Thematic Analysis of Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Environment

EasyChair Preprint 15266

Abstract

Virtual reality provides a novel landscape for learners to experience active, hands-on education. In the context of language acquisition, it provides opportunities to apply attained vocabulary, engaging the user with their new knowledge. In this work, we focus on the users’ experience of an application we developed and tested. We ran user studies and collected feedback via a think-aloud method. We then conducted a thematic analysis over the results. Our analysis revealed five key themes, each with two relevant categories. The themes we identified include experience (feedback and aesthetics), mechanics (actions and bugs), resources (equipment and lesson), likes/dislikes, and other feedback (narration and off-topic comments). We then quantify the occurrence of each label, allowing us to easily identify the strengths and weaknesses of our application. The most common label was narration, showcasing the engagement of users with the task. Our analysis also revealed that the participants often felt unprepared for the task, highlighting the need for more connection between the initial lesson and the given task. This analysis provides a process of attaining user feedback and categorizing that feedback to identify routes for improved user experience.

Keyphrases: Education, Virtual Reality, language learning, thematic analysis

@booklet{EasyChair:15266,
  author    = {Mariah Bradford and Ethan Seefried and Nikhil Krishnaswamy and Nathaniel Blanchard},
  title     = {Thematic Analysis of Foreign Language Learning in a Virtual Environment},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 15266},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2024}}