Student teachers’ attitudes toward and perceptions of learner engagement in Virtual Reality oral tasks

Learner engagement is vital for successful second language (L2) learning, but its role in interactive oral tasks has been underexplored. In this study, student teachers’ knowledge of learner engagement in interactive oral tasks and their attitudes toward and perceptions of L2 learner engagement in immersive and non-immersive virtual reality (VR) oral tasks were explored. Twenty-six student teachers from a master’s programme in English language teaching at a Hong Kong university were interviewed. They were asked to define learner engagement in task performance, comment on the engagement levels of two L2 learners performing three tasks, share their attitudes toward and perceptions of VR tasks, design their own VR tasks, and critically reflect on their task design. The findings indicated that teacher students’ own theories of learner engagement mainly focused on the behavioural, cognitive, and emotional aspects of engagement, whereas the social dimension was neglected. They also perceived that an engaging task should include a familiar and relevant topic, provide attractive visual aids catering to learners’ different learning styles, and fit in with learners’ language proficiency and cognitive development. Game-like VR tasks with convergent outcomes can trigger learners’ interest and engage them in task performance. Though holding positive attitudes toward engaging L2 learners with immersive VR tasks, the participants had insufficient knowledge to design engaging VR tasks and lacked confidence in their abilities to implement VR tasks. The findings reveal teacher students’ needs to expand their knowledge about learner engagement and develop digital literacy to integrate VR into their L2 teaching.