and worth learning and teaching. And all the twenty words above were covered in pictorial flashcard teaching for Control Group and VR English learning for Individual VR Group, Paired VR Group, and Teacher-centered VR Group.
3D virtual reality computer program
Since 2008, the Institute for Information Industry has been working on integrating the idea of Second Life into VR computer program called Second Classroom designed for foreign learners in Taiwan learning Chinese as a second language. Originally, the program aimed to help foreigners learn Chinese autonomously. Due to the program effectiveness and positive feedback from foreign learners, the Institute for Information Industry further cooperated with Kang Hsuan Corporation and developed a new 3D VR interactive program---3D Classroom for English learners. Therefore, 3D Classroom, the VR computer program examined in this study was designed by
Institute for Information Industry and published by Kang Hsuan Educational Publishing Corporation in 2011.
In line with the benefits in VR applications pointed out by the previous studies, the characteristics of 3D Classroom were illustrated as below. First, as Yeung (2004) noted, this 3D and VR technology could foster learners' ability to visualize, understand and construct their own knowledge. For instance, as an interactive platform, 3D Classroom offered multimedia learning materials involving textual, pictorial, audio and visual aids to facilitate language learning and teaching. Second, the visual cues in the program could not only simulate the real-life interactions, but also create new identities for students to lower their anxiety (Jung, 2002). For example, in the 3D Classroom, learners could choose their own avatar and have their
new identity to travel around the Welcomeland. On this land, learners could shuttle back and forth by any transportation. Third, as mentioned by Seymour (2002), through the simulations in VR condition, learners could feel flexible to learn without the constraints of age, stage, or location. As indicated by some teachers or researchers, Taiwan seemed to be the relatively limited English learning environment due to the lack of authentic input and real conversation practices. Yet, this VR program could both raise learners' interests in vocabulary acquisition, and further enhance their language proficiency via bountiful communications without being constrained by time or the other restrictions.
Fourth, in light of language learning, VR could help learners to immerse themselves in a contextualized language learning environment (Garcia-Ruiz et al., 2007). And the platform could also empower learners to choose from different VR scenarios according to their needs and individual differences in computer-based VR environment (Jung, 2002). In this program, the theme-based virtual reality scenarios could be divided into four types (Lin, 2011). Home setting was the first type including house, apartment and countryside. Second one was associated with community involving supermarket, restaurant, park, stadium, MRT station, hotel, post office, hospital, clinic, movie theater, etc. School scenario was the third setting inclusive of teaching building, gym, playground, dorm, library, and so on. The fourth setting focused on the airport, factory, harbor, railway and farm. Through this program, students could not merely learn language with teacher's guidance, but explore the specific scenario to acquire their vocabulary knowledge according to their personal need and preference autonomously. Within these diverse scenarios, learners were empowered to be in control of their learning at their own pace in the VR learning environment. Besides, they could act as the active participants and explore the environment by themselves (Garcia-Ruiz et al., 2007). For example, in the airport
setting, learners could begin with choosing their avatar to launch their journey in the VR world.
Fifth, as Milton and Garbi (2000) noted, through lots of authentic practices in 3D virtual reality settings, learners had better opportunities to communicate in a relatively naturalistic way. In terms of authenticity, either through projection for the whole class or installation in students' personal computers, this first-person experience could not only foster learners' engagement but also create meaningful interaction and retention about what they've already learnt (Singhal & Zyda, 1999; Chee, 2001). Especially, for learners with different language proficiency levels, this 3D Classroom could provide suitable supplementary materials. For beginners like low or mid-graders, they could learn to recognize and acquire vocabularies, whereas advanced learners such as high-graders or junior highs could interact with others based on some words and daily conversational patterns in a communicative way.
Multiple choice tests
A thirty-item multiple choice questions with one L1 translation as the stem and four L2 word options were used in pretest for 20 target word selection (Appendix B---pretest). After the target word selection, a twenty-item pictorial, multiple choice questions were designed according to the twenty target words. These questions aimed to evaluate students' learning process on word acquisition in different stages. To examine the effects of VR English vocabulary learning, a 20-question vocabulary test was utilized for immediate posttest, and delayed posttest in two weeks later (Appendix C---posttest). All options in each question remained identical but would be reordered throughout these two tests. There were one picture as the cue and four choice options involving one correct answer and three distracters in each multiple-choice item. Each item would be scored 0 or 1 to show wrong or correct
responses individually.
There were some reasons why the questions were presented in the pictorial, multiple-choice format. First of all, pictures in multiple-choice test could act as a cue to help learners connect word form and word meaning. Next, multiple-choice test scoring could be perfectly reliable and economical (Hughes, 2003) because the tests were graded by predetermined answer keys instead of the scorer's personal evaluation.
Therefore, this type met with scoring reliability. Besides, without requiring the test takers to produce written or spoken language, the multiple choice tests could purely assess students' lexical knowledge without being confused by other skills or factors (Laufer et al., 2004; Laufer & Goldstein, 2004). Thus, they suited the purpose of this study. Lastly, students were familiar with multiple-choice format. In sum, the above reasons explained why the multiple-choice assessment type was adopted in the study.
The Data Collection Procedure
In the pre-experimental stage, appropriate scenario in the VR computer program was decided according to the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines in Taiwan (MOE, 2008). After choosing the airport setting in 3D Classroom as the target learning scenario, proper pictures for possible target words and a set of pictorial, multiple-choice questions were also edited for each test. Before the actual treatment, the pretest would be carried out for 20 out of 30 target word selection. To provide a least disruptive context, the data collection process took place during the regularly scheduled class periods in the normally assigned classrooms. The procedure for each class session took about forty minutes. The researcher conducted the experiment with the four selected classes on separate time within almost a month. Finishing the treatment, learners were required to take the immediate posttest. And the delayed posttest were carried out in two weeks later. The procedure in this study was shown in Figure 1 as below.
Figure 1: Procedures for Conducting the Study
Select an appropriate scenario in the virtual reality computer program (e.g., the airport setting in 3D Classroom).
Select the appropriate pictures for the possible target words and edit the questions for each test.
Carry out the pretest containing thirty word items for twenty target word selection.
Implement the four-group experiment.
After the treatment, the immediate posttest was conducted.
In two weeks later, the delayed posttest was carried out.
Analyze the data by running SPSS for Windows.
Compute the scores of immediate posttest and delayed posttest.
Data analysis by using 4 x 2 Mixed ANOVA.
Data Analysis Procedure
Data collected in this study were the scores from vocabulary tests in two time levels. The time variable involving immediate posttest and delayed posttest was the within-subjects factor, whereas the group variable was defined as the between-subjects factor. The four groups involving three experimental groups and one control group were based on different degrees of learner involvement and pair work cooperation. Learner involvement referred to the different degrees of students' engagement as student-centered and teacher-centered learning, while pair work cooperation lay in the distinctions between individual work and cooperative pair work.
In 4 x 2 Mixed ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), the dependent variable was the scores obtained from the two tests, while the independent variables were group and time.
The descriptive statistics and main effects of independent variables on dependent variable were investigated through SPSS computer software as follows.